precipitating sodium bicarb?

[sphelps]

Are you mixing it with the proper amount of water first, before adding to the tank? Then are you adding it slow enough?

I know something else in the water in needed to create the reaction needed, I'm no chemist so I'm not 100% sure what it is (could be CO2 or hydrogen ions??) but my guess is you don't have enough of it, whatever it is

I don't usually dose sodium bicarb but I do often dose calcium hydroxide and if I need to dose a lot I add vinegar as well which not only prevents the PH from spiking but aids in the reaction preventing precipitation.

[christyf5]

Originally Posted by sphelps

Are you mixing it with the proper amount of water first, before adding to the tank? Then are you adding it slow enough?

I know something else in the water in needed to create the reaction needed, I'm no chemist so I'm not 100% sure what it is (could be CO2 or hydrogen ions??) but my guess is you don't have enough of it, whatever it is

I mix it with FW and my aquatronica doses approx 100ml over the course of 6 hours or so. I thought that would be slow enough but you can see each individual drop precipitate and float down to the bottom of the sump. Hmm, maybe I'll hit RC and see what I can find then.

[sphelps]

Yeah there's a lot a of good articles explaining this kind of reaction, I remember reading it but can't recall the exact formula.

[christyf5]

found one: http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/20...hf/index.php#5

I gotta go put that in the library