Vinegar not lowering nitrates?

[Cassian]

Hi all! I’ve been vinegar dosing according to the protocol made by Randy Holmes Farley and have had no luck. I’m on week 4 and I’ve doubled the dose week 2 dose but my nitrates are still 75+ according to my Hana checker. My PO4 is zero so I’m thinking that might be the problem but wanted to confirm. Do I just need to dose phosphates to bring those up some?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Hi all! I’ve been vinegar dosing according to the protocol made by Randy Holmes Farley and have had no luck. I’m on week 4 and I’ve doubled the dose week 2 dose but my nitrates are still 75+ according to my Hana checker. My PO4 is zero so I’m thinking that might be the problem but wanted to confirm. Do I just need to dose phosphates to bring those up some?

There have been some suggested revisions that dose more. How much to what size tank?

 

[Miami Reef]

Here’s my vinegar dosing chart:

Side note:
If you phosphate is really 0, I would strongly suggest raising it by feeding Reef Roids or dosing sodium phosphate. I prefer dosing sodium phosphate as it’s easier to target a level.

What PO4 kit do you use?

 

[Uncle99]

Hi all! I’ve been vinegar dosing according to the protocol made by Randy Holmes Farley and have had no luck. I’m on week 4 and I’ve doubled the dose week 2 dose but my nitrates are still 75+ according to my Hana checker. My PO4 is zero so I’m thinking that might be the problem but wanted to confirm. Do I just need to dose phosphates to bring those up some?

It took me about 4 months to lower my nitrates from 50ppm to 10ppm through carbon dosing.

Can you share a pic so we can see the system itself?

If your confident your phosphate is zero, I’d bump that up to .1ppm give or take.

 

[rc8t6353]

I had this same exact problem before. You absolutely have to add phosphate to the system. I used Neophos and started slow. Once I started getting a reading for phosphate on my Hanna meter, my nitrates started going down. You may have to keep dosing phosphate until your tank reaches a balance

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hi all! I’ve been vinegar dosing according to the protocol made by Randy Holmes Farley and have had no luck. I’m on week 4 and I’ve doubled the dose week 2 dose but my nitrates are still 75+ according to my Hana checker. My PO4 is zero so I’m thinking that might be the problem but wanted to confirm. Do I just need to dose phosphates to bring those up some?

It for me has been viewed as a slow process and an alternative as with carbon dosing methods

 

[Cassian]

There have been some suggested revisions that dose more. How much to what size tank?

I’m at about 20 mls a day to a 32 gallon tank.

 

[Cassian]

It took me about 4 months to lower my nitrates from 50ppm to 10ppm through carbon dosing.

Can you share a pic so we can see the system itself?

If your confident your phosphate is zero, I’d bump that up to .1ppm give or take.

Gotcha! That’s good to know. Yeah I don’t mind sharing, I’ll grab a picture today

 

[Cassian]

Here’s my vinegar dosing chart:

Side note:
If you phosphate is really 0, I would strongly suggest raising it by feeding Reef Roids or dosing sodium phosphate. I prefer dosing sodium phosphate as it’s easier to target a level.

What PO4 kit do you use?

I use the salifert kit

 

[Uncle99]

When you test nitrates with Hanna, after the time has elapsed is the vial deep red?

 

[Uncle99]

Gotcha! That’s good to know. Yeah I don’t mind sharing, I’ll grab a picture today

Just trying to get a read on your export functions.

 

[Cassian]

When you test nitrates with Hanna, after the time has elapsed is the vial deep red?

Yes it is

 

[Cassian]

Just trying to get a read on your export functions.

Gotcha! Yeah I have lots of filtration and a protein skimmer.