carbon dosing with vinegar

[Mickey13]

I have been carbon dosing with vinegar for a few weeks and my cleaner shrimp suddenly died. he was rather big, so I'm wondering if it was just his time. all fish look healthy.

anyone think it's related?

 

[droog]

Doubt its related. I think the main risk is starting the dose too quickly which can cause a bacterial "bloom" resulting in cloudy water and a low oxygen environment. Did that happen in your system? If not I'd say it was unrelated. Vinegar is the safest/weakest of the carbon dosing sources.

-droog

 

[bertoni]

I agree. At least some species of cleaner shrimp have a life expectancy of a few years at most in nature, and probably not that much longer in our tanks.

 

[Mickey13]

I haven't had a bloom. Nitrates have dropped from 160 to 40 though. There is some very limited growth of a white sponge or bacteria in 2 spots in the tank. Suspect it might be a sponge since one growth is on my star polyps. havent bothered to pick it off yet.

 

[hegeh]

I am guessing its dies peacefully. Mine has been eating and very happy. But it just suddenly dies. Must be its age.

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

 

[mcgyvr]

co·in·ci·dence
/kōˈinsədəns/

1.
a remarkable concurrence of events or circumstances without apparent causal connection.
2.
correspondence in nature or in time of occurrence.

 

[monkeysee1]

Hi!
I don't think he died because of the vinegar dosing!
I've been vinegar dosing for a WHILE now - to the advice of mcgyvr - and my nitrates are in the SINGLE DIGITS and I have a scarlett cleaner skunk and a red fire shrimp - BOTH are doing great, along with my cocoa worms, urchins, hermits, and other inverts. Fish have been swimming along happily, as always.
Just KEEP AN EYE on YOUR pH and ALKALINITY when dosing! You are aware that you have to monitor these two parameters closely, right?
Add some sodium carbonate / soda ash solutions (in modest amounts, of course) if you see your pH and Alkalinity are low.

 

[madweazl]

Are you sure it didn't molt and you just found the exoskeleton (happens all the time)?

 

[Mickey13]

Hi!
I don't think he died because of the vinegar dosing!
I've been vinegar dosing for a WHILE now - to the advice of mcgyvr - and my nitrates are in the SINGLE DIGITS and I have a scarlett cleaner skunk and a red fire shrimp - BOTH are doing great, along with my cocoa worms, urchins, hermits, and other inverts. Fish have been swimming along happily, as always.
Just KEEP AN EYE on YOUR pH and ALKALINITY when dosing! You are aware that you have to monitor these two parameters closely, right?
Add some sodium carbonate / soda ash solutions (in modest amounts, of course) if you see your pH and Alkalinity are low.

Yeah I have been testing water every 2 days. Nitrates are down but not single digit yet.

 

[Mickey13]

Are you sure it didn't molt and you just found the exoskeleton (happens all the time)?

He molted a bunch of times while I had him. Wife picked him up from the fish store and he was rather huge already, between 3 and 4 inches I'd say. That's why I suspect he just died from old age. Lots of fish in the tank and everybody looks good.

 

[bertoni]

Well, if the shrimp was that large, it probably was healthy and happy for quite a while by shrimp standards.

 

[Mickey13]

my nitrates are stalled on 40, down from 160+. its a fish only tank with heavy feeding. some of the rock i have came with zoas and polyps but they have both seen better days since i started dosing. i'm not running anything in the sump except filter sock and skimmer. i also run a HOB tidal 110 with mechanical, matrix and pumice. hopefully, my 150 will be up soon and i can do more in a lrger sump. ive used prime so maybe thats why ive got NH3/4 readings not sure. its probably around 60g after -rock and +sump. my vinegar dose is ~110ml/day spread out.

my test kits are API and the readings are:
PH 8.0
NH3/4 .50
NO2 0
NO3 40
PO4 2
CA2 500
dKH 12


i am thinking about a sulfur denitrator if i cant get better results, eventually i want corals when i move up to my 150.

 

[bertoni]

A sulfur denigrator might help, and more live rock with the same fish load should lead to a lower nitrate level, as well.

I would keep up dosing with the Prime. 0.5 ppm of ammonia is worrying. Which test kit are you using? SeaChem has (or had) an ammonia kit that would tell you how much of the ammonia is free, and how much of it has been bound by their ammonia treatments.

 

[Mickey13]

i'm using API. i know its accurate bcause i test my rodi water and that comes back with all 0s on NH3/4, NO2 and NO3. maybe i will get that other test kit to see if it is maybe just the NH4, you're probably right about the rock, i've got another 40 or 50 lbs of dry that i need to cycle. i've never been able to get lower than .5 on the NH3/4. i've gone weeks with feeding every 2 or 3 days and no change. increased feeding back to 3 times daily and no change.