Vodka, vinegar,biopellets and other organic carbon dosing

[Boxfish]

Man I ve been running phosban constantly maybe I need to find a better delivery system than a phosban reactor. Maybe a bigger reactor so I can get more flow.

 

[reckless1]

thanks tom... much appreciated...

robin

 

[tmz]

You are welcome. Good luck.

 

[2FunKids]

calculator

calculator

No to get a 1004 ml mixture of 75% ethanol to 25% acetic acid , you would need to mix 274 ml of 80 proof vodka with 730 ml of 5% acetic acid vinegar.

This mixture will be significantly stronger than just 1000ml vinegar since each ml of vodka is 8xs as strong as vinegar .

So the 274 ml of vodka is equivalent to 8x 274 or 2,192ml of vinegar .Then adding the the 730ml of vinegar gives you 2,192 plus 730 or 2,922 vinegar equivalents. This mixture holds almost 3xs as much organic carbon in the 1004ml as 1000ml of vinegar alone. So, to keep the same dose you need to redcue the amount of solution dosed to about 1/3 of the pure vinegar solution dosed now.

I am wondering if anyone would be willing to create a spreadsheet calculator that will take a given ratio (75:25) and total desired volume of a mixture of Vinegar and 80 proof Vodka to calculate the quantities of each part to make the mixture and then express it as Vinegar units potency and equivalent Vodka unit potency (/ML) .

After reading this great thread I am going to switch from Bio Pellets to this. I am already dosing 2 part so I would like to use one pump to dose this mixture.

Thank you everyone for putting this thread together. Truly amazing!!

 

[tmz]

You are welcome good luck.

 

[Steve S]

Tom, I would like to jump in....I just setup a 300dd. I put in 250lbs of bare rock about 3weeks ago, dosed Dr Tims ALL IN ONE and added Ammonia chloride (2oz). I did not follow up with the reccommended doses of Am clhloride...just fyi. My Ammonia levels finally dropped to zero about 5 days ago. My Nitrites are at 0. My Nitrates are at 100! I did a couple of small water changes, about 30 gallons each with no drop in Nitrates. I started dosing Vodka for the first time in my life, to try and bring them down. I started out dosing 1.4 ml each day for 4 days. I am currently on day 5. HERE IS MY PROBLEM. Last night I turned the lights on (that have been off for 5 days, did not see any reason to run them, I have nothing in the tank, except rock) and wow....WHITE STRINGY, FUZZY STUFF EVERYWHERE !!! What have I done? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[tmz]

Steve,

That's common in an uncyled tank.


I find it easier to reduce the NO3 to a more reasonable level first to avoid bacterial blooms,which is the white fuzzy stuff and or cloudiness. The bacteria involved assimilate nitrogen from ammonia directly but have much more biomass than typical ammonia oxidizers. They likely also take some from NO3.
Your tank was still cycling, I think. It takes a while for anaerobic bacteria to settle in and use NO3 produced by the ammonia oxidation in the normal nitrogen cycle. Dosing at that time thows things off . I'd give a tank several months post cylcing before jumping in with any organic carbon dosing .

Typically, I don't think it' s a good idea to introduce organic carbon dosing to a cycling tank ;btw all that new rock is likely contributing decaying material. The bacteria you dosed might be waning too.

1.4 ml per day of vodka is a low dose for 300 gallons. Most settle in after amping up in the range of 0 .05ml to 0.125 40 proof vodka per gallon of aqaurium water. FWIW,
I use a combination of 40ml vodka and 80 ml and vinegar per day for 650 gallons.the 80mls of vinegar is equivalent to 10ml of vodka ,so call it 50 ml of vodka per day for 650 gallons .


I'd provide extra aeration and skimming ;stop dosing untill the tank settlles in and nitrate is dropped to less than 10ppm . The strigny material is bacterial mass and can be siphoned out . Some GAC might be helpful at this point too. Bacteria have used the organic carbon from the vodka and the tank and the nitrogen and phosphorus. Oxygen may have been depleted but all in all it should do no permanent damage unles someanimals are in it and they could suffer if oxygen depletion occured.. Just let the tank cycle for awhile.

 

[Steve S]

Thanks Tom....So I will stop dosing Vodka all together right now, wait for the tank to fully cycle.(nitrates down to 10ish.) Should I do some water changes at this point to help with this? I started dosing to try and save on salt and water, but if that is the answer, I will do some massive water changes....?

