Kalkwasser & Vinegar...

[cbianco]

For those who drip kalkwasser, do you disolve your kalk in vinegar before you add your water?

It is nice to not see any (or as much) precipitation in the container, it makes me feel as if I am getting my money's worth, lol.

I haven't read any negatives to mixing the kalk with vinegar, if you know of one please tell me.

Christopher

[Richard]

When you mix them you are making calcium acetate. The acetate is a good carbon source for bacteria which will reduce N & P. Very similar to dosing vodka, sugar etc. After awhile you might see zoo's, softies etc. not doing so well and then you'll need to back off for awhile. That's what happened to me. SPS shouldn't mind the low nutrient environment though.

[matt]

Here's a good article that discusses vinegar in KW. I used to add vinegar back in the old days when I dripped KW from a jug. It does increase the potency of KW.

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-01/rhf/index.php

[JimD]

You really need to keep a close eye on your Ph when adding vinegar.

[cbianco]

When you mix them you are making calcium acetate. The acetate is a good carbon source for bacteria which will reduce N & P. Very similar to dosing vodka, sugar etc. After awhile you might see zoo's, softies etc. not doing so well and then you'll need to back off for awhile. That's what happened to me. SPS shouldn't mind the low nutrient environment though.

I was using only about a tablespoon of vinegar, just enough to get the majority of the kalk to disolve. Does the amount of vinegar affect the amount of acetate created?

You really need to keep a close eye on your Ph when adding vinegar.

Will my pH be affected by such a small amount of vinegar? Does the acetate created also affect the pH?

-matt

I am going to checkout the article now.

Christopher

[matt]

I was using only about a tablespoon of vinegar, just enough to get the majority of the kalk to disolve. Does the amount of vinegar affect the amount of acetate created?

Will my pH be affected by such a small amount of vinegar? Does the acetate created also affect the pH?

I think the standard accepted limit for adding vinegar is around 45ml/gallon, with about 3 teaspoons of kalk powder/gallon. With these amounts you're supposedly increasing the potency of your KW by about 50%. (I kind of doubt it's that much of an increase) It does lower the ph of KW, but it's still really high and if you're dripping the KW just like normal you shouldn't have any ph problems.

In my old 40 breeder, I remember using almost 250ml of vinegar when mixing up a 5 gallon jug of KW, and dosing that over about 2 days. The ph of my tank stayed high (8.0-8.3 I think) and I did have to use less buffer and Ca supplements, but not 50% less. It's pretty spooky dumping a full cup of vinegar into a jug which is getting dripped into the tank, but it seemed to work well.