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@Randy
I am dosing Vinegar in my 75 gallon aquarium, and I am up to 35ML a day being dosed from 10am to 3PM. When would be the best time to test Nitrates. It seems like it is higher when I test in the morning than it is during the afternoon. I am using the Nanna checker and it can be off by 10 - 12 points depending on what time I do it.

Maybe it is testing errors but wanted to see if it matter the testing time, and if you test before or after the dosing of Vinegar.

Thanks
Keith

Right now I am at 56 PPM Nitrates down from 80 plus
I am in my 2nd week
 
Nutramar Foods
Still dosing 10mL a day in my ten gallon. No bacterial blooms. Nitrate is down to 10-20 and phosphate down to around 0.5. I'm pretty pleased that I can feed more now. My inverts are happy, my corals are bright, my macro algae is doing well. I have some coraline algae. I had some cyano on the sand, but after I got a nassarius snail that has gone away. I have some green hair algae, but I wouldn't call it nuisance. When it grows in the corals, my hermit crabs clean them off. One of these days I'll actually get a fish for my reef tank. I'd really like to get my pH in better shape. It's been hovering at 7.8. I've done two days of kalkwasser dosing in the evening and I finally hit 8.0.
 
After the 2nd week I’f no results what is the option then? Keep dosing the 100 mils it calls for a 200 gallon or does it need to be increased to a certain # ?
 
Almost bottomed out my nutrients, but I caught it in time! No more 15ml for me, I'm steady at 10ml in the mornings. I now feel comfortable feeding more as I'm riding 5 to 10 ppm nitrates and 0.25 to 0.5 phosphate.
 
Tidal Gardens
rc1 said:
After the 2nd week I’f no results what is the option then? Keep dosing the 100 mils it calls for a 200 gallon or does it need to be increased to a certain # ?
Click to expand...
I am no expert, but what I got from this thread is you ramp up and after the second week, adjust as necessary. I am dosing 10ml daily on a 10 gallon tank, was doing 15ml for a 10 gallon. That's a waaaay higher ratio dose than you have and I saw nothing adverse. Regular testing. My nitrates dropped from 40 plus to 20. Did a water change bringing it down to 10 to 20. Now it dropped down to 5 and 10. The negatives are rapid pH drop if you dump it all at once and potential for gross bacterial blooms.
 
rc1 said:
After the 2nd week I’f no results what is the option then? Keep dosing the 100 mils it calls for a 200 gallon or does it need to be increased to a certain # ?
Click to expand...
Increase the dose (try 150mL per day in your tank). That should start bringing it down.

Vinegar:

Week 1: 0.25mL per gallon
Week 2: 0.50mL per gallon

If that doesn’t reduce nitrate:

Week 3: 0.75mL per gallon
Week4: 1.0 mL per gallon

For Vodka:

Week 1: 0.031mL per gallon
Week 2: 0.062mL per gallon

If that didn’t reduce nitrate:

Week 3: 0.094mL per gallon
Week 4: 0.125mL per gallon


Of course, if week 3 starts working, there’s no need to go to week 4.
 
I’ll wait till Friday to ramp up to 150 mils mean time I made this diy to dose. 100 mil over 4 hours
 

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rc1 said:
I’ll wait till Friday to ramp up to 150 mils mean time I made this diy to dose. 100 mil over 4 hours
Click to expand...
Nice! That looks so super functional, I like how you've got the volume dialed in.
 
Miami Reef said:
Increase the dose (try 150mL per day in your tank). That should start bringing it down.

Vinegar:

Week 1: 0.25mL per gallon
Week 2: 0.50mL per gallon

If that doesn’t reduce nitrate:

Week 3: 0.75mL per gallon
Week4: 1.0 mL per gallon

For Vodka:

Week 1: 0.031mL per gallon
Week 2: 0.062mL per gallon

If that didn’t reduce nitrate:

Week 3: 0.094mL per gallon
Week 4: 0.125mL per gallon


Of course, if week 3 starts working, there’s no need to go to week 4.
Click to expand...
I was dosing around 11 ml in my 120 gal system for awhile and my nitrates weren't going down from around mid 30s so I raised it to 15 ml last week. I did a 20 gallon water change last Saturday. I usually do around 15 gal weekly. I tested on Sunday and nitrates were around 26. I tested yesterday and they went down to around 25. Should I up my dosing amount or is that a good pace for nitrates to go down? My phosphate has stayed around. 03-.05. Thanks for your help. My tank is looking and growing good but I just wanted my nitrates stable in the 15-20 range as I feel that's where everything seems to look the best.
20240818_155731.jpg
 
Tidal Gardens
Your tank is gorgeous. I have heard so many times since coming into the reef arena, nothing good happens fast in a sw aquarium, but things can go bad fast.
 
Going on 3rd week of dosing 150 ml daily and still no changes, wondering if I keep that level or crank it up another 25 mils to 175. At this rate I’ll start going through a gallon of vinegar a week soon
It’s a 210 with a 48” sump
 
Tidal Gardens
I had some further thought. I am going to try and bumble thru the chemistry formulas later, but my question is about calcium hydroxide dissolved in vinegar. I love vinegar dosing so far. Chemically, I love CaOH. I've read you can satuted more CaOH in vinegar; however, when that is mentioned it's in a kalkwasser dosing conversation and just trying to increase the potency of kalkwasser. My question is, what of the acetate is left to feed bacteria like in carbon dosing? Meaning, how do I decide how much to carbon dose vinegar if I'm also dosing kalkwasser and now I want to dose them together? This is why i want to know what of the acetate is left.
Thank you for your time and patience. I did not do well in high-school or college chemistry and I'm disappointed in that because it turns out to be very fun.
 
Yes, the very large carbon dosing effect of the vinegar can be a drawback to using vinegar to boost kalk potency. Despite using both, I decided to dose them independently so I could optimize them independently.
 
I could be wrong, but I think @mikst was asking if vinegar would still feed bacteria/lower nitrate if it was previously mixed with kalkwasser.

Did I understand you right?
 
AS
Miami Reef said:
I could be wrong, but I think @mikst was asking if vinegar would still feed bacteria/lower nitrate if it was previously mixed with kalkwasser.

Did I understand you right?
Click to expand...

Yes, it does, and that is what I was addressing. If one uses the amount typically used to boost kalk potency, then the carbon dose is quite large and folks may not want it that large. :)
 
Miami, thank you for clarifying, yes that's what my question was. Randy, thanks that makes sense.
 

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