 

[ridetheducati]

Steve,

If the consensus is to let the tank cycle, do not do the water change(s). If the tank is still cycling, water changes will prolong the process.

 

[tmz]

I would do a few 15% or less changes if the bacterial strings persist for more than a week. If not heavy skimming is all I would try. Once the bacteria are done adding a little food to reboot the cycle might be helpful.

 

[npsossi@msn.com]

What is the correct dose of vodka and vinegar for 80 gallons of water? What is the schedule for increasing this dose
Thanks
Mark

 

[AmherstReef]

What is the correct dose of vodka and vinegar for 80 gallons of water? What is the schedule for increasing this dose
Thanks
Mark

Read through the thread and all your questions will be answered.

 

[Boxfish]

Well I have been dosing vinegar for several months now and I can honestly say this has been the best thing Ive ever done to improve my tank. I just keep mostly softies and alot of fish in my 180 and have always struggled with Nitrates and Phos and trying to keep them in check, well never could actually. So I came across carbon dosing and tried pellets first with absolutely zero results after six months was pretty depressed(plus their spendy). Then Ive always heard about dosing and that always seemed alittle to much more time consuming and more money. But with what I sold my pellet stuff for I had a little cash to blow Well like I said after several months of success with vinegar my tank has really taken off. My softies are ready to grow out of the tank, I feed my fish to keep them full and healthy and my parameters are in check and my tank looks beautiful(wifes happy). So thanks everyone for their help, especially Tom for being the Reef Central online go to help guy!

 

[tmz]

You are welcome.
I'm glad it's working for you. I started over 5 years ago ;things were never better than on this 5 year run . I grow some softies in a tank that runs off the main system without carbon dosing . They do ok but those in the main system are more coloful and vibrant.Xenia do better in the virtualy skimmerless system without organic carbon dosing but that's about it.

 

[TylerHaworth]

I've been dosing vinegar for a bit now, and everything is working as intended, except I would like to lower the total volume of liquid I'm dosing per day, BUT I feel like vodka alone would cause me too much worry that even a small amount of error in the dosing amount could be problematic... I have decided to go with a vodka/vinegar mix and I just want to make sure my maths are correct

It looks like mixing vodka and vinegar together in the same container is a-ok, so here are my calculations for 50/50 and 25/75 vodka/vinegar ratios

50/50: 1mL Vodka = 8mL Vinegar = 1.77mL of Vodka/Vinegar
25/75: 1mL Vodka = 8mL Vinegar = 2.9mL of Vodka/Vinegar

I am currently dosing 50mL of Vinegar per day, so this would reduce me to 11.09mL per day of the 50/50, or 18.125mL per day of the 25/75?

Thanks so much for keeping this thread up and running!

 

[tmz]

Sorry, can't follow the math;maybe; I need more coffee.

1.77ml of 50% vodka and 50% vinegar looks like only .896 vodka equivalents to me :

.885 vinegar and .885 vodka (in vodka equivalents) = .885 plus( .885 x .125 for the vinegar).11. So if you mixed .885 ml vinegar with .885 ml vodka ,if that's what you mean , you would get .885+.11 or onl .896 vodka equivalents I think.

 

[TylerHaworth]

Perhaps this would be more appropriately asked in the Chem forum, it's been a very long time since I've had to think about something like this...

1.77mL of 50/50 is .885mL vodka and .885mL vinegar, to me it looks like:

(8 units x .885mL) + (1 unit x .885mL) = 7.08units + .885units = 7.935mL of Vinegar

(1 unit x .885mL) + (.125 unit x .885mL) = .885units + 0.11units = .995mL of Vodka

Argh...

 

[TylerHaworth]

you would get .885+.11 or onl .896 vodka equivalents I think.

I found our difference, .885+.11 is .995 instead of .896... This puts is with the same maths, yay.

 

[tmz]

Told you I needed more coffee.

 

[tmz]

Now if you wanted 50% of your carbon to come from ethanol and 50% from acetic acid using vodka an vinegar the math would be different.

.5ml vodka and 4ml vinegar would give you a 50 :50 mix equivalent to 1 ml of vodka in terms of organic carbon content.