Adding Kalkwasser- how to?

[steve-s]

An acceptable pH would be anything above 8.0. An optimum pH would be nothing less than 8.2 at any time. A healthy tank should have an AM pH of 8.2-8.3 and an evening pH towards the 8.5 area. Mine never drops below 8.3.

The thing with Ph though is if alkalinity is in the proper (to the higher) range, you should not be trying to control pH chemically. You need to look at the environmental factors that influence pH. Primarily being CO2. Often this will be lack of water flow, improper use of water flow, tight fitting lids without a proportionate sump (skimmers won't help here), too many gas appliances, lack of aeration in the tank room itself, overfeeding, overstocking and/or lack of regular maintenance.

As for you question about soda, yes. Bicarb can be used where alk is the only issue but you need a bicarb/carb product where both are at issue. Remember what I said above though, control of pH through chemical means is usually self defeating.

Cheers
Steve

 

[Boomer]

Here is more to its understanding Fish. And straight baked baking soda will raise the pH and Alk even more. NSW pH is about 8.3.

Let me put this baking soda and washing soda into better perspective.

Bicarb HCO3- , has a charge of -1 and a H+ ion

Carbonate CO3--, has a charge of -1 and not H+

When something has a charge of 2 it is twice as powerful as one with a charge of 1. That means that you need half as much to accomplish the same unit increase or decrease ( depending on what we are talking about). So roughly, 1 tsps of washing soda will raise the Alk twice as high a 1 tsps of baking soda, in the same vol. of water. So, that ratio of 6:1 is more like 6:2 or 3:1 when you look at what they do equally.

Example;
For 10 gal of water, with a Alk of 1 meq / l, .5 tsps of baking soda will raise the Alk to 2.00 meq /

For 10 gal of water, with a Alk of 1 meq / l, .3 tsps of washing soda will raise the Alk to 2.00 meq / l

It is not showing up as half because a tsps of each do not weigh the same. 1 tsps of baking soda weighs 4.59 grams and 1 tsps of washing soda weighs 5.69 grams. And baking soda is NaHCO3 and washing soda is NA2CO3. Washing soda has one more Na+. But if we looked at in pure terms of HCO3-:CO3-- it is twice. 1 equivalent of CO3-- will raise the Alk 2 equivalents and 1 equivalent of baking soda only raise the alk 1 equivalent. And both will raise the CO2 1 equivalent unit.

 

[Boomer]

One more thing on pH, Alk and CO2.

Highe Alk's will fall faster than lower Alk's. Higher Alk will cause less of a pH drop with higher CO2. So, it is like a Catch-22

 

[Fishead77]

How do you recover from a snowstorm? My understanding is that the calc and the alk crash during a snowstorm.

 

[Boomer]

It will only crash to a point usually nothing to worry about. Some snow stroms are Magnsuium hydroxide, which you may get from adding kalk at times if you screw up. The stuff just goes right back into solution.