I would not add baking soda to enhance your cs production. It can mess up the quality of your cs. Yes it is normal for one silver electrode to have ash on it. You should be able to see extemely fine cs particles throughout the cs solution when shining a laser through it.

Steve

For some time I was adding salt to my Colloidal Silver water. I later heard that this could create some problems later, and now I only make the silver in pure distilled water.

Angie
http://www.successfulhealing.com/Colloidal-Silver.htm