Reefs and Geeks
Well-Known Member
I've been curious for a long time on how quickly vinegar, or other carbon dosing is depleted after dosing into a tank. I don't have anything that monitors alk continuously, so was wondering if anyone has noticed a trend after dosing vinegar as to how the tank's alkalinity is affected and how long the drop in alkalinity takes to come back up as the bacteria depletes the vinegar.
I am currently dosing 2 part manually as well as vinegar for carbon dosing at the same time. My theory is the addition of alk via manual dosing is offset by the drop in alk from vinegar dosing at the same time, so the alk rise would be more gradual as the bacteria consumed the vinegar and released the alkalinity back into the water. I'm certainly no chemist, so my thinking may be off on that, but seems to have been working pretty well for my tank for quite some time. I am curious though if the time it takes to deplete the vinegar can be quantified so I can know if the alk will rise over an hour after dosing, 4 hours, 8 hours, or maybe only minutes.
I am hoping that with a way of quantifying the time a vinegar addition takes to deplete can be used to time the vinegar additions with alkalinity additions to maintain a more stable alkalinity on the tank.
I am currently dosing 2 part manually as well as vinegar for carbon dosing at the same time. My theory is the addition of alk via manual dosing is offset by the drop in alk from vinegar dosing at the same time, so the alk rise would be more gradual as the bacteria consumed the vinegar and released the alkalinity back into the water. I'm certainly no chemist, so my thinking may be off on that, but seems to have been working pretty well for my tank for quite some time. I am curious though if the time it takes to deplete the vinegar can be quantified so I can know if the alk will rise over an hour after dosing, 4 hours, 8 hours, or maybe only minutes.
I am hoping that with a way of quantifying the time a vinegar addition takes to deplete can be used to time the vinegar additions with alkalinity additions to maintain a more stable alkalinity on the tank.
