UPDATE- Adding Vinegar to my calc drip...

So, after dripping Calc for a few months to help my Ca and Alk, I decided to change it some after having heard aobut the chemistry behind adding a vinegar to the calc solution.
The main part of one of the many articles is cat and pasted here:

Vinegar And Limewater To Boost Limewater Potency
Another potentially useful attribute of vinegar is that it can be used to help dissolve additional solid lime into limewater. It does this by reducing the hydroxide concentration in the limewater:

10. CH3OOH à CH3COO- + H+
​

The H[SIZE=-1]+[/SIZE] combines with OH[SIZE=-1]-[/SIZE] in the limewater:

11. H+ + OH- à H2O
​

The actual dissolution of Ca(OH)[SIZE=-1]2[/SIZE] is limited by the multiplication product of the calcium and hydroxide concentrations in the limewater as shown below:

12. Ca(OH)2 à Ca++ + 2OH-
13. [Ca++] x [OH-] x [OH-] £ 5.5 x 10-6
​

where [Ca[SIZE=-1]++[/SIZE]] is the concentration of calcium (in moles/L) and [OH[SIZE=-1]-[/SIZE]] is the concentration of hydroxide (in moles/L). Consequently, if you reduce the concentration of OH[SIZE=-1]-[/SIZE] via equations (10) and (11), then more Ca(OH)[SIZE=-1]2[/SIZE] can dissolve into solution and still meet the equation (13) requirement.
This would seem like a concern, however, since losing OH[SIZE=-1]-[/SIZE] might reduce the amount of alkalinity delivered by the limewater. Luckily, this is not the case. While the OH[SIZE=-1]-[/SIZE] is temporarily reduced by the acetic acid in the vinegar, when bacteria metabolize the acetate, they release it back to the water:

14. CH3COO- + 2O2 à 2CO2 + H2O + OH-
​

Consequently, additional solid lime can be dissolved into limewater using vinegar.
How much can be used? The more vinegar that is used, the lower the pH of both the limewater and the aquarium will be. One reasonable point to shoot for is to add about the same amount of total CO[SIZE=-1]2[/SIZE] via the vinegar as is needed by the lime to form HCO[SIZE=-1]3-[/SIZE]. This balance is roughly matched by using three level teaspoons of solid lime per gallon of limewater, and 45 ml of vinegar per gallon of limewater. For those aquarists choosing to use vinegar in limewater, these values are a suitable starting point. Note that the pH of the limewater is still quite high, so slow dosing is usually required.
What kind of vinegar should be used? Luckily, cheap distilled white vinegar is likely the best. More expensive flavored and colored vinegars, such as red wine vinegar, will deliver other unnecessary organic molecules to the aquarium, and are best avoided.

And I took it from here:
What Your Grandmother Never Told You About Lime by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

Instead of actually using vinegar by itself for carbon dosing, I decided to use it this way.
I put about 30ml vinegar into 3 quarts of my RO/DI, and add about 20ml of pickling lime powder (Mrs. Wards), and shake, let it sit awhile, and drip it in my sump with my handy IV dripper via siphon and gravity
** Yes I know I'm not using the 3:1 ratio from the article, but I'm very close- while using slightly less vinegar:calc, I'll plan to get it to the 3:1 ratio soon.

I have noticed my skimmer pulling more darker skim since adding the vinegar to the calc.
and parameters are doing well.

Just thought I'd share my experiences with keeping our reefs.

New DT vid in my Sig btw...

 

thank you so much for this information! I think I may try this. How often do you add kalk?

 

Daily as of recently for me

 

very cool write up ill have to try that

 

Wow- Major Positive Observation!!

WAY less algae film on the glass!

Before adding the vinegar to the calc for a drip over a few hours, I had to Mag float the glass every day and a half or so. You can really see the film best when you look thru the side glass as the inside of the front glass.

Now- It hasn't even built up in over 2 days!

I've read that using Vodka for Carbon dosing is about 8 x stronger than vinegar byh volume.
I'm not really adding the vinegar for carbon dosing per se, just to get more of the Calc to do what it needs to do based on the section in the OP.

I'm currently using about 30ml (cc) of vinegar in the calc solution. Thats about equivalent to 4cc of Vodka, by volume/moles I guess.

I"m so happy about this side effect of adding the vinegar to my calc drip! Yea!

 

No one is even a little bit amazed that the small amount of vinegar not only is getting my Ca and Alk better and more stable, but it drastically reduced the algae on the glass?

Oh well, I guess I'm easily impressed by these little things ;-)

 

I think you need this:

 

Well, I was impressed!

I think it's a good thing to be impressed by oneself now and then

 

would it be problematic do you think to carbon dose and add vinegar to kalk?

 

Well, not the greatest chemist, but apparently the vinegar to the calc is definitely a form of carbon dosing also.
I also forgot to mention that my skimmer is producing darker skim now also!
And the glass only needs mag floating now about 5-7 days now, before 1-2 days.

I would assume that you could add vodka, and it would cause the same reaction as the vinegar to the calc.