Can you make Lime Juice with MORTON's canning & pickling salt?

[scaryperson27]

I went to my nearest grocery store (Publix) to pick up some pickling lime but all they had was this Morton's canning and pickling salt. It was only $1.89 so I picked it up. Will this work to make lime water.

Next to the Publix grocery store is Ace Hardware. Over there they had this:
hth® pH Plus® Adjuster - 6 Pack for about 6 dollars per 5 pounds. Will either of these work?

 

[bertoni]

The pickling salt seems to be plain table salt, and isn't very useful, except in the kitchen.

The pH adjuster is sodium carbonate, which is the same as baked baking soda. I'd recommend baking soda, since it's food grade and likely has fewer contaminants.

 

[scaryperson27]

baking soda? Wow, thank god i picked up like six pounds of that today. Thanks

 

[scaryperson27]

I looked into Baking Soda dosing. The purpose of Baking Soda being dosed to the tank is to manipulate Alkalinity, not pH. Any other ideas?

 

[bertoni]

Baking soda by itself will drop pH a bit. After being baked, it is sodium carbonate, and will raise the pH when dosed, along with dosing alkalinity.

 

[scaryperson27]

Ah shucks. I corrected my ALk with it already. I wish would have known that. I'll keep that in mind considering I have enough to last me a lifetime. Thanks.

 

[scaryperson27]

Should I just bake the entire batch of baking soda? I doubt I'm ever going to use baking soda to reduce my PH... When I dosed it, it reduces my PH by about .12

How will it affect the strength at which it adjusts my alk?

 

[bertoni]

The baking changes the volume required for a given alkalinity change a bit, but not much. If the pH in the system is chronically low, then baking all of it is fine. My tanks run high enough in pH that I use plain baking soda.

 

[scaryperson27]

Wow. What kind of skimmer are you using? I had my skimmer off for a while; my pH started dropping. I had turned it off because the collection cup is shattered. I just turned it back on to oxygenate the tank more. Due to that, my pH levels have remained stable ever since the the lights have been off (9:00pm). I guess I should expect the pH to rise throughout the next couple of days.

I also opened the windows in my room so that all the carbon dioxide in the room is replenished with oxygen rich air from outdoors.

 

[bertoni]

My skimmers are BakPaks and a SuperSkimmer. The tanks have a lot of macroalgae in them. I'm fond of Halimeda and some other macroalgae.

 

[scaryperson27]

Yeah, I got rid of my Refugium due to the fact that I wasn't maintaining it; it was getting to be kind of counterproductive. I think a combination of all those three things on your tank really help with your pH. I guess i just need to deliver more oxygen to my tank.