Ph at 8.2 - balling bicarbonate or carbonate?

[fr3n0z]

Hi guys, i have started with the dosing pumps. My PH is around 7.9/8.2 Kh9 i am dosing around 0.25dkh with bicarbonate a day, in my case, you advice dosing Sodium Bicarbonate or Sodium Carbonate?

The PH lowering effect of bicarbonate, is momentaneous? It does risk to pile up until it will lower too much the PH?

 

[fr3n0z]

self-bump

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

The effect of bicarbonate on pH is small, but I’d use carbonate unless the pH is hitting 8.4 without it.

 

[fr3n0z]

The effect of bicarbonate on pH is small, but I’d use carbonate unless the pH is hitting 8.4 without it.

thanks!

 

[thejacgues]

I had pH issues level and started using sodium carbonate soley as the key source of alkalinity.
Increased it to around 10 (which also helps pH) and I have a significant corals mass in comparison to the size of my aquarium. In the effect, pH drops to 7.9 at night and jumps to 8.3 in the 2nd part of each day.
In my case it's insufficient (despite access of external air, strong skimmer and water circulation) to hit better numbers.

In BRS experiment Sodium Carbonate increased pH on average by around 0.2 points.