A question about Soda Ash

[Faithbleed]

Hi All

I'm in the process of switching from Aquaforest Balling method over to RedSea's ABC+ Foundation (powder).

I'm just using Baking Soda for part B and am using Randy's recipe #1 to convert it to Soda Ash.

Now, my dumb self cooked 1kg worth of Baking Soda, rather than the suggested 594 grams.

I assume there will be some volume loss during the cooking, so do I still add 594 grams of Soda Ash (the cooked baking soda) to the 1 gallon of water or do I need to compensate and add less?

Cheers!

 

[mdb_talon]

I assume you could weigh the 1k you started with in total and see how much it is after baking and adjust in same ratio?

 

[Faithbleed]

That's my current plan, was just curious about others' thoughts. Thanks

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

You add less mass after baking. Ideally, it drops in mass by a factor of about 0.63 (1 kg becomes 630 grams) when baking.

Volume is harder to judge.

If you have a scale, just use 594/1,000 = 0.594 of what is there, or 59.4%.

Volume can do that same split too.

Or, perhaps easier, just dissolve the whole thing in more than 1 gallon of water: 1.7 gallons.

 

[Faithbleed]

You add less mass after baking. Ideally, it drops in mass by a factor of about 0.63 (1 kg becomes 630 grams) when baking.

Volume is harder to judge.

If you have a scale, just use 594/1,000 = 0.594 of what is there, or 59.4%.

Volume can do that same split too.

Or, perhaps easier, just dissolve the whole thing in more than 1 gallon of water: 1.7 gallons.

Thanks Randy, this was more or less what I was after.

I ended up with 741grams of Soda Ash with a 1 hour bake @ 160 degree C .

I tested at the same time last night and tonight and looks like I did the math right as a 30mL dose of the Soda Ash solution kept my Alk at the exact same level across the change from Aquaforest (previously 115mL).

Thanks again Randy, I'm not sure where most of us would be without your replies, advice and articles.

 

[Faithbleed]

So if anyone come across this and tries to use it as a reference to doing the switch...I was wrong.

My maths was way off.

Turns out a stable dose of the soda ash solution is around 67mL per day (close to half the baking soda dose, which makes a lot of sense).

Not sure how I came to the 30mL amount, but it cause some major instability trying to find the actual correct dose.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Thanks for the update!