Red Sea alk supplements concentration

jedimasterben · Oct 7, 2014

I still don't understand how 1mL of the prebottled Red Sea alk solution can raise the alk of 100L water by 1.8ppm, when buying the powder and mixing to basically the maximum concentration can give only 0.6ppm, or using your DIY 2-part recipes you'd need 1mL of baked baking soda solution or 2mL of unbaked to raise it by right ~1ppm.

Any insight Randy? Is Red Sea just a magician?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Oct 7, 2014

Some of the commercial additives can attain higher than my DIY. B-ionic, for example, would claim 1.51. That's about the limit as it frequently gets solid precipitation in it if it gets at all cool. Commercial mixing equipment and possibly heating can get it to dissolve better than ordinary DIY, but I don't know if Red Sea can get it that high, or if they made an error of some sort.

jedimasterben · Oct 7, 2014

No, they had originally made an error in their powder mix instructions, as they listed the same concentration for their liquid and powder, but later rescinded and noted that you needed to dissolve 1kg of powder into 10L of water and not 1L.

I've been meaning to make a quick chart comparing the advertised concentration of various 2-part supplement brands but never sat down to do it.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Oct 7, 2014

FWIW, no one's powder is going to be more potent than sodium carbonete (baked baking soda) unless they use sodium hydroxide, which I do not usually recommend.

Some people may dissolve more in a given volume, but that the limit of what can be done (except for using hydroxide, as mentioned).