Tired of BAKING baking soda!!! Seeking Alternative

[Snarkys]

Originally posted by Mike O'Brien
I tried it and some corals had a negative reaction to it. It was recommended to me by a famous reef expert. I'll stick with baking soda.

food grade ?

[Mike O'Brien]

I don't believe they make food grade washing soda. What would you use it for ?

[Snarkys]

no idea but they do make it . i think there is a distributor in my city . i will find out in the next week or so : )

http://www.genchem.com/soda-ash-food-grade.asp

[Snarkys]

this is the stuff i have available locally . says it is food grade . I will let ya know what it looks like mixed up as compared to baked baking soda: )

healthy amount of information on it available here. as far as heavy metals and arsenic go it looks like it might be even better than the one listed above.

http://www.genchem.com/soda-ash-natural-light.asp

[Mike O'Brien]

Cool. A good source this will make the recipe alot easier to make. Maybe if it works out, randy can run some tests on it as well.

[Snarkys]

interesting that on this page they show the A&H box

http://www.genchem.com/properties.asp

[dean11111]

I edited out this message. It wasn't a good start at Reef Central.

Randy Holmes-Farley

[BeanAnimal]

What a very odd first post to RC. I have tried to look at it from every perspective and simply do not see the humor.

[BeanAnimal]

Doh... Randy you beat me too it!

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

interesting that on this page they show the A&H box

Maybe it is a prettier logo than the food grade material, assuming it is different. They sure give a lot of general chemical info about sodium carbonate.

[Snarkys]

lol , looks like I missed out on something : )


anyways I talked to the guys at genchem today they told me the reason that the A&H box is on the site is because A&H is one of their biggest customers. Apparently they buy it from them and then do something else to it and make their product called super washing soda or add it to other soaps/detergents.

He said they make it pretty much the same way we do . They use natural gas to heat sodium bicarbonate and remove the carbon dioxide.

He also said that all their grades are extremely pure and all meet the Food Chemical Codex , however they have one type that is specifically designed for use with food and independently certified as such. This would mean that the A&H super washing soda is food grade but we have no idea what they do to it after they get it.

He is sending me a few samples . one of the natural light and one of the food grade . I will mix them up and report back when they get here : )

here is a link to a few of the different grades. http://www.genchem.com/technical-data.asp

[BeanAnimal]

I eagerly await the results.

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Sounds good, thanks for running it down.

[Snarkys]

Originally posted by Randy Holmes-Farley
Sounds good, thanks for running it down.

Thank the fine people at google : )

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I think those billionaires have already been thanked enough.

[BeanAnimal]

Just wait... those billionaires are going to unseat microsoft and do so very handily.

[customcolor]

i just saw something weird on the show trucks about washing soda. you can use it as a rust remover with water and a 2 amp curent. i think i heard that it also creats a hydrogen type gas when doing that. so i dont think i will ever use washing soda in my tank.

[BeanAnimal]

I am not sure what the corrolation between that and not putting it in your tank would be? There all kinds of products that have many uses but are still suitable for our tanks, human consumption, etc.

You can create hydrogen gas with just about any electrode in water. Take your train transformer and hook one lead to an iron nail (or both leads). Place them in a jar of water (salt water helps). You will have a jar full of RUST the next day. Hydrogen gas will be liberated... rust will form and alll we have used is a nail and water (with some salt in it to help conductivity).

Bean

[Snarkys]

Originally posted by customcolor
i just saw something weird on the show trucks about washing soda. you can use it as a rust remover with water and a 2 amp curent. i think i heard that it also creats a hydrogen type gas when doing that. so i dont think i will ever use washing soda in my tank.

would you feel safe using baked baking soda in your tank ? seems by baking the baking soda we are creating washing soda.

[Hobster]

Originally posted by Snarkys
would you feel safe using baked baking soda in your tank ? seems by baking the baking soda we are creating washing soda.

???

Yes.

[Snarkys]

my point was , that I don't believe that washing soda is unsafe . I believe that it is exactly what everyone has been creating by heating it in the oven. Genchem told me that is how they make their washing soda/sodium carbonate, They just heat sodium bicarbonate with natural gas to remove the carbon dioxide. I can't wait for the samples to get here . I really want to see if it mixes up clean like the baked baking soda does. On paper, it is food grade and should be ok to use.

It's the additives that might be in the commercial products like A&H super washing soda that we would be worried about.

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

As an aside, that process is similar to how calcium hydroxide is made. They take calcium carbonate (limestone) and heat it until calcium oxide forms. If they want the hydroxide, they add back water.

[Snarkys]

Originally posted by Randy Holmes-Farley
As an aside, that process is similar to how calcium hydroxide is made. They take calcium carbonate (limestone) and heat it until calcium oxide forms. If they want the hydroxide, they add back water.

after doing a bit of reading it looks like that might be exactly how this works. Looks like soda ash (washing soda) is the original product and they turn that product into baking soda . maybe by just adding water ?

This is FMC's brochure on soda ash. I found it to be kinda interesting . gives a bit of background on the product and what it really is.

http://www.fmcchemicals.com/LinkClic...=1471&mid=2573

[customcolor]

i was just thinking if washing soda can take off rust what esle can it do and is it safe. the one they showed was an arm and hammer brand. but i am waiting for your results snarkys

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

The washing soda alone did not and does not do anything to rust. It is the electrical current that alters metal oxides. It is actually fine to eat when suitably pure, and fine to add to aquaria.