Vinegar ? for Randy

[marc nichols]

Randy,

Been dosing vinegar for about 5 months with excellent success. Last couple AWT water tests have indicated PO4 at 0.00 and NO3 0.7. My chaeto is reduced to a very small unhappy patch in a reverse lighted sump. However, I have a recent issue with some small patches of cyano which seem to be increasing.

As NO3 seems to be the feeder for this, would increasing vinegar be a viable choice or should I cut back the vinegar to promote the chaeto.

FYI: 10% water changes and moderated feeding is the rule. Been manually removing cyano. I know I can benefit from improved skimming, particularly to further support the dosing and have something planned for that.

Thank you

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

How much vinegar are you dosing?

As to AWT, I do not know how much accuracy to ascribe to those readings as I do not know how they measured them, but I'd be concerned that the phosphate might easily be anywhere between 0.00 and 0.04 ppm, or maybe even higher.

As NO3 seems to be the feeder for this

One cannot ever claim that algae or cyano problems are "from" one or the other. Such organisms MUST be getting both nitrogen and phosphorus, and eliminating either one will reduce the problem.

I'd probably use some GFO before upping the vinegar, unless the vinegar dose is quite low.

[marc nichols]

Randy,
Vinegar dose is 23ML/day into 90 gal 6 year old reef. From my reading, this seems to be a moderate dose. Do you agree? I have not tried more or less since I set it here.

I use a Hanna ultra low range Phosphate checker and it has shown consistently low-nill readings for several months, consistent with AWT. I took my GFO off line 3 months ago.

Thank you for considering this. Marc

Originally Posted by Randy Holmes-Farley

How much vinegar are you dosing?

As to AWT, I do not know how much accuracy to ascribe to those readings as I do not know how they measured them, but I'd be concerned that the phosphate might easily be anywhere between 0.00 and 0.04 ppm, or maybe even higher.

As NO3 seems to be the feeder for this

One cannot ever claim that algae or cyano problems are "from" one or the other. Such organisms MUST be getting both nitrogen and phosphorus, and eliminating either one will reduce the problem.

I'd probably use some GFO before upping the vinegar, unless the vinegar dose is quite low.