How long do you bake your baking soda for?

[asylumdown]

I've always gone by the guidelines in this article:
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/rhf/

I'm pretty sure it was written by Randy Holmes-Farley, and it suggests baking at 300 for an hour, though he states that over-heating in terms of either temperature or time doesn't do any harm, but it doesn't do any good either.

[Delphinus]

Originally Posted by asylumdown

I've always gone by the guidelines in this article:
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/rhf/

it suggests baking at 300 for an hour

+1, at least back when I used to make my own soda ash by baking baking soda. I started just buying bulk soda ash because the one thing I found about this method is that the baked baking soda would have a tendency to clump really badly if added too quickly to water. It's like it's been dessicated to the molecular level and the molecules are desperate to bond to anything and then won't let go.

Not sure if there's anything to be done to work around that short of adding very small amounts at a time into a bucket with a powerhead or pump mixing as you go.