Baking soda

[Dummyforclownfi]

Hi all. Just wanted to get some insight from you guys on how to dose baking soda to raise alkalinity. I know there is a reef calculator on BRS that gives you the amount to dose but I'm still unclear as to how to do this. The calculator says I need 4.79 tsps of baking soda. I am a firm believer in taking things slow so I would like to only raise alkalinity no more than 1 dkh per day. Now being that I need 5 tsp (rounded up only for simplicity in reading) I would see my self dosing 1 tsp every other day until I got to 5 tsp and would be testing every day. But how do I mix this? Do I mix 1 tsp with 10 ml or with 10 gallons? When does it become saturated? How do I know how much water to mix the baking soda with and should it be RODI or saltwater? Thanks for the help.
Current dKH is 6.8 and target is 9. Something caused my alkalinity to reduce quite quickly and at the same time allowed my calcium to increase. Calcium is currently at 500ppm. I know increasing alkalinity will bring down calcium so I'm not worried about calcium. Once I get this back on track I will go back to using kalk.

[disc1]

You want to mix the baking soda with RODI water and dissolve it. How much water isn't really an issue as long as you can get it all to dissolve. When you're making up a two part solution you would dissolve about 300g in 1 gallon and that would be strong enough that it would take quite a bit of mixing to get it all dissolved so that's probably about as strong as you want to go.

If you do your 1 tbsp in a couple of cups of RODI that should work out just fine. On my new tank I'm not dosing constantly yet so I've done a few doses by hand when I need to tweak my alk. I usually use one of those red plastic solo cups like you get at a keg party and that seems to work out just fine.

Raising your alkalinity won't affect your calcium level unless you overdose it. Raising alkalinity only lowers the maximum amount of calcium you can have, but you shouldn't be anywhere close to that number so it shouldn't have any effect.

[Boom]

How much water is in your system?

[Dummyforclownfi]

You want to mix the baking soda with RODI water and dissolve it. How much water isn't really an issue as long as you can get it all to dissolve. When you're making up a two part solution you would dissolve about 300g in 1 gallon and that would be strong enough that it would take quite a bit of mixing to get it all dissolved so that's probably about as strong as you want to go.

If you do your 1 tbsp in a couple of cups of RODI that should work out just fine. On my new tank I'm not dosing constantly yet so I've done a few doses by hand when I need to tweak my alk. I usually use one of those red plastic solo cups like you get at a keg party and that seems to work out just fine.

Raising your alkalinity won't affect your calcium level unless you overdose it. Raising alkalinity only lowers the maximum amount of calcium you can have, but you shouldn't be anywhere close to that number so it shouldn't have any effect. Thank you for you input. So I am thinking about adding 1 cup of baking soda to 1 gallon or RODI. Should this be fine? I am also baking this sodium bicarbonate.

[Dummyforclownfi]

How much water is in your system?

I have about 90 gallons total in circulation. I have 75 gallons in my DT minus the rock and a 29 gallon sump filled about 3/4 of the way full. Thank you.

[bertoni]

If you convert it into sodium carbonate, up to about 2¼ cups will dissolve per gallon. That's the DIY recipe amount for the 2-part.

[Dummyforclownfi]

If you convert it into sodium carbonate, up to about 2¼ cups will dissolve per gallon. That's the DIY recipe amount for the 2-part.
Great thanks. I will only use 1 cup. I would much rather raise it slowly over the course of a couple weeks.

[HumbleFish]

I just dump it in the sump, or in the HOB skimmer of my frag tank. But I only add enough to raise it 0.5 dKH every 24 hrs.