Alk and baking soda

S

shmaz

Guest
I'm trying to rise my Alk a bit and have been researching that baking soda to your top off water works. Is this true and how much do you add.
 

renogaw

Active Member
google advanced two part solution, there's a great article i cannot link here that i use. i do not though use it with my top offs, i just do some squirts of it in every day or two.
 

bang guy

Moderator
One teaspoon of Baking Soda will raise the Alkalinity of 20 gallons of water one Meq/L.
The daily dosage will totally depend on how much Carbonate is being consumed by your inhabitants.
If it were me I would start with 1/2 teaspoon per gallon of topoff water and chart alkalinity over time to see the effect.
 
S

shmaz

Guest
Bang - Thanks I've seen you answer some a lot of other post about this topic so I was glad to see you post. I've seen people say you need to bake it first but I was thinking since I just have a 75g reef set up I would be ok to not go the bake route. Let me know your thoughts. Thanks
 

bang guy

Moderator
Originally Posted by shmaz
http:///forum/post/3155950
Bang - Thanks I've seen you answer some a lot of other post about this topic so I was glad to see you post. I've seen people say you need to bake it first but I was thinking since I just have a 75g reef set up I would be ok to not go the bake route. Let me know your thoughts. Thanks
Baking Soda is Bicarbonate. If you heat it (bake it) it will remove CO2 and become Carbonate.
Either is fine as an Alkalinity additive.
The difference is that if you add Carbonate, some of the Carbonate will absorb Carbonic Acid to become Bicarbonate. This will raise PH temporarily.
In the long term there is no difference.
 
Top