Vinegar dosing, how do you start dosing for week 2, 3, etc

[Tango451]

On the 5th day of Vinegar dosing.

Started with 5.6 ml for days 1-3

And on 11.2 ml for days 4-7

Once I conclude day seven, do I wait one week from that day to dose the 15.2 ml and then one week from that day to dose the 19.2 ml?

[bertoni]

I think that's correct. I wouldn't worry as much about the details, though, as I would about watching the tank for signs of trouble. The vinegar dosing guidelines are very conservative.

[AdamNC]

No for every week there after up the dosage to the recommendation on the chart the following day. If you notice an algae bloom, back off a few ml for a while.

[Tango451]

Ok Thanks. And I am on day 6 of dosing... In the past days my nitrates have dropped from 40 to almost 0 (it read as 0 but to be safe I am considering 0 to 5). Should I continue with day 6 or 7 or stop and wait a week. I can't believe it dropped so fast though (I did do a 20% water change on the 3rd day of dosing).

My phospates are reading 2.0 - 3.0, I am running gfo, but should I keep increasing the vinegar dose till phosphates drop to 0 too even with nitrates reading 0? I remember reading vinegar deals with nitrates fast than phosphates.

[bertoni]

You might need to use some other approach to reduce the phosphate. The bacteria that consumed it might become nitrogen-limited, but you could keep dosing to see what happens. I don't think that vinegar is likely to cause any sudden changes at this point. I would stop increasing the dose, though.

[nicholasb]

You have to increase the dosing in line with level of bacteria growth, which is difficult.
Don't see how your nitrates can drop that fast. Is vinegar dosing like carbon/vodka dosing. If so then it takes time to build up the bacteria, the same as if you ran a bio pellit reactor. Phosphate is very high, your aiming for 0.03. The G.F.O should help. what test kit are you using?. Is it giving you the right result

[AdamNC]

Keep going day after day, no break til the end of the regime.

[Tango451]

I was shocked to that my nitrates dropped so fast. I use API test kits for nitrate and even had an lfs double check my results (they also tested it when it was at 40 - bring my water once a week there and if I get an alarming reading, I retest at home)

Was running phosguard and gfo and now took out phosguard from my media reactor and will be placing it with even more gfo come tomorrow.

Today concluded the first 7 day doses, so I guess I am going to keep it at 11.2 ml of vinegar considering my nitrates are where I want them to be and if there is spike will increase by 4 ml for that week etc but if not, I am going to keep them the same.

Thank you again!

[bertoni]

You're welcome! Good luck!