Baking Soda - An Easy (Kh) booster ​📈​

[DaveSamsell]

Am a big fan of crushed coral and it works great; but if water is changed too frequently, that reduces the product's overall effectiveness, to a certain extent.  

During water changes or at times when my aquariums' carbonate hardness (Kh) is a bit low; I like to improve it some, by adding a measured dose of pure baking soda (sodium bicarbonate). 📊

Had a few minutes in the fish lab this morning and did a test of exactly how much pure baking soda affects Kh readings.  This is what I found out:

 

1/4 teaspoon of pure baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) totally dissolved in 1 gallon of water, raised the measured carbonate hardness (Kh) by 12 degrees.

So, the same 1/4 teaspoon of pure baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) in an approx 10 gallon aquarium does increase the measured Kh reading about 1.0 - 1.2 degrees on average (dependent of how much gravel, sand, decorations in the aquarium that is displacing water volume, etc.)

Ideally,  baking soda should be added slowly to an aquarium, for aquatic safety, but I never personally had an issue when using it.

Also, it will start to increase the water's Ph as well.  For my fish, they prefer higher Ph & Kh anyway, so it's a win/win situation for them.  

Am always trying to keep water parameters stable and this, I feel, has helped me considerably.

 

[Cory]

I recommend people do a lot of testing with this, baking soda is very potent and is easy to move the ph much farther than expected with small amounts.

 

Used correctly it can work quite well.

[Steph’s Fish and Plants]

I’d love to guinea pig this, my tap water is so low Kh that the pH is in the mid 6 just out the tap. I just got some crushed coral and seachem  equilibrium and wonder shells that I was gonna try, now I’m very intrigued with the baking soda. And with my pH so low I have room for it to go fairly high... I’ll try and do some testing and see what happens