Is adding vinegar to your system the same as sugar/vodka?

[freshfish]

Anyone know?

[mtfatwork]

I think vinegar is more for alkalinity/ph. Sugar and vodka are for causing reactions that reduce phosphates.

[wes]

vinegar is acetic acid, which should help with all of those things. acetic acid is CH3COOH so it should add a carbon source for the bacteria which can be more easily skimmed out, in addition to raising the saturation point of calcium hydroxide. lots of info if you do a google search

[mattb]

Most likely. Though its unknown what the effects of different sugars and the type of bacteria that are likely to be cultured.... The only bad thing about dosing a type of sugar is that there isn't a good starting point to go from. Also, you shouldn't try to go too fast with this. You may end up with a bloom, you may not, the bloom may cause problems, it may not.

When I was putting vinegar into my makeup water that's fed to my nilsen, I started around 30ml of vinegar to my 7 gallons container... I increase over the course of a couple of weeks to ~80ml in the same container. This isn't the most efficient way to do it though, the kalk slurry and putting the vinegar in there would be the most efficient way. In my case, this was supplementing vodka so it wasn't a big deal for me, I took it pretty slow....

[wes]

I've just started with a very small amount of vinegar in my makeup water with kalk. I've read you need to overskim when you do this; I've got an aqua C on my 40 gallon and it seems to be working quite well. I'll report back in a few months once I get a good feel of how it's working.

[mattb]

Yeah, you do need to overskim/skim wet, many including many of the Europeans run ozone to help with the additional bacteria load. It works, it's pretty simple. When your sps colors are pastel-like, you know you've hit nitrogen limitation, then you need to dose aminos or feed your fish heavier....

[freshfish]

Yeah, you do need to overskim/skim wet, many including many of the Europeans run ozone to help with the additional bacteria load. It works, it's pretty simple. When your sps colors are pastel-like, you know you've hit nitrogen limitation, then you need to dose aminos or feed your fish heavier....

Alright my sps are pastel colored. What does nitrogen limitation mean? I've been putting 10 ml. vinegar in 10 gal. of mixed up kalk and drip it into my tank. I skim wet and it does seem to be darker than normal.

[mattb]

Like all living things, corals need nitrogen (as well as their zoox). Most of the time, our tanks have some level of no3 that the zoox can absorb directly through the water column. Corals can get their N directly from the water column too. However, when you use a carbon source to fuel bacterial growth that using the 0 in NO3/NO2 and PO4 are utilized by the bacteria in respiration, the organic carbon source is food. Increased bacteria levels can cause levels of P and N to become truly limiting to corals, and with sps it is easy to see this level by them becoming pastel colored. In tanks that have higher than NSW levels of N (and P too) compounds, sps are often brown due to the zoox absorbing these compounds directly from the water column rather than from the host and their density to increase within the coral.

Do you have a picture?

[freshfish]

Like all living things, corals need nitrogen (as well as their zoox). Most of the time, our tanks have some level of no3 that the zoox can absorb directly through the water column. Corals can get their N directly from the water column too. However, when you use a carbon source to fuel bacterial growth that using the 0 in NO3/NO2 and PO4 are utilized by the bacteria in respiration, the organic carbon source is food. Increased bacteria levels can cause levels of P and N to become truly limiting to corals, and with sps it is easy to see this level by them becoming pastel colored. In tanks that have higher than NSW levels of N (and P too) compounds, sps are often brown due to the zoox absorbing these compounds directly from the water column rather than from the host and their density to increase within the coral.

Do you have a picture?

What are amino acids where do you get them.

[mattb]

There are many packaged for reef use, Seachem, Salifert and most of the bacteria driven systems( Zeovit, Ultralithe, Prodibio, etc) have their own versions. You could also find something at GNC, but you need to make certain that there are no "fillers" ( yeast, etc) used.

[Sizzlersonthebrain]

Anyone know?

your toilet isn't broken is it?


:lol_hitting: :lol_hitting: :lol_hitting:

[freshfish]

There are many packaged for reef use, Seachem, Salifert and most of the bacteria driven systems( Zeovit, Ultralithe, Prodibio, etc) have their own versions. You could also find something at GNC, but you need to make certain that there are no "fillers" ( yeast, etc) used.

Thanks Matt you sound like you know your stuff. I'll pm you with any other questions that might come up. Thanks Chad

[mattb]

No problem...