# How much baking soda do i use?



## will5 (Oct 26, 2005)

How much backing soda do I use to raise my pH between 7-8. This is a ten gallon planted tank. That has Diy Co2. I have some olive nerites that are just starting to get some white spots on there shell's. I feed them Hikari algae wafers. Which is loaded with calcium.


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## zig (Jul 3, 2005)

1 teaspoon of baking soda will increase the KH of 50 litres (13 US gallons) of water by 4 degrees or 68ppm.

Cant offer advice on the snails im afraid.

Edit: auctually heres a calculator which shows both pH and KH

http://dataguru.org/misc/aquarium/CalKH.asp?Gallons=42&KH=1.7&measure=0&Baking+Soda+%28Teaspoons%29=2.42&SKH=&EKH=&pHChange=


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## BryceM (Nov 6, 2005)

Will,

You need to know where your starting pH is before you can figure out how much to add. Also, why are you trying to change it?

You can do a search here, or on the internet to learn about the relationship between pH, KH, and CO2. In general, adding chemicals in an attempt to achieve a certain pH is usually a bad idea. Most people that add NaHCO3 in a planted tank do it to increase the buffering capacity of the water, which allows them to add more CO2. Most plants and fish will adapt to whatever pH your particular water comes with, within reason.


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