Lime water and vinegar

RyanM

RyanM

New member
Thought id post my findings so far with my lime water and vinegar.

Im working with a base alk of 8.5 and a base calc of 400. PHis and always seems to be 8.4 during the day.

Since ive started adding vinegar to my lime water I have completly eliminated the additions of the 2 part solution. So far that is.

My bucket is 5gallons mixed with 2 tespoons of pickling lime per gallon. That is dripped over a period of about 3 days.

Week 1, Added 5ml to my bucket. started of little slow but wanted to see if anyhting would happen. 5ml is a such a small amount to be added over 3 days so not much of a test. At the end of the 3 days I tested and added both parts of the 2 part to bring it up to 8.5 alk and 400 calc. was only a little low. Alk was 8 and calc had fallin to 380.

2nd bucket I added 25ml of vinegar. Dripped that over the next 3 days and tested. Alk was 8.5 calc was 390. Didnt add anything to bring the level of calc up.


3rd and 4th buckets, I added 30ml and again driped over the next three days. Nothing changed. Alk 8.5 calc 390


I am going to stay at only 30ml. In the 2 + weeks Ive been using it. I have only had to add any of the 2 part in the beginning but since then nothing. I will keep posting My results. So far I am happy with what Im seeing and nothing seems to ne effected at all.

PH is still 8.4


Also keep in mind that 30ml is WAY below what the author of the artical I read said he used. 228ml per 5 gallon is where he was at.
 
very interesting. so do you put the lime in your auto topoff or do you have a separate bucket for that? also had you adgitated the bucket in that three days?
 
The lime water bucket is my top off bucket and no I dont stir it at all. Except for the stiring I give it to mix it when I make it.
 
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No reason to agitate, from what I read, the precipitate is mostly from junk in the water that you dont want in the tank.
 
Interesting stuff Ryan. Its been quite a while since i read up on this. Is the reason your adding vinegar to reduce the ph impact of raising Ph so that you can drip more kalk, or is the iidea to be able to make a more supersaturated kalk solution. In either case (I forget the chemistry of this) I believe there is the risk of increasing a bacterial bloom as a result of a build up of acetate. There can be positive benefits of that as well from what i recall. Any good threads on this. Probably Randy Holmes farley has written on this.
 
The main reason I started was to increase the potency of the lime water. The lowering of ph is a secondary issue but one I dont mind either. My tank runs at 8.4 so a little less ph boost is a good thing. As far as the negatives, I havent seen any as of yet but I am not useing much vinegar at all. Im dripping 30ml over 3 days so the impact is minimal as far as bacteria blooms go.

I went away for a few days and had my wife watching my tank. I told her everything I thought she needed to know but I neglected to tell her to keep an eye on the level in the sump. I set up my top off with a full 5 gallons full of lime water and went away. Never telling her to look for the level she didnt look and I forgot to turn the valve on my top off before I left so it didnt drip anything for 48 hours. When I got back my alk was at just over 7.
Prior to that my alk was steady at 8.5 so I know I am doing good with my drip. If I see no bad side effects as far as algea or bacterial mats as some reported I will continue. I havent checked my calc level but it was always steady at 390 while useing my lime/vinegar mix so I think with a little tweeking it will be fine to replace most of the 2 part additions.
 
With the addition of vinegar, by how much are you able to boost the concentration of kalk per gallon given that the standard dose for a saturated solution is two tsp per gallon?
 
5% at my current 30ml per 5 gallon. You can get upto 36% boost but you need to add 228ml to 5 gallons of lime. Im not sure I ever want to go that far with it. 30ml in 5 gallns dripped over 3 days is hardly anything at all. Ill take the 5% boost and see how it goes and if i think i need a little more I can see my self going to 60ml or 10% but I think after that Id start paying very close attention. I feel there is minimal risk at my level or even at a 10% boost.
 
It works great so far. I was able to keep the lvls up with little/if any addition of the 2 part. I kinda screwed up my testing while I went away for a few days so things got a little out of sequence so I have stoped for a little bit to see what is happening. Ill start it back up after I get some more alk and calc tests. Burns them up if you use them every day. I always wondered if you could only put half the water and use half the drops and stretch your kits twice as far. I may have to try it and see.
 
I was thinking that same thing (I use API Calc too) but then it would only give measurements in increments of 40 rather than 20, and its already shaky with the color change, cause I always get a pinkish purple and need one more drop to get over the edge
 
Yea I use api my self. They seem to work ok and dont cost an arm and a leg. When i get to the pinkish purple i stop there and in my head add the last drop..you know its close to blue. What i never understood was why you need 10 drops of part one and 20 of part 2 but they give you the same amount in each bottle. This is the calc by the way. I have enough part 1 laying around to last a lifetime.
 
I just dripped my first bucket of lime water with vinegar added since I stoped a few weeks ago and my report for this whole thread is that yes, it does boost the alk and calc lvls in lime water.
I have noticed no ill effects from the small amount of vinegar I add with the single exception of my xenia. They dont seem to like it but I have always had good and bad luck with them so its hard to say for sure if its the vinegar or just xenia being xenia.

My addition of 2 gallons average a day of straight lime water can not maintain my alk and calc lvls with out adding some 2 part every day. Soon as I add vinegar to it I am more than able to maintain my levels with no added 2 part.

Ive started it and stoped it and started it again and see no real issues. I am going to continue with the vinager as I really dont like to add the home made calc and alk stuff. Just seems to me to be alot of unwanted chemicals being added. A little bit a vinegar seems alot less caustic.

My tanks volume is around 150 gallons.
 
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