- What is the easiest way to increase average tank pH
and keep it elevated?
Is it CO2 scrubbers? Refugiums?
Fresh air skimmer lines or whole home air exchangers?
Well, the answer to the easiest,
is the one part or two part alkalinity dosing additive
you're probably already using.
The problem is which alkalinity additive
boosts the pH the most and by a factor of how much?
Which ones don't affect pH and which ones
should you approach with caution for your own safety?
Today, BRS TV Investigates finds out.
(upbeat music)
if you're already battling low pH
or starting to focus on pH control more closely,
or hoping to squeeze out every edge that you can get
to keep pH levels elevated and stable,
today's experiment's for you.
We've got 14 popular single and two-part dosing additives
to put to the test today, so let's dive right in.
So today's experiment has two parts.
The first one we'll mix each additive
to the manufacturer's directed concentration,
add enough solution to our test tank
to raise the alkalinity by one dKH
and then annotate the pH before and after the dose.
The second part is what we're calling the poof test,
which is that white cloud poof you see
when dosing soda ash or sodium carbonate,
but not seen when dosing sodium bicarbonate or Kalkwasser.
This test will help glean what ingredients
manufacturers are using, even if they don't
explicitly list it on the label or the MSDS sheets.
Before we get into the results,
here's some facts that we already know
about most alkalinity additives.
One sodium bicarbonate should not have
a significant or measurable impact to pH.
Two, soda ash or sodium carbonate
should moderately increase the pH.
Three, some manufacturers use a blend
of both carbonate and bicarbonate.
And four, calcium hydroxide or Kalkwasser,
absolutely has a pH boosting effect,
although it's typically short lived.
Okay, so with that, here's the results
of the 14 popular alkalinity additives testing.
Those 14 being BRS sodium bicarb and soda ash,
Red Sea Reef Foundation dry and liquid,
Aquaforest KH Plus, Tropic Marin Part B,
ATI Essentials, Two Little Fishies C-Balance,
Brightwell Reef Code B dry and liquid,
ESV B-Ionic, Triton Method Part 3,
Kalkwasser or calcium hydroxide,
and the growing popular, sodium hydroxide or lye.
Starting from the lowest pH boost,
all the way to the highest,
four of the 14 showed very similar results,
both in pH and the poof test.
With Red Sea Reef foundation changing pH
by less than a hundredth or basically nothing.
BRS bicarb, Aquaforest and Tropic Marin
tested at 0, 0.01 and 0.04 changes to pH.
Again, what I would consider negligible, if anything at all.
Although we know for sure
that BRS and Tropic Marin are 100% pharma bicarbonate,
Red Sea and Aquaforest
don't explicitly state their ingredients.
However, from the pH data and the fact that all four
showed zero white cloud in the poof test,
I believe that this entire group
is primarily made up of sodium bicarbonate-based solutions.
Next is the group that I'm classifying
as these sodium carbonate or carbonate, bicarbonate blends.
At the low end of this group, we have ATI Essentials,
which increased pH by 0.08.
Followed by Two Little Fishies
C-Balance with a 0.14 pH increase.
The remaining six additives wound up
nearly identical in pH increases
ranging from 0.2 to 0.25 respectively.
With Brightwell Dry and Liquid Reef Code B
and ESV all increasing pH by 0.2,
followed by BRS Soda Ash at 0.21
and Triton and Red Sea Reef Foundation Liquid at 0.25.
However, it's the poof test results
why I believe that this group is primarily
sodium carbonate or carbonate, bicarbonate based
because all the additives clouded the water,
some dramatically more than others.
So now we get into the more interesting part
with the two hydroxide additives,
calcium hydroxide, or Kalkwasser
and sodium hydroxide, or Lye.
from the decades of use and success
that reefers have had with Kalkwasser,
it's well known that one of its main benefits
is a significant pH boosting effect.
Which after our testing was confirmed
with a 5% increase of pH from 8.03 to 8.44.
Surprisingly Randy Holmes-Farley's sodium hydroxide recipe
showed that exact same 5% increase of 0.41 as Kalkwasser.
But there's two important caveats here.
The first caveat because sodium hydroxide lye
is so concentrated, according to Randy's recipe,
it's nearly a one for one swap for soda ash.
Meaning if you dose the same 10 milliliters
of either solution, they should both have
an equal increase effect to alkalinity.
The major difference being sodium hydroxide
has almost double the impact to pH.
On the other hand, although Kalkwasser
also has double the impact to pH,
it took 50 times more solution
to net that same one dKH increase in alkalinity.
For example, in our eight gallon test tank,
it only took 5 ml of either soda ash
or sodium hydroxide to boost one dKH.
whereas the fully saturated Kalkwasser
took over 250 ml for that same one dKH increase.
Now, I'm probably thinking the same thing
that you are at this point, which is for chasing pH,
the sodium hydroxide seems to be a no-brainer choice.
However, there's the second caveat here.
And that is the consideration of safety.
Sodium hydroxide is pure lye,
which is very strong alkaline
with highly caustic characteristics.
The CDC describes the risks of working with lye
as respiratory can cause swelling
or spasms of the larynx leading to asphyxia.
Dermal, skin contact can cause severe burns
with deep ulcerations.
Ocular, softening, sloughing,
or ulcerations of the cornea can occur.
Severe reactions could cause blindness.
Gastrointestinal can cause vomiting,
chest pain, corrosive injury to the mouth,
throat, esophagus and stomach,
resulting in hemorrhaging or perforation of the GI tract.
Now, I will say that with safe handling
and proper protective measures,
sodium hydroxide still looks pretty attractive
as the highest pH boosting additive.
But for many reefers, there's a risk reward analysis
that I'd encourage all reefers to evaluate for themselves.
For me personally, I actually might consider
using sodium hydroxide for my office tank
because I'm very confident
in my laboratory safety procedures.
And my tank is in an environment free of children and pets.
However, in my own home,
I would quickly rule this one out.
That said, when would I consider
using the other two groups of additives?
The sodium bicarb group just isn't the right tool
for this pH boosting job, however it is the right tool
for large changes to alkalinity safely
without a concern of a massive pH spike.
On the other hand, the sodium carbonate
or bicarbonate blends group is a balance
between a slight edge in tank pH
and a safer additive, not only just for physical handling,
but also against the chances that you crash your tank
from a pH spike if overdosed.
But using the hydroxides are a bit of a wobbler for me.
I know and trust Kalkwasser,
but it is limited to daily additions
because of the sheer dose volume
that it takes to maintain alkalinity levels.
Whereas, I am attracted to sodium hydroxide
for its concentration, coupled with a significant pH boost,
but the safe handling component and the potential risk
for accelerated disaster if overdosed just worries me.
In which case, my own personal choice for using additives
as a pH buffer would have to be somewhere in the middle.
I know, use, and trust the BRS pharma soda ash.
However, a close runner up for me
is the Triton Method because it also has a full lineup
of added minor and trace elements built into it.
There's just two problems that I'm left with here.
One, in the grand scheme of chasing higher pH,
just how much overall impact do these single
or two-part solutions have to my tank
before considering implementing more draconian solutions
like a whole home air exchanger, or even CO2 scrubbers?
And secondly, just how serious
is a tank pH of 7.8 versus 8.3
and should I really be concerned?
Well, the answer to the first question
will require the next phase of today's test
while the answer to the second is in this conversation
that Ryan and I had about RTA
or reef tank acidification, so check it out.