I just started adding alkalinity to my tank to compensate for the natural dKH decrease and noticed that after adding BRS 2 part (Soda Ash) my skimmer stops foaming for a couple of hours.
I'm assuming that Soda Ash has surfactant properties to it, which makes sense because I've heard of it being used to wash clothes. The subsequent reduction in surface tension probably reduces the ability of the skimmer to form bubbles, right?
The first time I added 115 ml and raised the dKH a little too much at once (almost 2 dKH instead of the maximum recommended 1.4dKH increase). So I adjusted my calculations and added about 55 ml the next time to minimize the chemistry swings - in both cases the skimmer stopped producing foam for a few hours. I added the supplement slowly to the DT just in front of the powerheads.
Is this normal? I have a Neptune DOS but haven't programmed everything yet so the manual add method is where I'm at right now. Should I expect this same drop in skimmer performance every time alk is added to the system?
I'm assuming that Soda Ash has surfactant properties to it, which makes sense because I've heard of it being used to wash clothes. The subsequent reduction in surface tension probably reduces the ability of the skimmer to form bubbles, right?
The first time I added 115 ml and raised the dKH a little too much at once (almost 2 dKH instead of the maximum recommended 1.4dKH increase). So I adjusted my calculations and added about 55 ml the next time to minimize the chemistry swings - in both cases the skimmer stopped producing foam for a few hours. I added the supplement slowly to the DT just in front of the powerheads.
Is this normal? I have a Neptune DOS but haven't programmed everything yet so the manual add method is where I'm at right now. Should I expect this same drop in skimmer performance every time alk is added to the system?
