Dosing just soda ash

Terry Mattson · Jan 3, 2020

Oh my, I had PH in my head. Feel like jumping off the roof. Randy is absolutely correct and am oppiligetc to the r2r community for any confusion. I dose kalkwisser for my tank. About 360 ml per day. And dose by the hour 360/24 .... my dkh does drop about .3 to .6 per week while calcium stays around 440 to 450. So I dose a little liquid sada ash a week as needed to get to 8.5. So 7.8 to 8.5 dkh ... PH is fairly stable 7.9 to 8.15. The 7.3 number you gave for dkh is ok. For some reason my brain put a PH there.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jan 3, 2020

Hallowhead said:
Update:

I recieved my doser and my soda ash. I calibrated my doser and began dosing starting at 1.9 mL as that's what is dosed in 1 minute the minimum my timer currently allows.

My question is:

I've been noticing .2 dkh drop per day but between two days ago and yesterday it remained 7.3 the lowest the tank has ever been.. does alkalinity bottom out ? Or would it continue to drop to zero? Does something else compensate ? Does a reaction occur in which calcium turns to alkalinity or mg?

yes, the lower alk gets the lower is the daily demand. Demand disappears entirely around 6 dKH.

Hallowhead · Jan 3, 2020

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
yes, the lower alk gets the lower is the daily demand. Demand disappears entirely around 6 dKH.

You rock <3

Hallowhead · Jan 6, 2020

Just got my calcium tester and it's ~470 ppm it may be less just a little unsure during first test. I will test again tomorrow.

I got my alk to 8.4 which is right about where I want it so time to find the daily dose sweet spot! Makes me feel like I'm in chem lab in college again !

Thanks again Randy

Hallowhead · Jan 8, 2020

I have just learned I have vermetid snails - could this be a reason as to why my alk was being eaten up? I've read the tube they create is calcium based.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jan 8, 2020

Hallowhead said:
I have just learned I have vermetid snails - could this be a reason as to why my alk was being eaten up? I've read the tube they create is calcium based.

yes. I had a plague of them. Ugly