mixing vodka and vinegar

[vincent1972]

hello,
i dose everyday vodka to my system (system +- 370 Gallon)
now i want to start dosing also vinegar.
can i mix the vodka and vinegar ? or should i dose them seperately?
if i can mix them , how is this done?
thx

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Yes, you can mix them, but I wouldn't store either one highly diluted in water.

Direct mixing together is fine.

 

[vincent1972]

Hi Randy,
for example if i take 10ml of vodka , how much vinegar should i use to make the mix?

i dose 60ml vodka everyday

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

It depends on what you want to accomplish. There is no preferred ratio. I choose to use only vinegar. Some use mixtures.

 

[vincent1972]

it's for reducing nitrates
is vinegar better than vodka?
how much vinegar should i dose into my system and do i start with it?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I prefer vinegar, but many people use vodka or mixtures.

Check through some of the threads on vinegar dosing to see amounts. There are a variety of different strategies on how to determine doses. I prefer to go by the look of the tank, rather than measured values of nitrate or phosphate.

 

[vincent1972]

Why do you prefer vinegar , is there a particular reason?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

In my tank it seemed to cause less issues with cyano than did vodka. Some others have had similar experiences.

 

[vincent1972]

Randy thx for the info.
i go on search topics about dose vinegar
grtz

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

:thumbsup:

Good luck.

 

[vincent1972]

Randy , another question .
if i want to start today with dosing vinegar , how should i do it?
i dose now everyday 60ml vodka and i think it isn't enough yet because the nitrate level in my tank is at this moment 24 (tested with the high sensitive test of D&D).
so i started e few months ago with dosing vodka (1ml/25gallon) and increased it till the amount i'm adding now (60ml). but the nitrate levels do not lower anymore.
i want to go to a level of 5 nitrates.
so now i'm thinking : i dose each other day vodka and the other day vinegar , maybe this method is not good.
or i can dose vodka and vinegar at the same time ?
or i switch to fully vinegar dosing.
but theu told me that the amount of vinegar is 8 times more then vodka , wich mean that i have to dose 480ml vinegar a day.
i think it is very much.
if i switch to vinegar , have i start all over again with the amount of dosing?
how would you do this in my case?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

What size tank?

 

[vincent1972]

my tank is 74.8 inch x 27.5 inch x 27.5 inch , the sump is 70.9 inch x 23.6 inch x 19.7 inch.
there is 330 Lbs of live rock and about 88 Lbs of araganite (oolite) sand in it.
lights : 2 x 150 w HQI + 4 x 54w t5 + 4 x 24w t5 + 2 led modules (2 x 120w)
also moonlight is installed .
the skimmer is an deltec ap702.
i have run 2 fluidised bed filter wich holds rowaphos (gfo) and activated carbon.
There's gonna be an rsdb installed soon
the returnpump is 1585g/h

 

[vincent1972]

total system is +/- 370 gallon

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

60 mL of vodka is a pretty substantial dose. If I were to start dosing vinegar in addition to the vodka, I'd start at 20 mL of vinegar per day and ramp to 60 ml per day over 2 weeks, then adjust based on how the tank looks.

 

[vincent1972]

Randy,
is this 20ml on the total system or is this 20ml/25 gallon?
would i keep dosing the vodka and ad the vinegar ?
or have i to cut the vodka dose with 20ml a day?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Total vinegar per day, assuming you keep the same vodka dose. More if you stop it.

 

[vincent1972]

earlier today i have dose my 60 ml vodka and i have dose 10ml of vinegar.
tomorrow i wil dose 60ml of vodka and i will try 20ml of vinegar.
is that a good idea?

So , Randy what you mean is i keep on dosing my 60ml of vodka and i start to dose 20ml of vinegar and raise the amount of vinegar over two weeks till i come to a dosing amount of 60ml vodka and 60ml vinegar?
do I have to dose the vinegar slowly or doesn't it matter how fast you dose the vinegar?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

That sounds like a fine plan. In this size tank, that amount of vinegar can be dosed all at once.

 

[vincent1972]

Randy,
Thx man for this great information
i gonna try this and will post the results

grtz

vincent