homemade KH buffer

smadascott

New member
I was wondering if any one in the forum has made there own KH buffer using baking soda and soda ash? I have tried this and it seems to work fine but i am not sure on the ratio of carbonate to bi-carbonate. Also, is there anything else that the commercial KH buffers contain besides carbonate and bi-carbonate?
 
It can be very easy to overshoot the Alk with that mix, so use spareingly. Especially in small tank. Borate, not to be confused with Borat, is used in most buffers also.

Yecksa Mesh....
 
i usually dose my tank with 50-53g of Brightwell KH buffer every three days. I made a mixture of KH buffer that was 64% bicarbonate (34g) and 36% carbonate (19g) and it seemed to maintain the KH where i wanted it but i noticed some corals showing stress which made me question whether there is a better ratio or if there is other things i need to be adding.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15481220#post15481220 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by smadascott
i usually dose my tank with 50-53g of Brightwell KH buffer every three days. I made a mixture of KH buffer that was 64% bicarbonate (34g) and 36% carbonate (19g) and it seemed to maintain the KH where i wanted it but i noticed some corals showing stress which made me question whether there is a better ratio or if there is other things i need to be adding.

Were you adding the mixture as often as the Brightwell? Check your pH through out the day. Also do you dose Magnesium too?
 
yeah i was dosing as often as when i used the brightwell. I just tested the PH and it is 8.2, but the tank is also in its dark cycles right now so i would expect the PH to be lower. the KH right now is 8.5 DKH, the amount i have been dosing keeps the DKH between 8.5 and 9. I don't dose magnesium, and i would not know how much i should dose. Since i don't have a test kit to measure the magnesium levels i would not want to dose any if i cant test for it. does magnesium get depleted as rapidly as the DKH?
 
kirstenk- i was wondering if you dose anything besides carbonate? What kind of corals do you have in your tank?
 
I just dosed baked baking soda for the ALK portion. I dosed it through auto topoff so the dKH would remain constant. The tank was mostly an SPS system. Look in my gallery for pics.

I dosed dowflake for calcium and magflake/Epsom for Magnesium. HTH
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15492370#post15492370 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by kirstenk
I just dosed baked baking soda for the ALK portion. I dosed it through auto topoff so the dKH would remain constant. The tank was mostly an SPS system. Look in my gallery for pics.

I dosed dowflake for calcium and magflake/Epsom for Magnesium. HTH

Why are you talking in past tense? :p
 
I am now dosing Brightwell buffer.

Still using Dowflake and Magflake but will switch to Brightwell when I run out.

Why?

Cuz I can get it at a reasonable price. :D
 
haha yeah the brightwell stuff is pretty well priced. Was the carbonate you used medical grade? It is so tempting to make my own KH buffer cause i could get 5 times the amount of buffer for the same price but i dont want to depend on the homemade stuff until i know more about the proper mixture. It just seems to simple just dosing carbonate for the kh lol
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15493479#post15493479 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by smadascott
haha yeah the brightwell stuff is pretty well priced. Was the carbonate you used medical grade? It is so tempting to make my own KH buffer cause i could get 5 times the amount of buffer for the same price but i dont want to depend on the homemade stuff until i know more about the proper mixture. It just seems to simple just dosing carbonate for the kh lol

Here are some instructions on how to do it. I could not find Randy's article on it.
http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/Two-Part-Instructions/t1/articles.html
 
thanks a lot to everyone who has contributed so far! making my own additives def saves money, and saving money is something that i am sure everyone can appreciate!
 
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