Forgot to bake my baking soda

[janakaybravo]

I do the RHF receipe two-part, and I just made up two gallons and forgot to bake the baking soda first. Can I use it anyway or will it have an unwanted affect? I forgot last time too. I don't know what I was thinking.

:rolleye1:

[Mike O'Brien]

I don't know how you got it all to dissolve ?

Fine to use though.

[Sisterlimonpot]

you need to bake it. otherwise it's not soda ash.

[Mike O'Brien]

You don't need to bake it. If you bake it it will give you a pH boost, but it's certainly not a necessity. Many people use regular baking soda.

[Orr2003]

You don't need to bake it. If you bake it it will give you a pH boost, but it's certainly not a necessity. Many people use regular baking soda.

+1


You dont need to bake it. Although baking it will drive off water and CO2 giving the baking soda ability to raise PH which would be used if you run normal to low tank PH usually.

I use non baked and baked depending on how my tank PH is. Usually my tank runs low PH due to running a calcium reactor.

[janakaybravo]

My tank does run low ph and now I know why. I have downsized and haven't had to make it as much, so the last few times I've just been mixing the baking soda in warm water and it hasn't dissolved all the way, and now I know why. I was doing it like the calcium part, just add the calcium to the water and stir. This time I thought I'd be bright and boiled a gallon of water in a deep pan and pour the baking soda directly into that. I wouldn't recommend that, because it made a big splash, though it did dissolve nicely.

Thanks for all the quick answers and next time I'll bake it. Should help my low ph.

[bertoni]

If you boil it for long enough, it'll do the same conversion as baking the baking soda. Otherwise, I'd dilute it down to make two gallons of the recipe 2. There's no need to pitch the ingredients, but the baking soda shouldn't all dissolve in 1g of water.

[janakaybravo]

I have a stainless steel stock pan that holds two gallons. I put in one gallon of water, let it boil, and added the baking soda (2 1/4 cups) which made one gallon total. Then it dissolved real fast. Are you saying it I can skip the baking of it if I just boil it? That would be a lot easier.

[bertoni]

I'm not sure how well that the baking soda will stay in solution with a short boiling period, and the pH might be on the low end. Hard to say. It might work.

[StrategicReef]

it may appear dissolved it might all fall back down later