Vinegar in top-off??

[C-21 USAF]

Does anyone see any problem with adding vinegar to my top-off water so that it can go through my Kalk reactor before emptying into my sump???

[C-21 USAF]

No one do this?

Some people add vinegar to their top-off w/kalkwasser it improve the potentcy.

I think this would accomplish the same thing? Right?

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

How are you going to add it and how much vinegar to how much water?

Dilute vinegar sitting around (without lime present) is prone to bacteria degradation.

Technically, this is harder to accomplish than simple delivery from a still and settled reservoir.

Bear in mind that it will also drive bacterial growth in the aquarium. I add a lot of vinegar for that reason, but recognize that it happens.

[C-21 USAF]

I was thinking of simply adding vinegar to my top-off reservoir and giving a stir when I fill it up once a week.

I think 5ml per gallon to my 12 gallon reservoir to start with and work up from there.

My reservoir has to be filled up weekly...is this long enough for the vinegar to degrade?

Is bacterial growth bad?

[sedor]

Bacterial growth is not bad but its something that should be controlled with a specialized dosing regiment. If you just dump vinegar into the tank you are asking for problems, mainly a bacterial bloom that will suck up all the oxygen in your water and crash everything. Vinegar does the same thing that vodka does and a decent skimmer is required to remove the die off it was cause from the tank.

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

My primary concern with bacterial growth in this situation is that it will convert the vinegar in CO2, which will them not increase the dissolution of lime (as vinegar will do), but will actually cause precipitation of calcium carbonate in the reactor. So it may do more harm than good.

[C-21 USAF]

Just so we're on the same page here:

You think adding vinegar to my freshwater (R/O) reservior will create enough bacterial growth to defeat the purpose altogether???

[mcallahan]

Just so we're on the same page here:

You think adding vinegar to my freshwater (R/O) reservior will create enough bacterial growth to defeat the purpose altogether???

It could. The issue is that you won't know exactly how much vinegar you are adding b/c your ATO will top off different amounts of water on different days and times of the year. E.g. in the summer, you'll burn more top off water. Yes you could dial back your vinegar use, but if the weather gets hot one day, then cools off the next, your top off use will vary.

So you'll always be guessing on how much vinegar went into the tank which is NOT what you want. You want to only add specific amounts.

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I'm suggesting it could, yes. It's not just the vinegar loss but the CO2 addition that is the big concern. It may work, but you may also end up dosing less potent limewater than dosing no vinegar at all, and may end up having to frequently clean calcium carbonate from the reactor/pump/etc.

[C-21 USAF]

I was hoping that since I emptied my top-off reservior once a week that bacterial growth wouldn't be a problem, but I guess perhaps it could.

Thanks for the help!

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

You're welcome.

Good luck and let us know what happens if you try it. :)