Who has used washing soda for buffer?
 

What brand and did you get soapy bubbles from it?

Thanks

Hi,

Arm & Hammer.

- Victor.

Victor, any bubbles? I used a brand called VIP and they treat their product with a surfactant. Like a box of Tide in the city water fountain!

Does your Arm & Hammer have a "fresh scent" to it? The boxes a bunch of us over here got had some kind of lemony-fresh zesty scent to it. Nowhere on the box does it say what ELSE there is in the box other than just sodium carbonate or bicarbonate whatever one it is. In the end, none of us dared to try it in our reefs because of that. If there is some additional detergent in there ...

The guys at RC who use A&H swear there is no scent to the stuff. The stuff I buy periodically ... it definitely has a scent. :? (It all ends up being used for laundry. Don't trust that scent.)

Hi,

I think Arm & Hammer only sells their Super Washing Soda so I think you are smelling something else....your nose burning from the caustic powder ? :)

Washing soda is caustic and it will feel very slippery when dissolved in water. This can be confirmed by measuring the pH and it should be around 11.5. So, it is not a very good idea to smell this stuff. Washing soda is Sodium Carbonate and Baking Soda is Sodium Bicarbonate. You can also make washing soda by baking Baking Soda in the oven. Just bake at 350F for an hour or so. Again, you can use the pH method to figure out if you have washing or baking soda. Baking soda has a pH of around 7.8.

However, the main purpose of the 1 to 6 ratio is that the buffer solution has roughly the same pH as the NSW. Baking soda has a lower pH and Washing soda has a higher pH -- the correct ratio gives about 8.2-8.4 pH. There is nothing wrong with just adding baking soda or just washing soda, but the pH will temporarily shift a bit. However, this state is temporary and it will re-establish a new bicarbonate/carbonate ratio for the given tank conditions. The final ratio may be 1 to 7 or 1 to 6.5, but the water will automatically do that for us.

Hope that helps.

- Victor.

Wonderful, but do you get any bubbles?? :?

Hi,

Bubbles...not really...nothing like dish washing detergent. Do you get bubbles when you mix kalk ?

- Victor.

Victor, I got tons of bubbles from the VIP brand of washing soda. Turns out they add a surfactant to the mix.
What does the box of arm&hammer look like that you have? The stuff I can get stinks of perfume!!

Maybe mix it to a past and put a bit behind your ears and the nape of your neck 8)

Steve

Hi,

If you are worried about the perfume, then you can bake baking soda in the oven to get washing soda. Its the Super Washing Soda that I got while I was in the states....maybe that's what the difference was.

Or...forget washing soda and just add baking soda. The effect will be the same (i.e. it will add alk), but the pH will temporarily drift low for a couple of hours (about 0.1 to 0.2...depending how much buffer you added).

- Victor.