Sodium Bicarbonate at LFS?

[half-astronaut]

I need to raise my alk, is there a shop in town with top shelf sodium bicarb or will I have to order some? 

[Micah]

@CuttleFishandCoral has the Fritz RPM Elements brand of Alkalinity almost always in stock.  They had a few the last time I was in there.

[half-astronaut]

Thanks!

[TheClark]

I think sodium bicarbonate is baking soda, google for sure but that makes it easier.  RHF has good articles on using it...  Cautious of course, it will swing alk pretty hard depending on dose and system size.

 

[Micah]

Pretty sure "arm and hammer" isn't top shelf. Hahaha

[TheClark]

1 minute ago, Micah said:

Pretty sure "arm and hammer" isn't top shelf. Hahaha

Oops, dang!  No one warned me   Food grade at least? At least I am not dosing stump killer from the garden section or deicer lol.  The stuff we put in our tanks... 

[Micah]

Haha. Probably fine. I don't think there's a good local source for lab grade baking soda.

Either way, the fritz stuff is pretty cheap, pre mixed and has formulas for alk increase right on the bottle.

[half-astronaut]

13 minutes ago, Micah said:

Pretty sure "arm and hammer" isn't top shelf. Hahaha

Yeah man. I need the good sh*t: Pure. Uncut. Northslope prime. No exceptions. 
 

 

...Or Fritz. Sounds like Fritz will do nicely. 

[Micah]

Just now, half-astronaut said:

Yeah man. I need the good sh*t: Pure. Uncut. Northslope prime. No exceptions. 
 

 

...Or Fritz. Sounds like Fritz will do nicely. 

Yeah, I mean.. it's no columbian bang-bang, but it'll work.

[LadAShark]

Considering the material safety data sheet of Arm and Hammer baking soda says 100% sodium bicarbonate and the only possible impurity in the sodium bicarbonate synthesis  process is sodium chloride, I highly recommend in this one case that you just stick to Arm and Hammer. Anything else is likely just repackaged Arm and Hammer. Snd even in all of the chemical reactions that I can think of that sodium bicarbonate is used for, I can’t really think of many that are sensitive to extremely low sodium chloride impurities, hence even the lab grade sodium bicarbonate will with most probably not be much if any better.

[half-astronaut]

You think they synthesize bicarbonate from scratch? I think it's mostly mined, or made from mined soda ash. SDS and ingredient lists don't list contaminants. My understanding is there can be significant amounts of aluminum contamination. 

[LadAShark]

43 minutes ago, half-astronaut said:

You think they synthesize bicarbonate from scratch? I think it's mostly mined, or made from mined soda ash. SDS and ingredient lists don't list contaminants. My understanding is there can be significant amounts of aluminum contamination. 

That’s a myth. As long as you buy baking soda and not baking powder there’s 0 chance you’ll get any aluminum in your tank.

And on another note, people with their chemipure blocks already end up getting high quantities of aluminum in their tank. If you already use GFO or have macro algae in your tank you’d be somewhat fine with small amounts of aluminum even then. But that was _if_ you had aluminum in your tank somehow. 
 

Baking soda, however, is almost entirely synthesized unless you’re specifically buying “all natural” ones that are mined. It’s simply too cheap to produce baking soda synthetically, and much more expensive to mine it.

[NateDawg]

You should be just fine with using the good old arm and hammer stuff, I've been using it for 5 years and have gotten icp tests done at least twice a year. Never had aluminum or any other toxic metal show up from it. I tend to turn the bicarbonate into carbonate so it becomes twice as soluble and also helps push up the ph in the tank at the same time as the alkalinity.

The only time I've ever seen aluminum spike is when I tried a marine pure block in the sump. My aluminum went from close to nothing to toxic after just 3 weeks due to the blocks being made from aluminum silicate.

[half-astronaut]

Thanks for all the info. It's refreshing to get intelligent answers and informed opinions through the internet. 

[Micah]

I never said NOT to use it.... Just didn't know the person's confidence level not using an out of the bottle product.

In my experience, advising something that doesn't have directions on the container and the amount dosed could be misinterpreted, is more risky. Which is why I suggested the fritz stuff.

[half-astronaut]

Oh, I'm not squeamish about that, I have a bag of soda ash from brs that's probably 10 years old I'll use eventually. That being said I'm also kinda curious about ots products.  I'm just getting back into reefing after a long break and there's so much interesting new stuff. 

[dunpeal]

Arm and hammer from Costco, it's food grade. Stick it in the oven to make soda ash. Google 'Randys mix' for instructions on making 2/3 part