Cali Kid Corals

Soda Ash

kinetic

kinetic

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Got an awesome plastic jar full of soda ash from the raffle today! It's just "pharm" grade baking soda?

I did a search and can't find a real good answer of how to use it properly to help ALK. My ALK is currently at 6.8 dKH, and I've been trying to use b-ionic ALK buffer in the two part (leaving out the second part since my Ca is awesome). Winning this soda ash might help me switch.

Anyone have good instructions or experience using Soda Ash?

THANKS!
 
http://www.reefbuilders.com/2009/10/09/neptune-grouper-conspicuous-angelfish-star-splash-event-greenwich-ct/

Soda ash is Sodium Carbonate, not Sodium Bicarbonate so its not baking soda, so make sure to choose the right chemical on the pull down menu on the link above.
 
Thales said:
http://www.reefbuilders.com/2009/10/09/neptune-grouper-conspicuous-angelfish-star-splash-event-greenwich-ct/

Soda ash is Sodium Carbonate, not Sodium Bicarbonate so its not baking soda, so make sure to choose the right chemical on the pull down menu on the link above.
Click to expand...

hmm, the link you posted isn't working... the one brian posted above talks about baking soda rather than the Sodium Carbonate. I'll keep searching though in the meantime.
 
Try this link.
http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/a6/Recipe-1-Instructions-for-Bulk-Packaged-Materials/article_info.html

In summary, it says to use two cups of soda ash dissolved in one gallon of water. BRS also has an ALK calculator to help one figure out how much to add. I have been using soda ash with good success hooked up on a drew's dosing pump.

hope this helps
 
thanks sendo!

I found this link too:
http://home.comcast.net/~jdieck1/chemcalc.html

My current ALK is: 6.6 dKH
Desired ALK: 8.0 dKH
Product: Sodium Carbonate Anhyd.

Says: 12grams, 0.4oz of the sodium carbonate to get it to 8 dKH.

NOW.... how the heck do I dose the tank? It says to do it slowly...

I have a LiterMeter III setup right now as my continuous water change, doing 7 Liters / Day, maybe I should add it to my saltwater reservoir?
 
well, last night I tested my ALK at 6.6 dKH, this morning it's at 7.0 dKH (i've been dosing 20mL of b-ionic part 1 daily for 3 days now). it's getting higher. I'll switch to Soda Ash tomorrow and keep track of how much I need to dose each day to maintain at 8 dKH once I get there, and then calculate how much I need to put into my saltwater reservoir in order to get it to dose for me as it's doing the water changes throughout the day. I guess learning math was good for SOMETHING =)
 
Sorry Art! Stupid cut and paste!

The link I meant to post is the newer version of the one you found:

http://reef.diesyst.com/flashcalc/flashcalc.html

Most say to dose by adding it to DI water, but I just put the powder in the overflow. :D
 
The problem with dosing dry to the over flow, or dosing concentrated solutions of soda ash too fast, is that it precipitates out of solution. This isn't as much of a problem with baking soda or Ca/Mg chloride salts.
 
Hmm, so I think it was bad that I raised my dKH to 8.0 within 5 days from 6.4 dKH. I killed off a sea hare, an anemone (ultra red bta), and a tuxedo urchin all at the same time. Only change I made to the tank was dosing the bionic part 1. My ammonia, nitrite, and nitrates are fine =X. For the heck of it, my po4 is super low. I don't have a simple pH kit, nor a probe for my controller. Guh. Who knows if the pH spiked or not.

The other inverts seem to be doing pretty well though, I've hit 8.0 dKH so I'll back off now. I'll dose a bit of soda ash to keep it up if needed.
 
What Tony said. Don't dose the powder directly.

Use it in place of the baked baking soda in the Randy recipes.

Should be about 1.75 cups to make a gallon of alk solution if you use the anhydrous sodium carbonate (soda ash).

Normally you use 2.25 cups of baking soda and bake it to turn it into anhydrous sodium carbonate.

I'm figuring the volume this way:

Reef Chemistry Calculator says 21.8 tsp of anhydrous sodium carbonate to raise 1000 gal of water from 3.5 meq/l to 4 meq/l.

If you you use Part A of Randy's recipe 1, the calculator says you need 1000 ml, or 1 liter.

So 21.8 tsp / 1 Liter X 3.785 Liters per gal / 48 tsp per cup = 1.72 cups per gallon

Bulk densities can vary, but 1.75 cups per gallon should be a reasonably close starting point.
 
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