NEW Vodka and Vinegar Dosing Charts

Brad Wilkins

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The only Vinegar in the state at 5% Acidity is Anchor white vinegar fermented.:confused-face: Most other brands are at 4% and for the life of me i cant find distilled anywhere except online where they want my first bourn and my kidney.

Screen Shot 2024-07-26 at 7.08.25 pm.png
 
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gbroadbridge

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The only Vinegar in the state at 5% Acidity is Anchor white vinegar fermented.:confused-face: Most other brands are at 4% and for the life of me i cant find distilled anywhere except online where they want my first bourn and my kidney.

Screen Shot 2024-07-26 at 7.08.25 pm.png
That's probably fine to use.

You can find a discussion from a while back at this link

 
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Miami Reef

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If Randy says fermented vinegar is fine, I can update the charts. Sorry about the confusion in advance. I’ve always assumed distilled white vinegar is the cheapest and most pure. I was also under the impression that filtered vinegar could possibly cause a skimmer to overflow.
 
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Miami Reef

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I recommend distilled while vinegar. This one is filtered, not distilled. That may or may not be the reason you detect a skimmer change, but it is easy enough to try distilled white vinegar.


Most people agree that the basic difference would be the level of purity. Simply put, distilled vinegar has been purified more than white vinegar.

Randy mentioned he recommended distilled white vinegar. I put that in the chart so people can have the best chance of success. I can always update it if needed.
 

gbroadbridge

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Randy mentioned he recommended distilled white vinegar. I put that in the chart so people can have the best chance of success. I can always update it if needed.
The problem is that distilled white vinegar is not readily available in Australia.

I know - I tried years ago.

The only other option is Glacial Acetic acid from a chemical supplier - which is pricy, hazardous and difficult to obtain as an individual.

I found that White supermarket fermented vinegar worked okay for me, but of course the risk is unknown organic compounds which are not identified on the labelling.
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

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Can anyone tell me why Fermented White Vinegar isn't recommended? It seems that's what most shops sell here in Australia.

Distilled vinegar will have fewer different organics than a non distilled product, and likely has more N and P in it, but that doesn’t mean it necessarily is a problem.
 

KÜRŞAT

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Randy mentioned he recommended distilled white vinegar. I put that in the chart so people can have the best chance of success. I can always update it if needed.
Distilled vinegar will have fewer different organics than a non distilled product, and likely has more N and P in it, but that doesn’t mean it necessarily is a problem.
good day, I will start dosing vodka for my 45 gallon acro tank. My nitrate is 15-20, my phosphate is 0.05, I use rowaphos in the reactor.
I noticed that as my nitrate increased, the color of the yellow millepora became darker. The question that comes to my mind when I start dosing vodka is should I remove the Rowaphos and increase the phosphate and dosage that way? Or will anything happen if I dose vodka while my phosphate is at this level? My target nitrate level is 1-2 ppm. If I use rowaphos in the reactor and do the vodka dosage at the same time, will my phosphate be reset and get cyano?
 
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If your tank is only 45 gallons, you can change water in addition to carbon dosing. That can somewhat speed up the process.

Nitrates and phosphates should be examined independently. If Nitrate is too high, use Vodka or Vinegar. If phosphate is too high, use Rowaphos.

I won’t comment on the exact nutrient levels since “high” is relative to each reefer’s standards.

The usual recommendation is:

PO4: 0.02-0.10 ppm

NO3: 2-10 ppm


You can experiment with lower nutrients to observe possible changes in coloration.
 

KÜRŞAT

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If your tank is only 45 gallons, you can change water in addition to carbon dosing. That can somewhat speed up the process.

Nitrates and phosphates should be examined independently. If Nitrate is too high, use Vodka or Vinegar. If phosphate is too high, use Rowaphos.

I won’t comment on the exact nutrient levels since “high” is relative to each reefer’s standards.

