Low alk

[roundman]

What can I use to bring up the alk?

pH 7.6 little low but always low
ca 345
mg 1280
nitrates 20-30 usual
alk 100

 

[washowi]

Bake some Baking soda in the oven....then mix with RODI.....

 

[roland jacques]

100 is that ppm? what test kit are you using that measures in ppm? im trying to remeber how to convert ppm to DKH

 

[derek_s]

Why bake the baking soda?

You can top off with kalk, use reef buffer... or dose a 2 part? What are you doing right now to maintain alk/calc?

 

[roland jacques]

Why bake the baking soda?

baking BS, gets the PH higher. = soda ash

But with his low 7.6 ph id use unbaked BS first, so you dont raise the PH to fast.

 

[roundman]

I have pickling lime on my ATO. The alk was from a dip stick but ca and mg was from test kits. How much baking soda should I add for 100 g water. I do have some of the 2 part I could make up and just use the 2nd part.

 

[dannybradley]

Here's the Reef Calculator to figure out how much baking soda to add.

http://jdieck1.home.comcast.net/~jdieck1/chemcalc.html">http://jdieck1.home.comcast.net/~jdieck1/chemcalc.html</a>

Baking Soda (Sodium Bicarbonate NaHCO3) will convert to Soda Ash (Sodium Carbonate Na2CO3) once inside the aquarium. Baking it ahead of time will speed up the process.

 

[roland jacques]

roundman;183579 wrote: I have pickling lime on my ATO. The alk was from a dip stick but ca and mg was from test kits. How much baking soda should I add for 100 g water. I do have some of the 2 part I could make up and just use the 2nd part.

I would not go by test strips for alk, but thats just me.

 

[ralph atl]

do yourself (and your tank) a favor and get a test kit. Alk is very easy to measure. API is very cheap & close enough. Also, Elos or IO would be even better. don't get salifert, though. Salifert screwed my tank up last summer.