Can I use white vinegar to lower my alk?

[FishboyDave]

Is it really safe to use white vinegar to lower my alk? My dKH is 17 now I have no corals. All my snails died like two weeks ago and I was told to use the vinegar to lower the dKh. Info is below for my set up. What Ive done so far to lower it: did a 10 gal wc, 25gal wc, 25gal wc in the last 1.5 weeks.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

It is safe, but not effective. Vinegar does not lower alkalinity.

Did the alk get that way by overdose of an alk supplement?

Water change is probably the best way. Adding muriatic acid works, but will drop pH a lot and risks overdose very easily.

 

[FishboyDave]

How much muriatic acid do I add to my 150?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Be very careful with straight muriatic acid. It can easily burn you, especially your eyes.

The "acidity" (that being essentially negative alkalinity) of muriatic acid straight from the bottle is about 11,000 meq/L.

So adding 1/11,000 of the water volume as this acid will drop alkalinity by 1 meq/l (2.8 dKH).

You might want to drop alk by twice that, so you'd add 1/5500 of the total water volume. That's about 100 mL for a 150 gallon system.

I'd start by adding 25 mL and watch the alk and pH.

Add it slowly and far from anything alive, preferably in a sump.

 

[FishboyDave]

ok thank you

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

:thumbsup:


Good luck.

 

[FishboyDave]

Hey Randy. The muriatic acid method worked great. I use to use that in swimming pools. It works. I did 20ml to my tank and it lowered 3 dkh just like you said. Then I did a 10% wc (20gal) this morning. My readings now are 13 dkh. Im guessing in a couple of days Ill do 10ml more and see if I can get it to 10 dkh then another 10% wc. BTW do you know If this is going to turn my water milky like the white vinegar does? Will it cause a wierd algea bloom?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

The muriatic acid addition should not cause any further issues. Glad it worked out!

 

[FishboyDave]

I just checked my ph and my reading is 7.8 it was 8.4. Should I add Marine Buffer to raise my ph back to 8.3 or is that gonna raise my alk again?

I have a hippo tang and a clown and crabs

 

[FishboyDave]

My alk is still 13 dKH will this raise the ph back up?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Don't add any alk supplements with the alk that high.

If you want to raise pH, more aeration with fresher air may be the only good choice for now.

But doing nothing is also likely OK.

 

[FishboyDave]

cool thanks a bunch for you help

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

You're welcome.

Good luck.

 

[alanbates12]

Hey what caused the alk to be that high? Just curious b/c when my tank was only a couple of months old my alk was around that high but came down slowly over time. I did dose with Mg and Cal. Would that have helped it be normal.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Deposition of calcium carbonate, either by creatures making skeletons and shells, or abiotic precipitation of calcium carbonate on heaters, pumps, etc. will drop alkalinity over time.

 

[FishboyDave]

it had to be from an overdose of reef builder. Its been so long since ive set up a tank that I really shouldnt have added any. It was stupid on my part. Just another bump in the road. I did half the normal dose and still ended up with this problem, or it could of been from some of the rocks that I bought. Like I said just another set back. One of these days Ill have some coral. This was just a wake up call sayin to slow down, read more, and let the time fly.

 

[FishboyDave]

Randy, today I did another test and my alk is at 13-14 dKH and my ph is back up to 8.8. So I did 12.5ml of the muratic acid again. Should I try the acid buffer this weekend if it doesnt fix it or is this the same as the muratic acid, and keep using the acid?

 

[bertoni]

When you say "acid buffer", which product do you mean? There are some products, like pH Down, that have sulfuric acid in them. They will work the same way the muriatic acid does, although they're more dilute (and a lot more expensive, most likely).

 

[FishboyDave]

Just a update my alk is finally stable @ 11dKH Ph 8.4 calcium 420, Phosphates 0.05, Nitrate & nitrite 0. Thank god its fixed. Im still going to wait a little bit longer before I buy and corals. I want to start with blue hornet zoa then zombie eyed fire and ice. Ive gotta find some first. Thanks for all the help.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Sounds good.

Good luck.