Baking Soda/KH Question

[Roan Art]

'.........I'm going to end up with a reef tank at this rate......'
No you won't. Don't be afraid to jack up the quantity. Coral is very slow acting so when you start to see a difference you can start removing it bit by bit, making sure that there's still enough there to hold the buffer.
There are people on this forum with kH of 7, 8°H and higher and the fish are fine. And coral won't raise the kH that rapidly for concern on your part.

Huh. Someone told me that it didn't matter how much coral you put in, it would only raise so much.

And if you can go fishless for a bit in that tank, all the better.

Tank is fulla fish I used Bio Spira on the 25th and have been testing twice daily since then. Tank cycled in one day.

Funny thing -- my CO2 tanks just got here today. I'm going to wait a week or so before I start injecting to make sure my tank is stable with the fish.

Roan

 

[daveedka]

Huh. Someone told me that it didn't matter how much coral you put in, it would only raise so much.

This would be true if you were not injecting co2 and driving PH down. Eventually your pH will get back to 7.6 if you don't keep increasing co2. or you can limit the amount of coral to roughly what it takes to increase your KH and allow you to keep your pH at whatever level you want below 7.6
Dave

 

[Roan Art]

Fair warning Aragonite is much much more rapid than coral. If you mix or change you will see different effects in the speed of changes. I made the mistake of switching to aragonite and not testing properly. My KH jumped to a nice solid 11 Degrees in two weeks. Aragonite is great just be aware it has a far faster reaction than coral.

Hrm, did not know this. I'd better keep an eye on the 10g tank as I mixed aragonite sand/crushed coral with the flourite I put in there. I actually prefer this idea over using baking soda, but it sounds like it's very unpredictable.

This would be true if you were not injecting co2 and driving PH down. Eventually your pH will get back to 7.6 if you don't keep increasing co2. or you can limit the amount of coral to roughly what it takes to increase your KH and allow you to keep your pH at whatever level you want below 7.6

AH! Thank you

Roan

 

[RTR]

That is why I prefer aragonite - improved response time. It is not instant as is sodium bicarbonate, but while it is faster than coral and much faster than dolomite, but still slow enough to avoid any chance of osmotic shock (which is a hazard with careless bicarb use).

 

[Roan Art]

Huh, you're right. I just threw that tank together Wednesday night and this morning the pH was at 7.8, up from 7.6 and the KH was up 1 dkh. It was well over a week before I saw any change in my 36g using crushed coral.

I think I'll throw the aragonite sand in some socks and start socking my tanks

Roan