Vinegar dosing help

[living_tribunal]

I could use @Randy Holmes-Farley insight on this as I’ve followed his system for carbon dosing.

I’ve been carbon dosing via vinegar to my 90g volume tank for the last month slowly working up to 30ml per day.

Nitrates have finally began to drop and I’m happy with that result. However, I’ve noticed my corals have began to get real stressed when I dose. I make sure to spread the 30ml across about 8 hours dosing in 2 hour intervals.

I know the ph dip isn’t an issue as it only caused my ph to dip from 8.13 to 8.05 per dose (typically 5-7ml).

To dose, I add the white vinegar to a cup of tank water and mix in my refugium but running a little powerhead I have in there.

I’m wondering what could be potentially going on given that it’s not the ph dip? Nitrates are still detectable as are phosphates. I’m wondering if maybe my heater in the sump could be burning the vinegar? Maybe I’m using a brand of white vinegar that has other substances in it?

I could use some help because my corals are definitely getting stressed by the dosing. I didn’t dose this morning and everyone in the tank is as happy as ever. 30 min after I added the first dose they started looking a little on edge. All other parameters are at my targets and unchanged since before I started carbon dosing.

Here’s the brand I’m using.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

There’s no possibility of burning by the heater, but you might try spreading the dose out in time each day. Oxygen might be depleting shortly after adding it, and there may be other effects.

the kit may also be wrong in the nutrients left. Does it read zero in new salt water?

might also be unrelated.

 

[living_tribunal]

There’s no possibility of burning by the heater, but you might try spreading the dose out in time each day. Oxygen might be depleting shortly after adding it, and there may be other effects.

the kit may also be wrong in the nutrients left. Does it read zero in new salt water?

might also be unrelated.

Yes, I use salifert for nitrate and hanna for phos. I check both against a new batch of saltwater about once a month.

I’m currently spreading out the doses across a 6-7 hour period at 2 hour intervals I.e. 4-5 doses a day. I have tried a smaller dose at shorter intervals but it seems to make them more stressed.

Does this rate seem fine? The drop in ph at this interval and dose was minimal <.05.

I just purchased an oxygen kit, I’ll try it before and after tomorrow.

I really appreciate the help!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

That all seems fine and I don’t see a reason for a problem. I dosed a similar schedule but much more.

 

[living_tribunal]

That all seems fine and I don’t see a reason for a problem. I dosed a similar schedule but much more.

I’ll try and mix the vinegar a little better in the water when I dose and see what I can do.

Thanks again.

 

[Super Fly]

I’ll try and mix the vinegar a little better in the water when I dose and see what I can do.

Thanks again.

curious, any update?

 

[living_tribunal]

curious, any update?

Mixing the vinegar in a cup of tank water seems like it did the trick. I used to just squirt the syringe into my sump and left. I'm thinking maybe it built up on the top or something. I started turning on the small powerhead in my sump as well after dosing.

I also used to do one small dose in the morning before my lights came on which I stopped.

It was one of those two.

 

[Super Fly]

If u don't mind me asking, what was ur NO3 level when u started dosing vinegar? I'm looking to possibly carbon dose but had bad experience 2 yrs ago when I tried vinegar.

 

[living_tribunal]

If u don't mind me asking, what was ur NO3 level when u started dosing vinegar? I'm looking to possibly carbon dose but had bad experience 2 yrs ago when I tried vinegar.

It wasn't too bad, it was about 7-10ppm. Carbon dosing has been very effective at getting it where I want. It takes a moment but if you give it about 3-4 weeks, it will start decreasing very fast. Now that my bacteria colony is established, it's a nice maintenance-free method of exporting nitrate. I don't even worry about it anymore and levels are always where I want them.

 

[Super Fly]

It wasn't too bad, it was about 7-10ppm. Carbon dosing has been very effective at getting it where I want. It takes a moment but if you give it about 3-4 weeks, it will start decreasing very fast. Now that my bacteria colony is established, it's a nice maintenance-free method of exporting nitrate. I don't even worry about it anymore and levels are always where I want them.

Yeah, 7-10 is pretty good level. I think when I dosed 2 yrs ago, my NO3 wasn't as bad as my test kit was reading (have since switched to Salifert kit) and started with too much dosage which lowered NO3 rapidly causing loss of birds nest w no algae on glass for some time. I recall from one of your posts about maintaining NO3-PO4 ratio of 4-5x which I'm interested in emulating, so what NO3 & PO4 levels are you striving to maintain with the carbon dosing?

 

[living_tribunal]

Yeah, 7-10 is pretty good level. I think when I dosed 2 yrs ago, my NO3 wasn't as bad as my test kit was reading (have since switched to Salifert kit) and started with too much dosage which lowered NO3 rapidly causing loss of birds nest w no algae on glass for some time. I recall from one of your posts about maintaining NO3-PO4 ratio of 4-5x which I'm interested in emulating, so what NO3 & PO4 levels are you striving to maintain with the carbon dosing?

Lol, I probably talk about that too much.

For the last couple months, excluding about a month when I let nitrate go up to 7ppm, I’ve always had nitrate at .5-1 and phosphate at .1.

It’s worked very well so far, never had any algae in my display since starting the tank. Everything grows very fast for me at these levels.

To keep things in a very narrow range, I took about a month feeding fixed amounts, tweaking fuge photoperiod/vinegar dosing levels with daily testing. Once you get dialed in, it’s a pretty nice and stable system.

 

[ReefGeezer]

Get a BRS 1.1 ml/min (or similar) dosing pump. Let it add the vinegar a few ml at a time throughout the day. Pick a spot as far away from the return pump as possible. I did this in my 90 for almost two years to ward off some of the "uglies" when it was new and to promote a little diversity. As the tank matured, I didn't need the carbon dose as much. I slowed it down until I wasn't really adding much and have now stopped carbon dosing completely.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

Man I wonder what my ph does when I pour 3/4 of a glass of vinegar in my 100 gallon in a few dumps throughout a few hours of the day!

 

[Daddy-o]

I use this to dose vinegar and water, it drips all day

 

[living_tribunal]

I don’t think I’ll be getting a doser any time soon for this, need to save my outlets. Now that I have nitrate where I want it, my maintenance does is only 15ml a day for the 100g volume I have.

Throwing it in 2-3 times a day barely causes ph to budge.