Soda Ash or Sodium Bicarbonate for KH?

[reefermadness]

baked baking soda = soda ash = sodium carbonate
plain baking soda = sodium bicarbonate

[lastlight]

Then by buying the BRS soda ash all I'm doing is saving myself a step (baking it... according to RHF anyways). His instructions also include the baking of the baking soda (which means he's using soda ash).

[Reefer Rob]

Originally Posted by lastlight

Then by buying the BRS soda ash all I'm doing is saving myself a step (baking it... according to RHF anyways). His instructions also include the baking of the baking soda (which means he's using soda ash).

Exactly. You might want to cut it with baking soda if you find you get a snow storm when you dose. I found it precipitated out a lot of calcium carbonate when I dosed it pure, almost doubling my calcium chloride consumption.

[lastlight]

I've always dosed into my overflow box and it gets mixed up really well actually...

[Reefer Rob]

I dosed onto the waterfall where my fuge emptied into my sump. Coated the sump in calcium carbonate.

[lastlight]

If there is any precip it'd end up in the filter sock and then most likely erode away from there. I have a lot of water going over the 2 foot wide overflow and when I sometimes need to adjust I'll toss 100mL directly in there and it's swished up crystal clear pretty fast.

[PFoster]

I have been using the Fauna Marin Sodium Bicarbonate for several years now on a dosing pump and am very happy with the results as you can keep you alk in the 7-7.5 dKh range and my pH is rock solid at 8.3

I would recomend that if you have a high coral load in your tank you should test often, especially if you are trying to maintain your alk close to NSW (7 dKh).

[wayner]

I have been using Soda Ash (BRS) for over a year now and everything appears fine - its what BRS recommends for daily dosing - I follow Recipe 1