Using plain Arm and Hammer baking soda to increase Alkalinity?

[pocillopro1]

My Alk is hovering 6.0-6.4, and water changes are not bringing it up. I plan on installing a doser [red sea doser 4 system] in a few weeks, but in the meantime can I just use the baking soda in my pantry? if so, what amount?

45g water volume, Fritz RPM salt mix [I suspect this is part of the problem, it tests at 7 alk freshly mixed]

Calc and Mag are lower as well, but in range 400c and 1280m.

Is baking it into “soda ash” prior to dosing, necessary/advisable? I saw that somewhere.. that is basically what kalkwasser is, no?

Thanks

 

[Nano_Man]

I know baking it doubles the strength.
Someone will chime in with more information.
I think Randy will have done a dosing chart for it .

 

[Waters]

That is how I have been dosing ALK in my tanks for years. Take 2.25 cups of pure baking soda and bake at 300 degrees for an hour, then mix with a gallon of RO/DI water. I believe it mixes up to the same concentration as ESV alk.

 

[ReneReef]

My Alk is hovering 6.0-6.4, and water changes are not bringing it up. I plan on installing a doser [red sea doser 4 system] in a few weeks, but in the meantime can I just use the baking soda in my pantry? if so, what amount?

45g water volume, Fritz RPM salt mix [I suspect this is part of the problem, it tests at 7 alk freshly mixed]

Calc and Mag are lower as well, but in range 400c and 1280m.

Is baking it into “soda ash” prior to dosing, necessary/advisable? I saw that somewhere.. that is basically what kalkwasser is, no?

Thanks

First: check your salinity measurement

Because you report low(er) Alk, Ca and Mg of the freshly mixed saltwater. You are very likely not adding enough salt.
So verify your salinity and increase it (if needed) to 35‰.

After that, start looking at correcting individual element.

To do large corrections in Alk (more than 1 KH) I would not recommend using soda ash (sodium carbonate, baked baking soda). Just use the baking soda (bicarbonate) strait up.

 

[KStatefan]

Just mix up a gallon of Randy’s recipe 2 297 grams of baking soda to make a gallon of solution. Then use https://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chemcalc.html to figure out how much to add I do not like to increase more than 1/2 dkh per day

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

FWIW, the purpose of baking is just to give it a pH boost as well as alk. It’s fine to use it as is, and in a scenario like this (likely a one time correction), I would not bother baking.