nitrate raised with vinegar dosing?

[rajkovich207]

So today was day 4 of my vinegar dosing so I thought I'd check my progress, and to my surprise my nitrates jumped from 25ppm to 50! The tank is a 10 gal BB tank used as qt, it has no LR, a couple pieces of pvc and some eggcrate, as well as a few handfulls of macro algae I just threw in for the heck of it. I have a couple small snails to help keep it tidy. The only filtration I'm running is a power head and the cpr back pack skimmer. I just thought I would give this a go, I add .5mL 2x a day I do add a few drops of MB7 but not regularly. Am I missing something? Do I not have enough potential surface area for bacteria to colonize? I didn't want to do this on my DT with the list of problems I've had in the 8 months its been up so I thought I might as well give it a try on my qt that has been running fishless for the past 3 months. TIA for the help and I'm sorry for sounding/being a noob lol:roll:

 

[robert]

Vinegar should have no nitrate - so if nothing died - and only four days have passed - I would suspect the test results. Nitrate tests often give faulty (too low) readings if not shaken long enough between and after each reagent is added.

Perhaps it was 50 all along?

 

[Aquaph8]

I wouldn't suspect the vinegar for causing the increase. Thats quite a jump, I too would suspect testing error. I recommend a good skimmer for vinegar dosing for nutrient removal as well as oxygenation.

 

[BarbH]

What test kit are you using? Have heard the same thing about faulty readings from Nitrate tests.

 

[rajkovich207]

I do have access to a couple other nitrate test kits, I normally use api but it was hard to get a good reading, so I tested it with a red sea test kit I had laying around. I'll have to go and test it with my other test kits then. Thank you everyone for the replies. Do I have to add a bacterial supplement such as MB7 while I'm dosing vinegar?

 

[Aquaph8]

No bacterial supplements are optional. Be careful, things change fast in that small amount of water.

 

[Razor]

Its a Carboxyl group with a hydroxide ion..There is no chance it will increase your nitrates.

P.S.- It is very essential to have a good skimmer when you carbon dose your tank and also that during the day(if you dont have a refuge on inverse photoperiod),..Dose it very slowly..best of Luck