borax is not washing soda!

[rdmpe]

I have been adding around 1/4 tsp or so of baking soda with topoff water to boost ALK a little bit. I also dose Oceans Blend two part. I have a fuge w/macro lit 24/7.

My PH has been running around 8.1 day and 8.0 night according to my sms122 monitor (new probe and fresh calibration at 7 / 10).

So if I switched to small doses of borax would it tend to raise the ph slightly as compared to the baking soda? I have some 20 mule team brand with no additives and I used boxes of this in my swimming pool for similar purposes. But a search of RC seems to turn up only threads on calibration, not dosing of borax. I've seen articles on dosing washing soda, same as borax?

Thanks!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

NO, DON'T DO IT!

Borax is a borate salt, not a carbonate or bicarbonate salt. It is not suitable as an alkalinity additive in a reef aquarium.

If you want to raise pH, you can bake the baking soda at 300 deg F for 1 h before dissolving it in fresh water to dose. That converts it into washing soda (sodium carbonate), and may be better than using washing soda itself since washing soda is not a food grade material and may have more impurities in it.

 

[rdmpe]

Whew! Glad I asked Thanks
I edited my subject to avoid misleading anyone...

 

[rdmpe]

Randy, you have said before that low ph with normal alkalinity is always excess CO2 right? So if that's the case then additives would not help raise ph for long? I will drip kalk some day but I'm not setup for that yet... Any other suggestions? Is it really worth me rigging up a fresh air source for the skimmer? I'd have to put some tubing through a concrete block wall, but it will not be the first time I've done that for this tank :rolleye1:

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

So if that's the case then additives would not help raise ph for long?

Correct. If you deal with low pH with high pH additives like limewater, it will need to be added every day forever. Still, since that is how it is normally used, it is a fine option. Using a high pH two part calcium and alkalinity system can also raise pH.

If the pH is running 8.0 to 8.1, I wouldn't worry about it. I'd just keep alkalinity on the high side of normal (say, 3-4.5 meq/L).