[charlie]

I always dripped 24/7, and I didn't have a Ca reactor. Thanx for the heads up.

[Zoanuts]

FE what is you pH in you system? And what is your effluent flow from you Wages and vinegar drip? Just curious. I have heard of this but I would figure the vinegar would react in the tank and cloud it up.

[FireEater]

Right now my PH is at 8.1 and I drip at a very slow rate. It can take up to 8 hours to drip a 2 1/2 gallon container.

I have never had a cloudy problem, but then again I only use 1/4 cup of vinegar per container.

[Zoanuts]

Thanks for the info. I have used vinegar to help control a pH rise and I had a cloudy tank for a day or two. I only used a small dose on 300+ gallons and it moved my pH from 8.5 to 8.3 and the cloud came with it. It may of reacted to my 450+ Ca and my 10.2 KH.

[Ninong]

Expanding the Limits of Limewater: Adding Organic Carbon Sources

A few words of caution:

1) Dr. Craig Bingman is the guy who originally suggested adding vinegar to Kalkwasser in this article from October 1999.

2) In that article, Craig recommends a MAXIMUM of 12.2 ml of vinegar per liter of Kalkwasser. That's three tablespoons per gallon of Kalkwasser.

3) Craig then adds the following caveat: "Again, this is the maximum concentration of acetic acid that one would add, and, in practice, I would suggest adding no more than a quarter of this quantity to see how your system tolerates it."

4) The maximum amount of powdered calcium hydroxide that you can get to dissolve per gallon of freshwater (without adding any vinegar) is two teaspoons. Two teaspoons per gallon of freshwater will result in a saturated solution.

5) I have personally added vinegar to freshwater before adding the Mrs. Wages but I used 1 Tbsp per gallon of freshwater (1/3 the maximum). I increased the Mrs. Wages from two teaspoons per gallon to one tablespoon per gallon to make sure I was adding enough.

6) After reading comments on this subject by Dr. Randy Holmes-Farley, I discontinued adding vinegar at all. I became convinced that this is something that should be used only if your system's calcium demands are not being met with normal Kalkwasser additions and you don't want to purchase a calcium reactor.

7) Randy does not personally use vinegar. He prefers to not use it. He sees nothing wrong with Craig's recommendations provided you do NOT exceed the maximum of three Tbsps/gallon and even Craig recommends using LESS than the maximum. Under no circumstances should you exceed the maximum because you're screwing up the chemical equilibrium in your tank and will get your calcium-alk-pH balance out of whack.

8) Kalkwasser is self-purifying. A lot of the sediment you see in the bottom of the mixing container is nasty stuff (like heavy metals) that you don't want to add to your tank. Therefore, precipitation in the Kalkwasser mixing container is a good thing. Adding a lot of vinegar reduces this "good thing" effect.

The bottom line is that it's OK to use vinegar if you really need to do that to boost the amount of calcium hydroxide that will go into solution but it's not something that should be done unless you really need to do it and it's definitely not something that should be over-done.

[golfish]

I like to run the pumps while soaking