putting baking soda in soft water?

[dslam]

good or bad idea?
measure the ph closely if i do this? do it at all?

 

[liv2padl]

what are you trying to achieve? if harder, more alkaline water and elevated pH there are probably better (more stable) ways to to this. eg. - use of crushed coral in your filter or as a substrate in your tank.

 

[dslam]

Is there a method to measuring out crushed coral or should I simply add a little at a time until the alkalinity is raised? that is my major concern is that buffers are not present and I will be looking at wildly fluctuating ph at some point in the future.

 

[Roan Art]

Just put a handful in a sock and throw it in your filter. It may take a while to dissolve, depending on your pH. The lower the pH, the faster it dissolves.

Roan

 

[liv2padl]

there really is no formula i can give you since how much coral you need depends in large part on your particular water chemistry, the tank size (the volume of water you're dealing with).

i'd start with perhaps a cup and place it in your filter in a cut off end of a nylon stocking or similar. it may take several days or more for any chemical change to happen since the dissolution rate of the coral will vary. just measure the pH to begin with since this is probably the easiest means to determine whether a change is taking place. afterwards you can directly measure the other parameters you're interested in.