Raising Alk without affecting ph

Wolfw28 · Nov 5, 2023

kbnh said:
What products are available to raise alkalinity but nothing else?

I currently dose all for reef manually once a day, it’s worked well for me until now. I can’t say I’m the best at testing regularly, but my last testing showed a drop in alkalinity but my other elements are at a level I’m ok with. I have Reef Builder by seachem which I’m using to get alk back up slowly but I was wondering if there was another product that does the same?

You can do a water change with Fritz salt in the red box. It’s there high alkalinity version

Gtinnel · Nov 5, 2023

gbroadbridge said:
Well, to be fair, I didn't know that it was was a wholesale size packaged bag of food grade Baking Soda.
If it's being sold for pool use I expected it would be labelled as such.

I have often seen folks using non food grade products in their reef tanks, especially swimming pool calcium, and was just sounding a warning.

I have been one of those people who has used many non food, or pharma grade chemicals but mostly in the past. As my corals have gotten more expensive I have started paying more attention to possible sources of contamination.

When I used to add solutions made from Prestone driveway heat and stump remover, bulk arm and hammer baking soda seemed like a minimal risk, lol.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Nov 6, 2023

Gtinnel said:
This is the 13.5 lb bag and it has the same directions on how to use the baking soda as an antacid.

That is food grade.

Gtinnel · Nov 8, 2023

Not trying to beat a dead horse, but since I said I would post what reply I got from Church & Dwight here it is.
They said all of their products are 100% pure baking soda (which I think is a worthless claim) and that the only difference is the granule size.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Nov 8, 2023

Gtinnel said:
Not trying to beat a dead horse, but since I said I would post what reply I got from Church & Dwight here it is.
They said all of their products are 100% pure baking soda (which I think is a worthless claim) and that the only difference is the granule size.

Yes, worthless for a purity perspective, but still likely fine to use.