Chemistry Confusion

[gwenvet]

Hi All,
At the December INDMAS meeting I cam home with my first Ca additives and the incentive to start adjusting Ca and Alk. I'm finally getting around to it and have some questions...(posted this on RC too but thought I might get a quicker answer here.)

Hi all, I'm trying to go to the next level and begin dosing Randy's Two Part. I made up his recipe #1 and have two questions...

1. My pH is 8.4 and Alk is 7 so I am thinking that I should have made his Recipe #2 (for tanks with high pH)...can I convert recipe #1 to #2 by diluting it by 50% with RO water?

2. Why, if recipe 2 looks to be just half as concentrated as recipe 1, does it LOWER the pH whereas recipe 1 RAISES the pH?

Thanks!!!

 

[coralfarm123]

When you bake the Baking Soda it releases Carbon Dioxide. The excess CO2 in unbaked Baking Soda has a pH lowering effect on our tanks. Baking Soda is sodium bicarbonate and baking it turns it into sodium carbonate. I don't bake mine and have always had really stable water parameters.

Diluting it won't make it the same as Recipe #2 just a less concentrated version of #1. Unless you are adding a lot at a single dose it probably won't matter if you use #1 or #2. Just be sure to add them at different times or in different areas of the tank. It is also a good idea to dump the Alk solution into a very high flow area of the tank.