What brand Vodka do you use?

marriedtothereef · Jun 10, 2018

Ive always been more of a Vinegar doser but I dont like how it drops my PH. It takes so much more vinegar to get the same results. Is there a particular brand of Vodka you use? Sky Vodka? lol or does it not even matter?

My plan is to manual dose until I get everything dialed in including my peristaltic pump.

Flippers4pups · Jun 10, 2018

marriedtothereef said:
Ive always been more of a Vinegar doser but I dont like how it drops my PH. It takes so much more vinegar to get the same results. Is there a particular brand of Vodka you use? Sky Vodka? lol or does it not even matter?

My plan is to manual dose until I get everything dialed in including my peristaltic pump.

Shouldn't matter. Just no flavored variety.

mike werner · Jun 10, 2018

cheapiest brand you can buy.grey goose never but that's a personal/political choice.

marriedtothereef · Jun 10, 2018

mike werner said:
cheapiest brand you can buy.grey goose never but that's a personal/political choice.

What brand do you use?

redfishbluefish · Jun 10, 2018

It really doesn't matter....you're only interested in the ethanol. Just don't use a flavored brand. I use Traveler's Vodka....the best vodka $12.99 will buy (for 1.75 liters). I also blend it with vinegar to get the best of two worlds.

mike werner · Jun 10, 2018

marriedtothereef said:
What brand do you use?

burnetts made in usa

takayan · Jun 10, 2018

I’m using sminorf made in US.

marriedtothereef · Jun 10, 2018

What about this?

marriedtothereef · Jun 10, 2018

redfishbluefish said:
It really doesn't matter....you're only interested in the ethanol. Just don't use a flavored brand. I use Traveler's Vodka....the best vodka $12.99 will buy (for 1.75 liters). I also blend it with vinegar to get the best of two worlds.

The one I got is Borski vodka. It says its distilled charcoal filtered. Will that affect anything?

redfishbluefish · Jun 11, 2018

marriedtothereef said:
The one I got is Borski vodka. It says its distilled charcoal filtered. Will that affect anything?

Not one bit....that's nice clean vodka.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jun 11, 2018

marriedtothereef said:
Ive always been more of a Vinegar doser but I dont like how it drops my PH. It takes so much more vinegar to get the same results. Is there a particular brand of Vodka you use? Sky Vodka? lol or does it not even matter?

My plan is to manual dose until I get everything dialed in including my peristaltic pump.

Vodka should have a similar pH lowering effect, it is just spread out more. Using a dosing pump to slowly dose the organic should result in the same pH effect.

If you want to eliminate the immediate pH drop from dosing a lot at once, if you add calcium hydroxide to the vinegar you can prevent it when manual dosing. I did that before I started using a doser for vinegar.

marriedtothereef · Jun 11, 2018

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Vodka should have a similar pH lowering effect, it is just spread out more. Using a dosing pump to slowly dose the organic should result in the same pH effect.

If you want to eliminate the immediate pH drop from dosing a lot at once, if you add calcium hydroxide to the vinegar you can prevent it when manual dosing. I did that before I started using a doser for vinegar.

Okay thanks Randy. Any particular brand calcium hydroxide you use? and where did you order it? Will it affect my calcium or Alk levels? Im am currently on 2-part and I got everything dialed in. Things seem to be running stable.

With my corals looking happy. At 50ppm Nitrate and 1.01 Phosphate. Do you know of anyone with these numbers with successful results longterm?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jun 11, 2018

marriedtothereef said:
Okay thanks Randy. Any particular brand calcium hydroxide you use? and where did you order it? Will it affect my calcium or Alk levels? Im am currently on 2-part and I got everything dialed in. Things seem to be running stable.

With my corals looking happy. At 50ppm Nitrate and 1.01 Phosphate. Do you know of anyone with these numbers with successful results longterm?

I used it for 20 years via different brands. Any food grade or FCC grade is fine. Most recently I got it from BRS, but that was a few years ago.

Yes, it will add some calcium and alkalinity. How much depends on how much vinegar you add, but it's not a huge amount.

If you usually dose 25 mL of vinegar to 100 gallons of aquarium water, and you neutralize it with calcium hydroxide (by just adding it to the vinegar bottle until there is excess sitting on the bottle bottom), you will be adding ~0.58 dKH of alkalinity and ~4 ppm of calcium (which is a balanced ratio).

Check out this aquarium:

https://reefs.com/magazine/skeptical-reefkeeping-ix-test-kits-chasing-numbers-and-phosphate/

~1 ppm phosphate, ~100 ppm nitrate

marriedtothereef · Jun 11, 2018

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
I used it for 20 years via different brands. Any food grade or FCC grade is fine. Most recently I got it from BRS, but that was a few years ago.

Yes, it will add some calcium and alkalinity. How much depends on how much vinegar you add, but it's not a huge amount.

If you usually dose 25 mL of vinegar to 100 gallons of aquarium water, and you neutralize it with calcium hydroxide (by just adding it to the vinegar bottle until there is excess sitting on the bottle bottom), you will be adding ~0.58 dKH of alkalinity and ~4 ppm of calcium (which is a balanced ratio).

Check out this aquarium:

https://reefs.com/magazine/skeptical-reefkeeping-ix-test-kits-chasing-numbers-and-phosphate/

~1 ppm phosphate, ~100 ppm nitrate

That tank pictured has 100ppm Nitrate and 1ppm PO4? whoa i’m wondering if I even need to do anything at this point. My only downfall is I cant keep certain corals (The nice ones lol) Montis and Chalices with these parameters lol

Thanks for the link. ill order some Calcium hydroxide right now.

Potatohead · Jun 11, 2018

marriedtothereef said:
Ive always been more of a Vinegar doser but I dont like how it drops my PH. It takes so much more vinegar to get the same results. Is there a particular brand of Vodka you use? Sky Vodka? lol or does it not even matter?

My plan is to manual dose until I get everything dialed in including my peristaltic pump.

Belvedere

Oh, for the tank! I don't.

marriedtothereef · Jun 11, 2018

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
I used it for 20 years via different brands. Any food grade or FCC grade is fine. Most recently I got it from BRS, but that was a few years ago.

Yes, it will add some calcium and alkalinity. How much depends on how much vinegar you add, but it's not a huge amount.

If you usually dose 25 mL of vinegar to 100 gallons of aquarium water, and you neutralize it with calcium hydroxide (by just adding it to the vinegar bottle until there is excess sitting on the bottle bottom), you will be adding ~0.58 dKH of alkalinity and ~4 ppm of calcium (which is a balanced ratio).

Check out this aquarium:

https://reefs.com/magazine/skeptical-reefkeeping-ix-test-kits-chasing-numbers-and-phosphate/

~1 ppm phosphate, ~100 ppm nitrate

Hey Randy. I picked up this Vinegar but wasn’t sure if this was the kind you use. (6% vinegar) Acetic Acid and AAMI standard water as ingredients. Is it Safe to use for the reef?