Vinegar Dosing Question

[Kyle Sicard]

Hello,
I wanted to ask what other types then 5% distilled vinegar be used for carbon dosing? Can lower acidity level vinegar be used instead? My local grocery store doesn't have 5% and I just want to check if lower % vinegar solutions can be used? I'm guessing as long as its distilled vinegar it should be fine correct?

Lastly, are there any dosing instructions available on how much vinegar to dose. I plan to ramp up my dosage over time but would like a source to reference from to make sure I do it properly.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Yes, lower is fine, but 5% is the normal commercial distilled vinegar. What do they sell?

Here are some directions, but I don't agree with the way the dosing scales with tank size and it is very slow to ramp up in dose:

http://reefkeeping.com/joomla/index...ar-dosing-methodology-for-the-marine-aquarium

 

[Kyle Sicard]

You are correct, I was mistaken. I have some publix white distilled vinegar which is 5%, for some reason I thought it was 3%. Would this type of vinegar be fine to use?

What dosage recommendation would you make? How much should I increase each week. From what I understand you dose a lot more vinegar then you would if you were vodka dosing. Would starting at 15-20 mls and increasing by 20ml a week suffice? I would of course be monitoring my nitrate levels during this process.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

You are correct, I was mistaken. I have some publix white distilled vinegar which is 5%, for some reason I thought it was 3%. Would this type of vinegar be fine to use?

What dosage recommendation would you make? How much should I increase each week. From what I understand you dose a lot more vinegar then you would if you were vodka dosing. Would starting at 15-20 mls and increasing by 20ml a week suffice? I would of course be monitoring my nitrate levels during this process.

Yes, that's fine to use. The article above has dosing details.