Vinegar dosing question

[wickidclown]

I'm on day two of carbon dosing 0.4 mls vinegar 35 gallon hex my phosphates are reading zero as well as nitrate on Api tests should I keep dosing what I am as to maintain that or just leave it alone as it is. Basically numbers were good to start with I just wanna tinker with my tank if there is Benifit in it

[bertoni]

I probably would try backing off slowly to see how the tank responds, but as long as you're not seeing any bacterial slime buildups and the animals are okay, there's no reason to worry. Tanks tend to respond very differently depending on what's in them and the feeding rate, along with other factors.

[wickidclown]

Thanks

[tmz]

That's a relatively low dose,.01ml per gallon or so. I dose an equivalent amount of organic carbon to .6 ml per gallon of vinegar . Zeros for PO4 and No3 are not goals of mine . I prefer to keep some PO4 ( 0.02 to 0.04ppm) and NO3 around 0.2ppm. I'm not certain organic carbon dosing will provide much if any benefit with the low nutreints you have already it may just bump up the C since bacteria may be limited by a lack of other nutrients.

[hkgar]

That's a relatively low dose,.01ml per gallon or so. I dose an equivalent amount of organic carbon to .6 ml per gallon of vinegar . Zeros for PO4 and No3 are not goals of mine . I prefer to keep some PO4 ( 0.02 to 0.04ppm) and NO3 around 0.2ppm. I'm not certain organic carbon dosing will provide much if any benefit with the low nutreints you have already it may just bump up the C since bacteria may be limited by a lack of other nutrients.

What is the C?

[wickidclown]

Thanks for the reply I am using well water at the moment till I get a new ro unit so there should be nutrients in there my tests are not showing

[CStrickland]

I'm on day two of carbon dosing 0.4 mls vinegar 35 gallon hex my phosphates are reading zero as well as nitrate on Api tests should I keep dosing what I am as to maintain that or just leave it alone as it is. Basically numbers were good to start with I just wanna tinker with my tank if there is Benifit in it

Carbon (C) dosing is for nutrient reduction, so if you're happy with them I'm not sure why you'd do it. When people talk about nutrients they mostly mean nitrate (a form of N) and phosphate (a form of P).

You API kit will only read phos down to like .25 ppm, but most people target .03, so it may not tell you that you have any P until you have ten times as much as you want. Also, the test can only see the free phos that's not bound in algae or rocks / sand.

[wickidclown]

Started carbon dosing because I only have access to well water at the moment and am getting bubble algae blooms with hopes it we'll help combat the issue

[tmz]

What is the C?

Who knows; it's usually unknowable for hobbyists with hobby grade equipment. The zero PO4 and NO3 readings seem to indicate there is enough so it"s not limiting.

[tmz]

Started carbon dosing because I only have access to well water at the moment and am getting bubble algae blooms with hopes it we'll help combat the issue

Shot in the dark at best. Might help ;might hurt. The valonia might be getting nutrients from other sources (rock sand ,detritus etalia). The well water might have all sorts of things or not ; perhaps even organic C.

[wickidclown]

I'm running bare bottom tank it's probly coming out of the rocks. Once Im done moving and back on ro water we'll see what happens