Monstrigity
New member
I have dosed vinegar in my system on three separate occasions. I usually start it about once a year. The first time i was very happy with the results, but my emperor angel that I have had since 2005 started to get some pitting around his nostrils and a little around his face. I tried everything to stop it but in the end all the typical things like diet, water quality, stray voltage, and use of GAC were covered. He is living in a thriving SPS reef so I was stumped. I got pretty busy and decided to drop carbon dosing out of my maintenance schedule. Within weeks the hlle started clearing up. I chalked it up to coincidence. About a year later I started dosing vinegar again and within a month the angelfish started developing the pits around his face again. I kept dosing and it kept getting worse. I quit dosing carbon and magically the hlle rapidly started healing. I have just gone through the process all over again with the exact same results and I am now convinced that adding vinegar to my tank is causing this. I dont know if a pathogenic bacteria is feeding off of the carbon source or there is an impurity in the carbon source itself that is causing this. I know that this is far from scientific but this is the only variable that changes with the HLLE. Another interesting note is that I have two tangs that are not affected by this at all. I have never heard of carbon dosing causing HLLE but it seems likely that in this instance it does. I would be interested to hear if anybody else has had a similar experience or on any theories that anybody might have.