The usual recommendation is:

PO4: 0.02-0.10 ppm

NO3: 2-10 ppm


You can experiment with lower nutrients to observe possible changes in coloration.
I mean, does a vodka dose reduce phosphate along with nitrate? If it decreases I will remove the rowaphos
 

Levinson

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Hi, the white vinegar I got has 10% acidity. Where I live, the 5% white distilled vinegars are all imported and cost way more so I got the locally made 10%. They seem to be safe to use (it is fermented and not distilled though).
Since it's 10% acidity, should I just half the dosing amount for 5% vinegar off the chart?
 

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The reasons I'm updating the Vinegar and Vodka dosing charts are two-fold:

1. The ramp was unnecessarily slow. There was no perceived benefit to such a tedious ramp, and it led to reefers quitting because they thought carbon dosing didn't work.

2. The ramp did not scale up correctly at all. A 40x larger tank only received 2x the needed dose. (A 1,000-gallon tank only received twice the dose of a 25-gallon tank).


Carbon dosing is a fantastic way to lower nutrients, more specifically nitrate. The reason is three-fold:

1. Organisms, such as bacteria, contain much more nitrogen than phosphorous.

2. Denitrification is a process that happens in anaerobic conditions (little to no oxygen). These bacteria require an organic to oxidize the nitrate molecule (NO3-) into Nitrogen (N2). They use the oxygen that is attached to the nitrate molecule to respire. Thus, there will be NO phosphate consumed during this process.

Here is the equation by @Randy Holmes-Farley :

organic + 124 NO3– + 124 H+ → 122 CO2 + 70 N2 + 208 H2O

3.We have an immense reservoir of phosphate bound to calcium carbonate rocks and sand. To put to pespective, a 50% water change with nutrient-free water will successfully reduce your nitrate values by 50%. More often than not, the phosphate value will climb right back up near the starting point after a day; PO4 tries to be in constant equilibrium with the bulk water column and calcium carbonate surfaces.


For these reasons, I do NOT recommend dosing carbon solely for controlling phosphates. It is likey to deplete nitrate before seeing phosphate mildly decrease.

What are the benefits of carbon dosing?

Besides reducing nitrate, spurring bacteria is the main benefit. This bacteria can feed many organisms and filter feeds (such as desirable sponges) in a tank. Coals and sponges can directly metabolize acetate. Acetate is one of the highest turnover organic in the ocean. Thus, opting for vinegar can be very natural and is something out tank inhabitants are accustomed to.

What about other carbon sources such as NP Bacto Balance, NOPOX, or Sugar?

You can carbon dose with NP Bacto Balance or NOPOX, but dosing straight vinegar or vodka is cheaper and readily available in stores.

One caveat is dosing sugar. While it was popular to dose sugar in a tank several decades ago, it has largely fallen out of favor. It tends to "brown out" certain corals. I wouldn't consider dosing sugar.

Vodka (80 proof) is eight times more concentrated than 5% Vinegar. Dosing 8 times less vodka than vinegar will equal the pH lowering effect and nitrate reduction.

What kind of vinegar or vodka should I use?

Plain Distilled vinegar (5% acidity) from the grocery store is best. NOT filtered vinegar.

Unflavored 80 proof vodka (40% ethanol) is best.


Instructions and rules to follow when carbon dosing with my charts:

1. Dose during daylight hours. Carbon dosing will reduce pH and oxygen, so it's wise to dose while those parameters are naturally at their highest.

2. Skimming and good surface agitation is strongly encouraged. If you don't have a skimmer, stay on the lower end of the chart, and don't progress unless it's clear the tank is fine. High flow will allow more oxygen in the tank and will gas off the extra CO2 that gets produced.

3. You can dose vodka in one shot (bolus dosing), but vinegar is best spread-out with a dosing pump or manually twice a day.

4. Vinegar and Vodka have the same pH-lowering effect, but vinegar is more upfront, while vodka is all later as it becomes consumed by bacteria. You cannot easily detect the pH drop from vodka, but they are equal when comparing the chart dosages for tank size.

