Baking baking soda

[jb61264]

Hi,

I am going to use baked baking soda to increase my alkalinity a bit. Using the reef chemistry calculator I am to dissolve 3.4 tsp in RO/DI. I have heard that heating the RO/DI while mixing is a good idea to help it dissolve?

My question is about "baking" the baking soda. How long and at what temperature is recommended?

I also am just considering using a manual drip to dose it slowly...is this ok?...probably a steady drip-rate of about 30 drips/min

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

350-400 deg F for 1 h is usually fine, unless it is a really think layer of material.

heating the water to dissdolve it is also fine. Even boiling is OK.

Even manual once or twice a day dosing is usually adequate. Drip is certainly fine.

[jb61264]

I guess I was concerned about dosing too much because the calculator says the "baked" baking soda method causes "substantial" pH raise effect...versus the "unbaked" baking soda method.

I want to use "baked" because my pH seems to linger a little lower than it probably should. It is usually at 7.9 when I get up in the morning (even with a fuge light over chaeto for most of the night)...at its peak, it is probably 8.15

Randy, any chance you could shot me a PM regarding a different matter not related to this thread?

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Yes, it has a substantial pH boost, but not so much as to prevent once a day dosing unless the dose needed is fairly large. 1 dKH once a day is fine. 1.4 dKH boosts pH by about 0.35 pH units. :)

[jb61264]

So i need to dissolve 3.4 tsp of baked baking soda....how much RO/DI should I dissolve this in?

[bertoni]

A half cup or so likely is fine. Probably less will do.