Accidently Put To Much Baking Soda In Saltwater Batch

[PeterC99]

Accidently put to much baking soda in the saltwater that I was going to use for my water change. Can I reduce the ALK by adding vinegar or should I just through the saltwater batch out?

Thanks

 

[T-J]

How much saltwater are we talking? Personally, I'd just dump it.

 

[PeterC99]

12 gallons

 

[slojim]

if it is cloudy - I would probably dump it unless I was using it for QT or something. If not, you could dilute and make more SW if you have container space - kind of depends on how much you overshot, and how committed you are to not tossing the water - which also might depend on how much water is involved.

 

[PeterC99]

Not cloudy but I think I overshot by a few ounces. dkh is 18.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Vinegar will not reduce the alkalinity added to the tank, but it will prevent precipitation of calcium carbonate if it has not happened yet.

Muriatic acid or sodium bisulfate would be the way to lower alkalinity.

 

[Cell]

Instead of dumping the water and starting over, I'd dilute it and add more salt as needed. You might not have the storage capacity for that though.

 

[PeterC99]

Vinegar will not reduce the alkalinity added to the tank, but it will prevent precipitation of calcium carbonate if it has not happened yet.

Muriatic acid or sodium bisulfate would be the way to lower alkalinity.

Randy, are there any local stores to grab the muriatic acid or sodium bisulfate?

 

[Guy714]

My wild guess is baking soda won’t affect you dkh that much, only soda ash does.

 

[Gtinnel]

I know you can buy sodium bisulfate and muriatic acid at Lowes around where I live. But I'd be skeptical if either was pure enough to dump into my tank. I agree with others that say dilute it to make more saltwater if you can, and if not dump it.

With the cost to buy the chemicals to try and correct it you'd probably be better off just making new saltwater.

 

[sde1500]

My wild guess is baking soda won’t affect you dkh that much, only soda ash does.

They already said it was measuring 18 dkh... and baking soda is definitely widely used to raise alkalinity.

And yea I'd probably just dilute too. Get another bucket and split the water with only 12 gallons definitely the easiest solution

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

My wild guess is baking soda won’t affect you dkh that much, only soda ash does.

Not true. Both boost alk.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Randy, are there any local stores to grab the muriatic acid or sodium bisulfate?

Many folks use muriatic acid from a hardware store to drop the alk in new salt water. not much is needed, so high purity is not a big deal.

Sodium bisulfate is easier to use safely since it is a solid.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Sodium Bisulfate to Reduce Alkalinity in New Salt Water or in Display Tanks

I think the Seachem acid buffer has actual buffers in addition to bisulfate. I recently mixed two 50 gallon batches of IO. I used HCl to lower alkalinity to ~7 dKH, aerated over night and pH was ~8.2. Two weeks later I did the same but used 3 teaspoons of Seachem acid buffer to lower the IO...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[PeterC99]

Thank you to everyone for replying. I ended up throwing the saltwater out. Figured this was the safest way forward. Corals are looking good and did not want to risk it.

Important lesson learned - when you are starting new mixing regimen, double/triple calculations before proceeding. Luckily, I always test before adding new saltwater which saved me from big problems.