5. You do not need to increase the dose after week 2 if nitrates are reducing earlier.

6. Watch your tank and make observations. Once your nutrients are in line, find a small maintenance dose for your tank. You choose the final dose based on your testing and tank inhabitants.

7. Keep track of nutrients and ensure they don't bottom out. Nitrates won't bottom overnight; you won't wake up on the second day and see 100 ppm turn to 0.00 ppm. It's much more gradual than that.

8. Some people notice cyano issues with vodka than with vinegar. If that is the case, switching to vinegar is a wise choice.

Here are the charts. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. :)


Vinegar dosing fully revised.jpg
Vodka dosing fully revised.jpg
Hello,I have a silly question: Should I dose daily or once a week? Thanks!
 

A_Blind_Reefer

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Many thanks for the write up. I also read over Randy’s original version….well, I had to get help with both. Charts, graphs, images, etc do not work with screen readers for visually impaired peeps. I’ve been dosing ammonium for craps and giggles right after Randy started the thread for low n systems (maybe eight months now). After reading all 12 pages in this thread, I found a couple questions in regards to dosing vinegar as a food source for coral as opposed to a n reduction method, and you mentioned it would be well suited for this purpose (at a reduced dose). However, I didn’t notice any comments from anyone doing just that. With that, I decided to give it a whirl….again for craps and giggles. I started with the full, week one dose but have been tapering it down after seven days as n was trending downward. I’m only on week 2, so I’m sure I’ll be making more adjustments. Being visually challenged, I’m not capable of discerning anything of note. Although I have noticed a reduction of the need to clean the glass (from every three days to four now). I’m always conflicted with that though. I mean, not cleaning as often is nice but the other half of my peanut brain starts going on a tangent about a reduction of algae production equating to less food, photosynthesis and possibly oxygenation. I need to have on/off/mute switches for my brain….not that it would make a difference since it may very well be defective (Abby Normal)!
 
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I also read over Randy’s original version
Randy actually didn’t make the chart. He thinks the ramp is unnecessarily long, too:


Despite being one of the authors on the article that chart came from, I do not agree with it. It scales oddly with tank size and ramps up unnecessarily slowly.
Post in thread 'Vinegar and Rox Carbon?'
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/vinegar-and-rox-carbon.1006108/post-11721688


I started with the full, week one dose but have been tapering it down after seven days as n was trending downward.
If the week one dose is too strong, I’d reduce it by 50%. If it’s still lowering N too much, reduce it further by 50%, etc. It’s all about trial and error.


reduction of algae production equating to less food, photosynthesis and possibly oxygenation.
I still grow algae on my glass just fine. I highly doubt there’s going to be anything wrong with less algae on the glass.

The corals might enjoy consuming the extra bacteria in the water column.

They can also directly consume acetate:

Acetate has many uses in organisms.

It can be oxidized with O2 to give energy plus CO2 and bicarbonate.

it can also be used as a building block to make larger biomolecules. Fatty acids are made from acetate as a building block, for example.

Here's a typical paper that shows corals can take up acetate:


"Coral tips and isolated zooxanthellae were incubated with sodium acetate-1-14C in light and dark to obtain lipogenic rates and proportions of fatty acids and lipid classes synthesized. The rate of lipid synthesis from acetate-1-14C by intact coral was stimulated three-fold in the light (1200 lux), which indicated that the majority of coral lipogenesis occurred in the zooxanthellae. Intact coral triglycerides contained ca. 68% of the 14C-activity and wax esters ca. 21%."
 

A_Blind_Reefer

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@A_Blind_Reefer

Are the quotes easy for your translator to read? I can post them in standard text for you if you need so.
Yes, text works out just fine. It’s just things like pdf, jpeg, charts and graphs. I had noted Randy’s comments regarding the long ramp up and volumes within this thread. I like to try and read a bit on topics that I find interesting from time to time. I am looking at the other threads linked now. Thanks again! I had cut the dose by 20% as the decline in n was not drastic by any means. Not enough time has elapsed to determine if that is sufficient.
 
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