Well here is my exprience with using Sodium Bicarbonate (baking soda) in an atempt to raise my Kh. The info I went by was posted in the following thread;
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=48379&page=2
-The tank is a 85 gallon, with a w/d trickle fitler rated for a 150g tank and has a 15g sump.
-The inhabtants are 8x 4-5" discus, 4x 3-4"clown loaches, 18x cardinal tetras and a variety of 4 small algae eater types.
-The tank is also planted with a fermenting yeast type Co2 producer.
-I do a weekly water change of 35-40 gallons with a mix of R/O water and treated tap water. At a ratio of either 7 to 3 gives me 7.0 Ph or 4 to 1 gives me 6.8 Ph
-Water params have been stable for the past 3-4 months, I test before and aftre w/c. My testing is done with Aquarium Pharmaceuticals test kit and ocassionally verfied with Jungle brand quick dip strips
amonia -0
nitrites -0
nitrates -below 10 before and below 5 after w/c
Ph -6.2 to 6.4 before and 6.4 to 6.8 after
Gh -4 German degrees about 80ppm
Kh -0 German degrees about 0 ppm
My concern is the varience in the Ph cause by the zero Kh. Fear of a Ph spike.
For my water most recent water change my Ph was 6.2 so I decided to go with the 7 to3 ratio to add 7.0 water(my target Ph is 6.6), I decided to try to increase my Kh by adding sodium bicarbonate. The recommended dosage was;
"Four teaspoon (about 24 grams) of sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) per
gallon of water will increase KH by 4 degrees and will not increase
general hardness"
So to be safe I went with 8 teaspoons per 5 gallons, less than 1/4 of the recommended dosage.
The result; All the water params stayed unchanged except;
-Kh increased to 10 German degrees abot 180 ppm
-And my worst fear my Ph spiked from 6.2 tp 7.6
Luckly all my fish survived and show no signs of stress, They are all acting like nothing even changed. I figure it is best to leave the Ph at the level it is now and decrease slowly over the next few weeks.
Ok all, I welcome all comments, questions and flames.
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=48379&page=2
-The tank is a 85 gallon, with a w/d trickle fitler rated for a 150g tank and has a 15g sump.
-The inhabtants are 8x 4-5" discus, 4x 3-4"clown loaches, 18x cardinal tetras and a variety of 4 small algae eater types.
-The tank is also planted with a fermenting yeast type Co2 producer.
-I do a weekly water change of 35-40 gallons with a mix of R/O water and treated tap water. At a ratio of either 7 to 3 gives me 7.0 Ph or 4 to 1 gives me 6.8 Ph
-Water params have been stable for the past 3-4 months, I test before and aftre w/c. My testing is done with Aquarium Pharmaceuticals test kit and ocassionally verfied with Jungle brand quick dip strips
amonia -0
nitrites -0
nitrates -below 10 before and below 5 after w/c
Ph -6.2 to 6.4 before and 6.4 to 6.8 after
Gh -4 German degrees about 80ppm
Kh -0 German degrees about 0 ppm
My concern is the varience in the Ph cause by the zero Kh. Fear of a Ph spike.
For my water most recent water change my Ph was 6.2 so I decided to go with the 7 to3 ratio to add 7.0 water(my target Ph is 6.6), I decided to try to increase my Kh by adding sodium bicarbonate. The recommended dosage was;
"Four teaspoon (about 24 grams) of sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) per
gallon of water will increase KH by 4 degrees and will not increase
general hardness"
So to be safe I went with 8 teaspoons per 5 gallons, less than 1/4 of the recommended dosage.
The result; All the water params stayed unchanged except;
-Kh increased to 10 German degrees abot 180 ppm
-And my worst fear my Ph spiked from 6.2 tp 7.6
Luckly all my fish survived and show no signs of stress, They are all acting like nothing even changed. I figure it is best to leave the Ph at the level it is now and decrease slowly over the next few weeks.
Ok all, I welcome all comments, questions and flames.
