Sodium Carbonate dosing time frame

[KrAt0s]

When dosing sodium carbonate the calculator says to dose slowly, but I’m not sure how slowly. Can this happen over a 1 hour period or a 1 day period? Seems like a small amount and a small move in alk.

 

[billyocean]

It's because of the impact on PH i would imagine. Carbonate raises ph when dosed. I'm not sure on the x amount in x time frame so to speak

 

[KrAt0s]

Yeah my ph is 7.9-8.0 that’s why I went with carbonate vs bicarbonate. I welcome the boost

 

[billyocean]

I.think it's saying just the amount it will take to go from 6.9 to 7.3 in one dose may raise ph too much. Spread out it would be fine

 

[KrAt0s]

I.think it's saying just the amount it will take to go from 6.9 to 7.3 in one dose may raise ph too much. Spread out it would be fine

Thanks for the insight, agreed, I’ve split it into 4 doses and so far it seems to only slightly impact ph. Ph normally rises at this time also, which makes it even more difficult to measure the incremental change. I’ll just add the remaining doses during the normal ph down cycle. Seems like the right thing to do

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

if and how much to spread out dosing depends on the amount dosed.

How much are you dosing in dKH per day?

 

[KrAt0s]

@Randy Holmes-Farley good question, trying to go from 6.8 to 7.3 sky where my salt mixes. I saw a drop of about 1dkh over the last week, I was hoping this was just a return to normal after a short fight with flukes in the tank. Tank is fairly young about 6 months old. Dosed prazipro to deal with flukes and alk went from 7.3 to 9.3 over a month or so of dosing. Phosphates and nitrates also went to zero. Now I’ve brought the phosphates (0.09 ppm) and nitrates (15.5 ppm) back into line. The alk was dropping back slowly but I’ve recently seen alk drop below 7, so decided to use sodium carbonate as my ph is on the lower side and it’s easy to just bake the baking soda.

 

[mboley]

Faster adjustments are usually made with Sodium Bicarbonate( Baking Soda) versus Carbonate.

Plug in Bicarbonate and see if it gives you the same answer. It doesn't affect Ph as much so you can make the adjustment quicker, just dump half in a few hours apart.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

@Randy Holmes-Farley good question, trying to go from 6.8 to 7.3 sky where my salt mixes. I saw a drop of about 1dkh over the last week, I was hoping this was just a return to normal after a short fight with flukes in the tank. Tank is fairly young about 6 months old. Dosed prazipro to deal with flukes and alk went from 7.3 to 9.3 over a month or so of dosing. Phosphates and nitrates also went to zero. Now I’ve brought the phosphates (0.09 ppm) and nitrates (15.5 ppm) back into line. The alk was dropping back slowly but I’ve recently seen alk drop below 7, so decided to use sodium carbonate as my ph is on the lower side and it’s easy to just bake the baking soda.

You can certainly add 1 dKh spread out over a week of once a day manual or automatic dosing. If you are trying to add 1 dKH in a day, I'd spread that out over at least 3 doses.

At the 1 dKh per week dose rate, any pH effect will be minimal and nearly impossible to detect.