| How much Baking Soda does it take to raise the KH by 1 degree? If you have a true KH test kit then the carbon dioxide charts will be accurate as they only measure the carbonate and bicarbonate in a solution and do not measure the alkalinity. No other anions will effect the "True" KH test, but other anions like phosphate can have an effect on an "alkalinity" test kit. I have seen statements on the net saying that
" nearly all KH test kits available in the hobby are not true KH test kits, but in effect alkalinity tests" I am not sure how true this statement really is and have further reasearch to do.
To calculate how much sodium bicarbonate ( baking soda ) to mix into a dilution in order to make a standard 4 dKH solution, you first have to sort out what a KH test actually means in the way of just looking at CO3 and eliminating the Ca from the equation.
1dKH = 10.7145 ppm CO3 ( carbonate)
10.7145 mg/liter CO3 = 21.8 mg/liter HCO3 ( bicarbonate)
21.8 mg/liter HCO3 ( bicarbonate) =30.02 mg/liter of NaHCO3 ( sodium bicarbonate )
Solutions:
To raise this 30 mg/l of baking soda to 4 deg KH, you then multiply by 4 and that is 120 mg/l or 0.120 grams of NaCO3 per each liter of distilled water.
To raise about 50 gallons or 190 liters of water by 1 dKH you would add 5.7 grams of NaCO3 or about a single level teaspoonful.
Conclusion: To make a small sample of 4 dKH water, you need an extremely accurate scale. for a 2 liter bottle of water you are only going to measure out 1/4 of a gram of baking soda
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