PH, KH, CA, MG and all that jazz

should you always use baking soda for you alk, or should you use a 2 part calcium and alk,

also how often should you check the levels, once a week ?

 

Thanks again, just one last question, what is the best thing to bake it in, and how much RO/DI water should I mix it into

 

There are many products that you can use for calcium and alk. Baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) is the main ingredinate in all alk suppliments. It is cheaper and easier to obtain than commercial products.

How often you check levels depends on what coral/livestock you have. If you only have soft corals, then calcium and alk are not going to be used up so water changes should replenish them. On the other hand, if you have a lot of hard corals/clams that use calcium and alk, then IMO you should check once a week until you understand how much your tank uses and dose accordingly. Over time you will understand your tanks requirements and can cut back on testing to maybe once a month.

 

I just put the baking soda on a sheet of aluminum foil and bake it. Any oven safe container will do as long as it's not copper.

Did you calculate your dosage using dry sodium carbonate or Recipe 1 in the calculator? If you used recipe 1 then the "recipe" is 2 cups per gallon of RODI water.

 

Yes, I used dry sodium carbonate from the list. So in this case, do you bake the powder dry straight from the pot, then add the powder to the tank. Sorry I'm new to this I read somwhere about adding it to DI water which is where I got that from, but I think you are saying bake the powder dry.

 

Yes you bake the powder first.

You can add the dry baked powder directly to your tank using the dosage for "dry sodium carbonate" or you can mix it with RODI and use the "Recipe 1" dosage. Personally I prefer to mix it with RODI but I thought your calculation was for dry which confused me. Just want to make sure you calculate the proper dosage.

 

Sorry for so many questions, but it says (for my set-up)

Need: 235.7 ml; 7.9 fl oz; 47.1 tsp

I'm a little confused at the amount of soda to water ratio. I assume I bake the soda then add it to the amount of water. But if the dry was 7 tsp do I assume that I would still need 1 tsb over 7 days but mix with 6 tsp RODI? That would give me the 47 tsp

 

I think I have made this harder than it really is so let's start over.

So let's decide now that you are using recipe 1. The recipe is 2 cups of sodium carbonate per gallon of RODI water. You bake the baking soda and mix 2 cups to a gallon of RODI. Now you have a gallon of alkalinity mix. You dose the liquid per the calculator which is

Need: 235.7 ml; 7.9 fl oz; 47.1 tsp

Spread that dose out over 7 days so you don't raise the kH too rapidly.

 

Thanks for your time and patience. I think what confused me was that the dry option uses 7 tsp, whereas the RODI mix uses 2 cups and mixes a gallon. It was the difference in quantity that threw me.

So rounding the 7.9 fl oz to 8 fl oz then dividing that into 128 fl oz (1 Gallon) I would have enough for 16 doses.

Could you just clarify for me how much you mean by two cups?

Thanks again

 

One gallon would make enough to raise your alkalinity from 4 to 6kH, 16 times. I don't think you want to do that. Just save the rest of liquid for latter.

Not sure what you mean by clarify 2 cups. Add two measuring cups of baked baking soda to one gallon of RODI. Wait a minute... you said you are from the UK? A cup is a US measurement of volume. I think one cup = 0.23 liters.

I don't mind helping. I hope this has helped more than confused. I think I need a pint