Vinegar Dosing questions

Hi everyone I am looking into dosing the my 55g reef system with vinegar to try to get rid of GHA, However I dont know where to begin, how often I should dose, the amount or the type of vinegar I should use. Any tips or articles that I could be directed to would be much appreciated. Also can vinegar cause harm to specific types of animals, I have corals, fish, hermit crabs, shrimp and snails

 

The biggest tip to any form of carbon dosing, including vinegar is having a big skimmer. You have to have a really nice skimmer to get all of the extra bacteria out of the water or your water will turn cloudy. I personally have been dosing vinegar for quite some time and am seeing the benefits of it. The biggest reason I chose to do this is the fact that I like to keep my fish super fat and happy so I feed a lot. Here's how I did it:

Week 1 - 15 ML daily on a 160 gallon system
week 2 - 30 ML daily
week 3 40 ML daily
Week 4 - 5 50 ML daily
Week 6 - 60 ML daily

Cyano increased a bit for the first 2 weeks and now it doesn't exist.

 

Try prodibio, IMO its alot easier to self regualte than regular vodka dosing, although I can't comment on its short term effectiveness.

 

The OP is talking about vinegar. You use larger amounts so there is more room for error. I'm actually thinking of getting a dosing pump just for my vinegar. I really like it.

 

Ok but do u guys know any articles on the stuff, I dont even know what adding vinegar actually affects in the tank, ive just heard that it helps get rid of problem algae, at first i thought that adding the vinegar it would drop the ph, but that couldnt be it, what does it actually affect?

 

Reefkeeping Magazine - Vinegar Dosing Methodology for the Marine Aquarium

 

thank you

 

I've been dosing vodka (same idea as vinegar) for a bit over a year now. The biggest change I've experienced that I never really saw mentioned in anything I read before deciding to try it is really slimy bacterial growth on pretty much every surface- like really thick gooey stuff. It's not much of a problem as it's very easy to remove (even a modest current peels it away for the filtration to handle) but none the less it's something to be aware of. The only times I've had it be problematic is when it goes undisturbed for a longer period (usually between rocks or something like that) and is able to accumulate. I've taken to blowing out the rocks a bit with a spare pump about once a week to prevent this.

 

If you are getting that, it's because you don't have enough of a skimmer to handle the growth or you are overdoing it. You may want to dial the vodka back a bit.

 

Its still an organic carbon dosing system which leads to a probiotic aquarium.