baking soda dosing?

[swjunkie]

Can you dose with baking soda to raise ph?

 

[Scoot]

I did a lot of reading on this once when I was having a severe drop in PH late at night when no stores were open. Some people say yes, I haven't found anyone saying absolutely not.

It's calcium carbonate, I believe, essentially the same thing you'll find in PH Plus products for swimming pools...

 

[DarylF2]

I'm fairly certain that baking soda (correctly identified by Scoot as calcium carbonate) with increase KH, but will not affect pH. This WILL affect pH by making it more stable, but as far as I know won't otherwise directly affect it.

 

[Hara]

and actually, it will drive down ph before the ph comes back up.

 

[roka64]

I would get more surface ripple, for gas exchange. This should stabilize the pH. Are you using a hood? If so, that could be your pH problem.

 

[evercl92]

Baking soda is NOT calcium carbonate, which is what limestone is made of. Baking soda is sodium bicarbonate. It will give a higher kh value, and will slightly affect pH. It's a weak base that will increase the pH by maybe 0.2 if dosed correctly. Using 4 tsp per 50 gal of water , typically yields 0.2 increase in pH and 2-4 degree increase in kh. This is for freshwater tanks, since I dont have any experience with salt, but I can't imagine that it would be any different.


http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/baking soda

 

[Scoot]

You're right evercl92, sodium bicarbonate, I should have known that.

 

[DarylF2]

Oops! Thanks for the correction, evercl92. I have an old aquarium book that is wrong! LOL.

 

[swjunkie]

I did an experiment last night with some premixed water in a container. and thats exactly what it did. it raised my alk. and lowered my ph by about 2%. I have tried adding more surface ripple I even took my hood off and added another powerhead. did that for about 4 days and nothing.

 

[Scoot]

Kent Marine's Superbuffer-dKH raises it nicely, and adds buffer as well to help keep it there. But as you probably know, the best way is to find the reason its dropping and fix that.

 

[swjunkie]

I have tried that. I premixed some salt water in a container got all my levels where I need them to be. got up the next day tested it and the ph was back down to 7.8. everything else was the same.

 

[ckmn101]

If all is well lots would say 7.8 is ok. That is where mine has always been with no issues. jmo

 

[swjunkie]

I didnt eant to mess with it to much because I am gonna be transfereing everything over to my 125g shortly and keep that one as a fish only QT tank. but I noticed when I added a little superbuffer everything looked like it purked up. it just seemed strange that my ph would drop like that overnight in a container.

 

[FishFrik]

What time of the day did you test? PH is low when light is off

 

[MT79]

Can you dose with baking soda to raise ph?

Baking it at 350 degrees for an hour or so will separate the sodium bicarbonate from the nasties it tends to accumulate, mainly CO2. Baking soda is very absorptive, that's why it is often used as a deodorant in refrigerators etc. This will cause it to increase both Alk and PH(CO2 drives PH down). Un-baked baking soda will lower PH as Hara pointed out. HTH

 

[roka64]

If all is well lots would say 7.8 is ok. That is where mine has always been with no issues. jmo

I agree, if you can keep is consistant, you should be good, with that number.

What time of the day did you test? PH is low when light is off

FF is correct, you will get lower readings in the morning, then at night.

 

[swjunkie]

I am not gonna mess with it any more. Everything looks fine so I dont want to mess anything up. As long as it stays the same. I have tested at different times of the day. But I will keep the baking soda in mind in case I need it for the 125g. Thank You All for your Help. I really do appreciate it.