Help!! vinegar dosing

Yes it works i have used that same chart on my 75 gallon tank when i had it just make sure you have a good skimmer and just keep monitoring your levels and once you get where you want them i belive you cut your dose in half and that's what you add daily

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it works but it also creates its own set of problems. For one, you'll need to constantly monitor both nitrate and phosphate to make sure you don't get them both to zero and start starving your corals. Next, your dosing pump tubes will eventually clog and if it goes un-noticed for days you'll have a spike in nutrients. Your skimmer will need to be very good and it'll produce absolutely foul smelling skimmate.

You can also have issues with oxygen being too low because bacteria are now consuming it, so I saw some fish loss when I carbon dosed, may be normal may not be. Also I lost some SPS due to STN/RTN that may or may not be related to carbon dosing.

It absolutely works in getting nutrients lower, the problem comes in trying to consistently keep them low while feeding enough to fish and corals, finding a dose that works with your system that doesn't cause massive explosions of bacteria in your system. My sump was filled with stringy bacteria that was pretty gross to remove.

 

I love carbon dosing and I think it's one of the biggest innovations to come in decades.

I never had any clogs in the dosing tubes with vodka or vinegar, I don't know why that would have been happening. With a functioning skimmer I am really surprised you saw low oxygen, how do you know oxygen was getting low?

You can over do it, but that chart is pretty safe.

I dose low amounts carbon in tanks with no nutrient issues to feed filter feeders like sponges and feather dusters. I also personally feel the coral benefits from more bacteria to consume.

Our skimmed tanks have around 1/10 the amount of bacteria (in the water) as a coral reef does. (see below). Carbon dosing increases these numbers.

Feature Article: Bacterial Counts in Reef Aquarium Water: Baseline Values and Modulation by Carbon Dosing, Protein Skimming, and Granular Activated Carbon Filtration

Corals consume (lots of) bacteria

 

Yes you can if you really want to. I wouldn't though unless one or the other isn't working well or is having side effects.

 

I dose vodka and vinegar as they both have a slightly different effect and when I only dose vodka I get nuisance algae. Just my expereince.

-Eric

 

I go old school and dose manually at night - currently at 10 ml vodka + 15 ml vinegar on a 120 gallon.

I believe in a discussion on Reef Central Randy indicated the two could be mixed together for dosing but I would invite you to research that on your own. Additionally, if you aren't in the maintenance stage you would need to keep destroying and re-mixing based on the strength you need.

-Eric

 

I also dose vodka and vinegar. I had read an article on Reef Central where some folks asked about Red Sea's NoPo3. Although proprietary and no one knows the exact mix, the consensus was toward a ratio of 41ml vodka and 59 ml vinegar plus some other minor things that no one knew. That ratio equates pretty much to what Eric listed. I mix up a quantity of vodka and vinegar together based on that ratio and keep it in a container - and dose from it.

 

Some algae just can't hold its liquor.

 

I'm not aware that they separate. I dose it as a solution. I currently don't dose it with a pump, but was planning to move to that.