Reef Discussion

[potatocouch]

I dosed NoPox in the past and great result.

I know v14 is received positive raves.

but I'm tight on budget and still want to carbon, hence Vinegar.

When dosing Vinegar, would the amount of Vinegar dosed be dependent upon the current state of No3?

I am on CADE HL600 (equates to approx 50 gallons in this chart) ... haven't test No3 for a while now ... but if I am to start this Randy's Vinegar regime .. do I then start 1.6 ml then keep ramping up by 4 ml per week ? do then test , do then test?

 

[Adam_w]

I just recently started Vinegar a couple of months back now. Found that chart to be very conservative, i started where it said but raised it up quite a bit quicker mostly because I'm impatient. So you can go faster suppose it depends what is going on in your tank but I had no issues.

I was told it was ok to increase it pretty quickly as long as you didn't have any bacterial film start up, if that happens you need to reduce dose and go slower.

 

[NiCd]

If you are looking for budget-friendly carbon dosing I found VSV far more effective with tackling phosphates as well than straight up vinegar

 

[Adam_w]

What ratios did you use on VSV? I couldn't find much. Just using vinegar at the moment and I'm still tackling cyano - also heard that's meant to effect ph less than straight vinegar

 

[NiCd]

" 200 mL of 80-proof vodka, 50 mL of vinegar, and 1.5 tablespoons sugar, mixed together. The dosing recommendation with this mixture involves starting with 0.1 mL/20-gal per day, and gradually increasing to a maintenance dose of 0.5 mL/20-gal per day."

 

[potatocouch]

" 200 mL of 80-proof vodka, 50 mL of vinegar, and 1.5 tablespoons sugar, mixed together. The dosing recommendation with this mixture involves starting with 0.1 mL/20-gal per day, and gradually increasing to a maintenance dose of 0.5 mL/20-gal per day."

Stupid question on the 1.5 tablespoons sugar ... how do you make sure they dissolved completely in solution of 200ml 80-proof Vodka & 50ml Vinegar?

I assume these are the normal crystallized sugar powder from your normal supermarket Aldi, Woolies, Coles etc.

 

[NiCd]

Yeah, it is just normal sugar, you can use caster sugar as well, which is just finer. I just put it in a glass bottle together and shake for about 30 seconds, seems to completely dissolve after about 5 but I just want to make sure it's evenly mixed.

 

[Susan Bates]

" 200 mL of 80-proof vodka, 50 mL of vinegar, and 1.5 tablespoons sugar, mixed together. The dosing recommendation with this mixture involves starting with 0.1 mL/20-gal per day, and gradually increasing to a maintenance dose of 0.5 mL/20-gal per day."

Hi Just saw this, and thought i might jump in if that is ok, I have been chasing nitrates for ages and now phos as well, I have just added a Bio-pellet reactor, this mixture you are talking about here, do you make this up as you say and just store in a bottle and dose what you need? I have 400lt tanks, both have nitrates at 50 using salifert test kit and phos at 1, I did a 200lt water change on both tanks at the weekend and did very little to change reading, so i am pulling my hair out, where to next??

 

[Adam_w]

Susan, the VSV mix from what I understand is basically a home job NoPox, just a carbon source the same as your bio pellets.

I've used just vinegar in my tank and it worked pretty well (only reason I'm looking at changing is because of cyano) VSV is meant to be a better mix of carbon sources and much stronger than normal vinegar.

With carbon dosing after all I've read if you basically need a lot of surface area for the bacteria to grow and a good skimmer to scoop out all the bacterial goop. If you've got both of these things nitrates shouldn't cause much trouble

 

[Susan Bates]

Susan, the VSV mix from what I understand is basically a home job NoPox, just a carbon source the same as your bio pellets.

I've used just vinegar in my tank and it worked pretty well (only reason I'm looking at changing is because of cyano) VSV is meant to be a better mix of carbon sources and much stronger than normal vinegar.

With carbon dosing after all I've read if you basically need a lot of surface area for the bacteria to grow and a good skimmer to scoop out all the bacterial goop. If you've got both of these things nitrates shouldn't cause much trouble

I have a good skimmer and a heap of rock, but i still have high nitrates

 

[Adam_w]

That's really crazy I've seen a few of your posts about nitrates I'm not sure where they could be coming from in your tank.

I was dosing straight vinegar to my tank its about 200ltr total volume (thats even cheaper than the vsv) was dosing 60ml per day. I used the above schedule to increase it to those levels. As far as I know my Nitrates are very low, I've never had it register on my test i only use API for nitrates but I figure if it's not showing up it can't be that high. I recently stopped doing the vinegar because of cyano outbreak. Switching over to this new V14 product from ultimate aquacare and wasn't sure where to start my dose so a bit of algae is going on at the moment

Ultimate aquacare has another product for higher nitrate tanks thats designed for tanks with over 20ppm I've never used it but there's some good reviews on facebook for it, my lfs said he used it and it didn't do anything though. So maybe you can have a look into that if you've tried everything else

Pretty sure bio pellets are basically a higher tech way of VSV but I've not used them before, if they're not able to strip your nitrates I'd be looking for where it could be coming from? I've only had my tank a few years so not much experience in hunting problem things down maybe one of the pros can help you out a bit more

 

[potatocouch]

I was dosing straight vinegar to my tank its about 200ltr total volume (thats even cheaper than the vsv) was dosing 60ml per day.

I have similar total volume as yours @Adam_w but am nowhere near your daily Vinegar dosage; I'm at approx. 20ml per day.

By no means my dosage is accurate LOL ... are you heavily stocked in your 200L tank? I may need to up my dosage .. I haven't test my No3 so far tho .. which is a big no no.

 

[Adam_w]

Tank is not heavily stocked (I dont think)
dimensions are 92x45x36 for the display then sump I just assumed is near 50 litre most likely is less

I've only got 5 fish, i want to add a 6th but waiting for the right colours on a female leopard wrasse again. Have other clean up like 4 turbos 1 stromb some hermits and a coral banded shrimp.

So think it's fairly medium stocking, I over feed a crapload I'm pretty sure is my problem I feed twice a day a pinch or so of pellets, most seems to get eaten but not sure if I'm meant to feed that much.

I never had any of the white bio bacteria slime that people talk about when you overdose carbon though so who knows, I cut it back due to cyano but since I started some lanth that's pretty much gone too