i know that people bake the baking soda in order to blow off co2 right before they use it but what if i mix straight baking soda into my top off water, it will be very dilute and will sit before dosed, can i get away without baking it?

I have and nothing got screwed up. But I'm no expert on the subject either.

That will work fine, as long as there are no overdoses and you stay on top of calcium at the same time.

well then, i have been buying reef builder and wasting my money then i suppose

if i were to use the chemistry calculator where i think the dosage is based on teaspoons of baked powder would the amount i need to use be signifigantly different with the lost water and all?
also any reccomendations on the type of baking soda? arm and hammer?

i use arm and hammer for alk supplement. just make sure you get food grade baking soda and you should be fine.

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?...mp;hl=diy+doser

Post #7





I was thinking of adding it to my top off water as well.

thats really ghetto...

Actually, baking soda itself won't raise the pH much at all--it will actually make it decrease very slightly. The baked baking soda, which I'll call washing soda to differentiate it, will. DoctaQ, have you considered just making a homemade 2 part instead of trying to balance it this way? It is easier, but it can be done your way. If you want to try it in the top off, just make sure that for every 2.8 dKH worth of alkalinity you add, you match that with 20 ppm worth of calcium chloride with the chemistry calculator. You can figure up daily to every few days to weekly dosages that way if you already know your demand.

Edit: Reef Builder is a good product, but not really necessary. FWIW, I use Arm & Hammer--you can get the 12 lb bags cheap at Sam's.

I'm using the 2 part from Bulk Reef Supply. Gonna try adding the alk part to my top off. I'm currently having to dose a couple times a day ~10ml. So, I figure I'll bring the dkh / PH of my top off water to 9 / 8.2, in theory at least, and give a run adjusting as necessary.

My ph swings from 7.9 - 8.1 on a reverse light cycle..would like a little more stability in the 8.2 -8.4 range over 24 hours
Cal = 420 - 440
Mg = 1350 ish

Opinions backed up with first hand experience?

What is your dKH? Focus your dosing based on your alkalinity rather than pH since alkalinity is what is directly being changed. Alkalinity is one of multiple influences (like oxygenation issues, indoor carbon dioxide levels, time of day, borate levels, etc.) on tank pH. It may be best to ignore pH altogether and only pay attention to alkalinity. As long as you have alkalinity above ~7 dKH, pH of 7.8 or above is not "low".

i have access to a lifetime supply of the reef advantage calcium but i blew through two bottles of alk already before i used even one CA, and i think im still overdosing the CA.
i figure i will just use the baking soda in my auto doser and dose the CA at night when i get home, its workin pretty good for me so far so ill not mess with it.

Good advise. I like to keep it in the 9's.
But prior to regular dosing, I saw it at a weak 6. So begun the dosing reg.
I'm slowly getting into the "water chemistry" phase of my reefing education...lol

bake baking soda is really good. raised my alk without losing any money.
raised the alk to where i wanted it.

If you mix 1 cup of baking soda in a gallon of water you have recipe #2 (lowers ph)
If you mix 2 cups of baked baking soda in a gallon of water you have recipe #1.

If you are dosing manually, especially a lot, I strongly suggest you use the un-baked baking soda. I was dumping over 100ml of the baked stuff in my sump SLOWLY and got A LOT of precipitation because of the localized Ph spike. Now I use a Litermeter....

i am dosing about 1-2 dkh a day but thats mixed in with maybe 8oz of water so its pretty dilute plus its dosed a minute at a time twice for that much, im not too worried about precipitation.
i still have half a jar of the reef builder left so im not in too big a rush to calculate out yet
i figure ill just use the reef calculator to match up the numbers

One thing I meant to say was to check your magnesium and make sure it doesn't get too high. Reef Advantage raises that, as well.

that could definateley be a problem because im pretty sure im overdosing ca too, how high is too high and what should i be seeing if it is?

Well, for everyday use, 1250-1400 is fairly common, with 1250-1350 being more ideal. FWIW, natural seawater has around 1280 ppm, so I usually shoot for ~1300-1350 to account for the margin of error in many test kits.

You'd see the result of the calcium test that you are surely running increase concurrently with any overdosing of calcium you are doing. Also, if your calcium gets too high, your alkalinity will plummet, as in you will get calcium carbonate precipitation, a white cloudiness to your tank and a real mess, for your corals especially.



My memory ain't what it used to be, so I have this table taped to the inside front of my logbook,



IMO, pH is an important parameter, and if you are going to be dosing alkalinity and your pH is low, no need to be adding CO2 at the same time, so I dose baked baking soda (and pretty much always in my topoff) If your pH is running high, for a reason I can't imagine right now, then dose with regular baking soda. If I recall, Farley suggests using a mixture of each, so you don't get the pH increasing/decreasing effects, but my pH runs low if I don't use washing soda (which while convenient to say, I would never use since it's not food grade)
Let's also not forget that when you use calcium chloride and sodium carbonate ("The recipe") for dosing, you are going to get your sodium chloride out of ionic balance if you don't do water changes (the one disadvantage that method has over calcium hydroxide)

Edit: okay, so not to confuse some, baked baking soda, washing soda, sodium carbonate are all the same general thing, a chemical that when added to salt water increases alkalinity. Sorry about that,

i already dose what i beleive to be sodium bicarbonate so the balace issue is already happening but i do about 20% a week
when baking soda is mixed with the water then allowed to sit for some time then litterally dripped into the output of a hob i figured that there wont be much of a ph impact from co2, seems to me that there is just about no difference between baking soda and reef builder aside from the co2 and possibly the amount i need.
does this make any sense?