Alk from 10 to 17

[Benga]

I was setting up to dose some alk and like the idiot I am I do this ontop of the tank and I knocked over the soda ash and a significant portion of it fell in. After about 20 minutes I check the alk levels and they went from 10 to 17.

What should I expect? I'm currently prepping for a water change.

If i had to guess the amount that spilt in i'd say between 20-40grams

 

[DLHDesign]

How is your pH looking? If it's normal, then as large a water change as you can manage as soon as you can should be enough.

Is the tank looking cloudy at all?

 

[Benga]

How is your pH looking? If it's normal, then as large a water change as you can manage as soon as you can should be enough.

Is the tank looking cloudy at all?

Water looks crystal clear, pH seems to be at 9. I'm using the API kit and it looks to be off their chart but not by much. It's a bright dark pink

 

[DLHDesign]

I expect that your pH isn't normally that high... ;-)

If the water is clear, then you likely aren't getting any calcium precipitation - which is a good thing. There's things that could be done to lower the pH (adding an acid into the tank, basically), but that's a pretty radical (read: risky) action take - especially if done directly into the tank. You could add a bit of an acid into the new water you are mixing up and then stir it really well for a while to off-gas the CO2, but even this is a pretty extreme approach.

Unless something in the tank is reacting badly, I'd just get the water change as best you can.
I'd also suggest planning to clean your pumps, heaters, and other in-tank gear at some point in the near future; just in case.

 

[Benga]

Alright, I did a water change and got it down to 14 which I think should be good. My RO system and everyone sleeping probably hates me haha but hopefully everything survives fine now.

I ended up just running my skimmer on overflow and using that as the water out on the off chance that the skimmer might be pushing some soda ash out.

 

[DLHDesign]

How's your pH looking? Is it down into a range closer to 8.5 or so?

You've had a fairly big swing of a couple of key parameters. I'd be prepared for corals to show signs of stress (not opening up as much, loss of color, etc.). It wasn't a very long duration, so hopefully the impact is minor. The best course of action is to keep things as stable as possible once you can get back to your normal numbers - give everything time to recover.

 

[Benga]

How's your pH looking? Is it down into a range closer to 8.5 or so?

You've had a fairly big swing of a couple of key parameters. I'd be prepared for corals to show signs of stress (not opening up as much, loss of color, etc.). It wasn't a very long duration, so hopefully the impact is minor. The best course of action is to keep things as stable as possible once you can get back to your normal numbers - give everything time to recover.

It's definitely come down as well. Not quiet 8.5 but it's back on the chart at like an 8.8.
Yea I think my ricordea will be my indicator coral. But i'll be waking up early and closely monitoring everything. I'll likely run another water change tomorrow.
Thank you for all the advice and help! I had started to really panic

 

[cilyjr]

Do you have any acropora? If so look for tissue necrosis at or near the base in about 1 to 2 weeks. I've found in the past that large swings in ph and alk (particularly upward spikes) have anecdotally triggered an STN event.

 

[Benga]

Do you have any acropora? If so look for tissue necrosis at or near the base in about 1 to 2 weeks. I've found in the past that large swings in ph and alk (particularly upward spikes) have anecdotally triggered an STN event.

Wow 1-2 weeks out and the damage shows. But thankfully I don't, i was going to pick some up last weekend but decided not to yet.