# Bicarbonate of soda-increase the PH



## adzer86 (May 25, 2008)

Has anyone got any thoughts on using this stuff to increase th PH of the water in your tank (obv adding it to the new water rather than dumping it straight into the tank).


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## toddnbecka (Oct 23, 2004)

It would be a good idea to increase the pH slowly, use 1 gallon of tank water as a test to see how much you'll need to raise the whole tank. It will most likely take a week or longer to stabilize the pH enough to keep it from dropping back to the original level. Keep dosing every 24 hours until the pH is where you want it. 
Baking soda will only raise the pH to 8.4 max, regardless of how much you dump in. Using more will raise the Kh (carbonate hardness) which determines the buffering capacity/stability of the pH.


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## Laurel (Jun 17, 2007)

Sodium Bicarbonate is common in the hobby for increasing kh and pH. According to what I've heard from another local hobbyist, it breaks down quicker than other sources, but I haven't done any testing or looked into it further. It's listed as an ingredient in the rift lake buffer recipe in the library.


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## PsYcHoTiC_MaDmAn (Dec 26, 2005)

1ml of sodium bicarbonate per 10l of water will raise the KH by approximately 110ppm, or 6dKH

as far as I'm aware it stops increasing the pH after about 8.3.

remember that not all the lakes are liquid rock, lake Malawi only has a KH of 6-8 and GH of 4-6, whereas Lake Tanganyika is in the teens for GH and KH


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