Dosed homemade ph/alk up and it worked

[Reef_Squirrel]

Hello fellow salt heads!

So the other day i was trying to figure out a cost effective way to raise my ph and alkalinity. I've been nervous about spending money on additives and just dumping money into the tank.

Well after perusing Reef2reef(i'm addicted to it!) And doing some research on the recommendations alot of you put out there for all us "wet behind the ears" reefers(see what i did there...ha!) I was finally brave enough to try a cost saving "homebrew".

So i took baking soda(sodium bicarbonate) and baked it at 300 degrees for 1 hr. I then took the newly converted sodium carbonate and after calculating the correct dosage mixed it in 2 cups of saltwater(salinity in tank was a little low or i would have used straight rodi water) i dosed 1/4 of the mixture every hour and tested the ph & alk before adding the next dose.

After 3 doses i raised my ph from 7.6 to 8.4 and my alk from 5.6 to 7.5. The corals are looking much happier and fuller!

I know the alk is still on the low end but i stopped due to ph being good.

Now i'll monitor the next few days and see what kind of fall off i get with my alk so i can come up with a plan on how i want to move forward. If the ph stays put but the alk starts dropping i'll just dose a mixture of baking soda.

Please provide any feedback or recommendations on proceeding forward. Thank you and happy reefing!

P.S. To all the OG reefers out there helping us younger(in terms of reefing experience...i'm 44...ha!) salt heads a big THANK YOU for spreading your wealth of knowledge!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

The pH effect was mostly temporary, but I’m glad you found the baked baking soda recipe useful. :)