Baking Soda Additions

mpyers

mpyers

New member
I am currently thinking about adding baking soda during my top offs to keep my pH up.

Right now I run a 65g mixed reef with a 30g sump/refugium. Refugium is lit 18hrs/day opposite of DT lights. This also should be helping my pH out.

I use B-Ionic to maintain Calcium 440ppm, and Alk 3.9meq/L
pH currently sits between 8.1-8.2, and I would like to get it up to 8.3 and keep it there.
I don't have an ATO (yet), and I currently do 1gal/day addition of fresh RO/DI at a slow drip for top off.

I have plenty of surface brake. my return heads aim at the water surface, the overflow creates plenty of bubbles, and between the first stage (filter socks) and second stage (fuge) of the sump, there is a slide gate that keeps the water level in stage 1 about an inch higher than stage 2, to create a small waterfall for more aeration. I have a glass lid that covers about half of the DT, no lid on the sump. I purposefully removed the other half of the glass lid on the DT to increase air circulation.

So all of this got me from pH 7.9 to 8.2. But I want to get the last bit to 8.3, and I'm thinking baking soda.

My question is, how much do I add? If I'm doing 1 gallon top offs at a time. teaspoon?

Thanks!
 
The alkalinity portion of your two part is (or should be if you are trying to increase your pH) Soda Ash (Sodium Carbonate) which is nothing more than baking soda heated to drive off the CO2. Straight baking soda (Sodium Bicarbonate) will not raise your pH, you need to bake it at 400 degrees for an hour to turn it into Sodium Carbonate which will raise your pH.
 
Why would you want to increase your PH? It's perfectly fine where its at.

Why add stuff to your tank when the levels your at are perfectly within range?
 
All of the two part systems use either soda carbonate or sodium bicarbonate as their base for the alkalinity portion of the two part. IMHO you are overly worried about your pH, 7.80 and above are fine, 8.0 and above is a great level to be at. Even with my refugium on an opposite to the DT lighting schedule my pH often dips into the 7.9 range at night and I honestly wouldn't worry about it if it fell to 7.80.
 
Main thing to understand is that the only pratical way to increase PH is to reduce co2 in the water.

Ph is going to be what your tank wants it to be, not what you want it to be. Best to want it to be what it is then both you and the tank will be happy.

Do not chase PH, all you will get is higher dKh and precipitation and all the bad that comes with that.
 
hkgar said:
Main thing to understand is that the only pratical way to increase PH is to reduce co2 in the water.

Ph is going to be what your tank wants it to be, not what you want it to be. Best to want it to be what it is then both you and the tank will be happy.

Do not chase PH, all you will get is higher dKh and precipitation and all the bad that comes with that.
Click to expand...

THIS :thumbsup:

Most of us don't even test PH with maybe the exception after the tank is first setup and cycled, after that it's never to be checked again. The key is making sure your dkh is in range and the PH will follow.
 
Bad call. pH is a funny thing. If it is stable it is happy. Don't **** it off....

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
 
There are a lot of benifets from a higher pH. I want those benifets. Other options im considering are a co2 scrubber for my skimmer intake. Or a fresh air line from outside. But those aren't as easy or cheap as baking soda. But due to the collective "hell no" i got from this post i suppose those will be my next research topics.
 
I've read a lot of Randy Holmes Farley and he is brilliant. But I've never seen that one. I think I'm going to run an air pump from outside into the sump and top of the tank to lower the in home CO2. My skimmer won't pull through a line that long. I doubt it would pull through a co2 scrubber. That will have to wait for a skimmer upgrade.

Thanks everyone for talking me out of a bad idea.
 
I use a RO canister with 1/2 inch ports and a refillable DI cartridge. Both available from BRS. I have no problem with the skimmer pulling the air.
 
There is very little restriction from a scrubber, although with your pH readings it seems like a waste of money, I would be suprised if you see any improvement in the tank
 
Last edited:
mpyers said:
There are a lot of benifets from a higher pH. I want those benifets. Other options im considering are a co2 scrubber for my skimmer intake. Or a fresh air line from outside. But those aren't as easy or cheap as baking soda. But due to the collective "hell no" i got from this post i suppose those will be my next research topics.
Click to expand...

What are the benefits of raising pH to 8.3?
 
Buzz1329 said:
What are the benefits of raising pH to 8.3?
Click to expand...
Read the article in the link posted by hkgar. I knew a bit of that already. But there were even more reasons I didn't know. Basically better growth. Yes I'll have more precipitation. But that's good considering growing corals are forcing precipitation in micro environments to grow. I'll go through marginally more 2 part. (Or less if i went with baking soda). But that's fine because it's not very expensive. The real reason I WANT to is because I am obssessed with my tank, and I want it to be perfect. I know there is no perfect, but I've decided MY perfect is 8.3 and so that's what I'm shooting for. I agree i don't want to chase alk around. So I'm going for the removed CO2 option. I know pH of 8.2 is fine but I'm still shooting for 8.3.
 
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