Carbon dosing: Anyone switched from vodka to vinegar dosing before?

[blacktangs]

Ive dosed vodka for years with good results, nitrates 0-5ppm, i did get cyano but was removed with my gfo reactor.
Im curious, has anyone switched to vinegar with same results or better?
Im planning to dose vinegar thru a doser since vodka would evaporate to fast.
Would the vinegar lower my alk too fast?
I understand i would be dosing a lot more vinegar than vodka.

12.5 ml vodka daily. Heavy bioload
120 mixed reef, 440 cal, 7.7 alk, 1410 mag, 5 no3, 0.00 phos.

 

[Vhuang168]

I'm actually dosing with DIY NoPOx which is a vinegar/vodka mix. The inital recipe had RODI in it but there have been reports of bacteria growing if stored too long (eg in a dosing container) so now the recipe is straight vinegar/vodka. That prevents any bacteria from growing.

 

[sfsuphysics]

Do you use kalkwasser in your tank at all? Combining the vinegar with that could be quite advantageous.

Don't think vinegar lowers alk, unless you mean as a potential side effect of your pH being lowered, and either way just see how much of a drop you'll get from whatever volume of vinegar you plan on dosing.

 

[blacktangs]

I kalk once in a while but not often enough to plan it daily. But yeah, ill just transition it slowly and keep testing/monitoring when i start.
Ill have to look up that vinegar/vodka mix carbon dose method. Sounds interesting.

Thanks you guys for the advice!

 

[HiFidelity]

I was dosing both Vodka & Vinegar at one point, when I added GFO I stopped dosing Vodka primarily because I had no nitrate issues at the time (undetectable) but I did have PO4 issues so I found little use for all the carbon I was dosing. I still dose vinegar but it's mixed with my kalkwasser.