Need advice on starting carbon dosing w/ vinegar

[Spar]

I have a 450g (water volume) tank. I am currently battling with really bad GHA. I tried Fluco which helped some, but not enough. My NO3 and PO4 currently read zero using different testkits (Hanna, API as examples), but is likely due to the mass amounts of GHA in the tank, consuming it quickly.

I have reduced feeding and am increasing my water changes, but want to start carbon dosing as well.

I plan to follow Randy's advice on vinegar dosing in: http://reefkeeping.com/joomla/index.php/current-issue/article/116-vinegar-dosing-methodology-for-the-marine-aquarium

A friend has advised me that adding glucose/dextrose to the vinegar will help out even further, but don't see much guidance of this in the forum.

Couple questions:
1: is it recommended that I add the dextrose, and if so, what is a good grams per gallon of vinegar?

2: if I do add dextrose, should I still follow the same dosing chart that Randy has in that article?

3: is the recommended dosing chart what I should follow given my tank issues at the moment, being zero PO4/NO3 and a ton of GHA?

Just wanting to make sure I kick this off right from the beginning. Thanks in advance.

 

[laverda]

I don’t know about adding dextrose to vinegar. Vinegar is only going to help with nitrates. Dosing iron will help control phosphates. On my 350 gallon system, I do not do water changes. My tank is looking better the any I have had in 20 years of reef tanks with the least amount of effort. I dose 10-15ml of vinegar and 6ml of iron a day depending on what my levels are. The iron helps algae grow using up nitrates and phosphates. I use ALgae Turf Scrubers, cheeto and a thick turf algae to export N&P. I have dosed at higher levels, but N&P dropped too low and my corals started looking worse and my macro algae’s died back. To learn more look up the DSR method on the reef forum with a 2 in the name. There is a spread sheet to help calculate how much vinegar and iron to dose.

 

[bertoni]

Sugars seem to cause more problems than other forms of organic carbon. I'd just increasing the vinegar dose, or through in some vodka, if you prefer. I don't think that the form of organic carbon is limiting the export, in any case. Microbial blooms might be more of an issue in that respect.

 

[RobZilla04]

Keep it simply. Either use Vinegar, Vodka, or a combination of the two. The charts are very conservative with respect to volume and step increases. You can push slightly higher much sooner.