Baking soda to maintain alkalinity

[jlombardi29]

Ok so I have about 200 gal total volume Sps tank I'm using baked baking soda to maintain alkalinity right now I'm doesing 632ml of solution spread out over 23 hours keep my alk at 9.9 this seems like a lot to me am I missing something or is it normal

 

[ridetheducati]

How much baking soda was mixed to make the solution? For example, did you use 500 grams mixed with one gallon of RODI.

 

[disc1]

Thats kind of high on alkalinity. If you let the alk run at 8.5 or so then you might not have as much consumption or precipitation.

 

[downbeach]

If you're using soda ash(baked baking soda) using recipe #1 (2 cups soda ash mixed in 1 gal. RO/DI water), use this calculator, fill in the blanks for your system and select Randy's recipe 1 from the drop down menu in the alkalinity part. I used to keep my alk about 8dKH. Make sure you're not confusing the two recipe's, recipe #2 (1 1/4 cups of baking soda mixed in 1 gal. RO/DI water) uses plain baking soda, and is about half the strength of recipe #1, so it would take about twice as much to get the same effect.

 

[bertoni]

You could consider switching to plain baking soda for a few days, as well. The lower pH reduces precipitation, which is an issue in some tanks.

 

[jlombardi29]

I use 2 cups per 1 gallon RO water I was shooting for 11 on alk to try get better color and growth

 

[downbeach]

I would suggest you keep your parameters closer to NSW, and focus more on water quality, light and nutrition.