Alkalinity Overdose - Nee some advice.

[-Logzor]

I was working on my litermeter pump, took it apart and all, I didn't think of it breaking the siphon, there was a pretty decent size alkalinity overdose.

Needless to say, the tank is completely white. Can't see much, the few corals I can see look fine.

I think it looks so bad because my calcium was already super duper high, and it all precipitated, it was around 600 or so.

I'm hoping that it's not actually as bad as it looks, since my calcium was so high, that's what I'm seeing.

So far I've done a 28g waterchage (180g system or so).

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

I would just leave it alone. If the corals look fine then I wouldn't worry about it. I have done this as well.

 

[Reef Pets]

I would leave it alone as well. If the levels do not drop then of course water changes will help that process. What reading are you getting for ALK?

 

[AJ92124]

Would do a pretty good sized water change when you get the chance. Dont think there is anything else you can do.

 

[-Logzor]

At first the reading was around 16, after the water change it was 14.5.

According to Randy's precipitate article alk and cal measures will not be accurate it an event such as this.

I pretty much started the water change immediately after the event happened.

 

[Troylee]

Big water changes and kiss your sps good bye!!! Man that sucks royaly prolly spiked it very good and sps can't take it.. Might look good for 2 days then the destruction starts in... good luck man start changing that water and do much as you can if at all possible..

 

[Troylee]

Oh yeah if you have another tank quarantine or something move your sticks over there it might not be to late...

 

[Reef Pets]

If 14.5 is accurate then I would say things will be fine. Many people run there ALK at 12 all of the time. Of course 2 points higher makes a difference but in all honestly I feel it all depends on how fast the ALK spiked and taking down slow would be most important in my opinion.
When doing your water changes make sure to syphon off as much of the white coating as possible.
As you stated, the readings probably are not accurate at this point. So hope for the best, your test kit might be reading a couple of points high.

 

[-Logzor]

Oh yeah if you have another tank quarantine or something move your sticks over there it might not be to late...

Hopefully it's not too bad, all the corals including sps still have polyps out.

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

I would not do a big water change though.

 

[Troylee]

The one time I had a similar occurrence it took like 4 days for my sps to react... I'm guessing it took that long for them to absorb it??? I noted it because if god for bid it happens again I will move them all to separate tank and let the display ride out... I think if I would have got them out the first day I wouldn't have lost any... Just my thinking..

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

The one time I had a similar occurrence it took like 4 days for my sps to react... I'm guessing it took that long that for them to absorb it??? I noted it because if god for bid it happens again I will move them all to separate tank and let the display ride out... I think if I would have got them out the first day I wouldn't have lost any... Just my thinking..

Another good reason to keep a second separate tank or to have some close reef friends!

 

[Paul_N]

If 14.5 is accurate then I would say things will be fine. Many people run there ALK at 12 all of the time. Of course 2 points higher makes a difference but in all honestly I feel it all depends on how fast the ALK spiked and taking down slow would be most important in my opinion.
When doing your water changes make sure to syphon off as much of the white coating as possible.
As you stated, the readings probably are not accurate at this point. So hope for the best, your test kit might be reading a couple of points high.

+1

A few years back to prove a point with carbon dosing I ran my alk at 14 for 6 months and my coral did fine. The calcium precipitating out in the water really won't do any harm to the coral. Your equipment may need a vinegar bath after everything settles though. I would ride it out. If everything is doing OK, the last thing you want to do is a massive water change and cause another huge swing.

 

[-Logzor]

Yeah I'm keeping the water change level under 25% or so.

 

[-Logzor]

+1

A few years back to prove a point with carbon dosing I ran my alk at 14 for 6 months and my coral did fine. The calcium precipitating out in the water really won't do any harm to the coral. Your equipment may need a vinegar bath after everything settles though. I would ride it out. If everything is doing OK, the last thing you want to do is a massive water change and cause another huge swing.

Thanks for the advice Paul. Yeah in my old stock tank system I around around 14 or so Dkh. Corals did great.

I can see more and more every minute. Corals all have full PE, just like before the overdose.

I wish I knew exactly how much went in...as I mentioned I believe the precipitation is exaggerated because of my extremely high calcium level. It was around 600.

 

[-Logzor]

anyone know what the inner diameter is of 1/4" tubing? I'm trying to calculate how much got into my system.

 

[-Logzor]

Just a small update. The tank has cleared up enough to see all of my corals/fish. Everything looks fine...just as good as before the dosing incident. It's hard to say how high my pH / alkalinity went. Considering my calcium levels it may have just caused mass precipitation, not actually spiking anything.

 

[soccerbag]

I certainly hope that it was just precipitation. I was almost scared to even open this thread. Keep us posted. I really hope you don't have any losses!!

 

[-Logzor]

I certainly hope that it was just precipitation. I was almost scared to even open this thread. Keep us posted. I really hope you don't have any losses!!

So far so good. The tank is actually quite beautiful right now. There was tiny bits of algae covering my rock, which are now covered in a white layer of calcium carbonate. The corals really stand out...every other surface is bright white. Other than that and water clarity I wouldn't guess anything is wrong. Let's hope tomorrow it's the same story.

Stupid mistake on my part...I have around 20 ft of tubing for my remote dosing system of calcium/alkanity/topoff. by taking apart my dosing pump, thus breaking the siphon, I basically drained 20ft+ worth of alkalinity into my system (around 650 ml I estimated).

 

[myzislow]

Lee thats not always the case bro. Myself and my good friend have had major ALK spikes from leaving the doser on when priming the lines. While stressful on some corals, both of us never experienced a total crash by any means. In fact neither of us ever lost a coral due to spiking the ALK.

If the polyps are out on your Acros I wouldn't stress too much. Do a water change and maybe another one tomorrow and you should be fine IMO. Coming home to find your tank looking like it had snowed inside it is a very scary feeling, though haha.