Alkalinity pump dosed for a solid 2 minutes

[Andrewrckt]

Hi everyone,

I just caught my dosing pump dosing about 2-3 minutes worth of Alk into my reef tank. I just tested Alk with my Hannah tester and I am at > 20dkh. What should I do? I am in freak out mode now. I am currently running the RODI to do a large water change, but that will take a couple hours to finish. Anything I can do in the meantime?

I have fish in the tank along with sps and lps corals. I am thinking of doing a 100% water change, something I’ve never done before. Thought? Oh and it’s a 20gal tank, so this 2-3 minute does is large for the volume of water.

 

[Lavey29]

I am certainly no expert but with an overdose, I think your best approach is a large water change as quick as possible.

 

[Dkmoo]

Not much more you can do other than large WC as quickly as you can.

If any corals are stressed out and is movable, you can mix a few gallons of fresh SW first in a bucket and move all the stressed out ones in there first while you wait for the full batch to finish

 

[Spsfreak27]

Very large water change, run carbon, heavy skim will be the best route. Also the sooner the better

 

[Andrewrckt]

I have about 10 gallons of water mixing now. Skimmer is working overtime and carbon is in the HOB sump. Thanks everyone. Time is now my enemy at this point.

 

[Andrewrckt]

Got it down to 13.7 dKh after a bunch of water changes. Things look a little unhappy but feeing better about Alk now

 

[vetteguy53081]

When you say overdosed- What is new and current reading?

A large water change will reduce it but dont expect a huge drop and cancel dosing of alk for several days to allow coral to absorb it

 

[Andrewrckt]

When you say overdosed- What is new and current reading?

A large water change will reduce it but dont expect a huge drop and cancel dosing of alk for several days to allow coral to absorb it

The Hannah detector said >20dKh when I tested. After a very large water change (18 out of 20 gallons) it went down to 13.7. I cleaned the glass from the precipitate but the sump has a lot in the back.

the dosing pump is now off. @vetteguy53081

 

[Crashjack]

If you are running your dosers from a controller, I would add a time delay relay. Mine recently turned what would have been over (4) hours of running Kalk through my stirrer (or at least run until my RO reservoir was empty) to running 1 minute, :15 seconds.

 

[john90009]

What dosing unit was this??

 

[Andrewrckt]

The Hannah detector said >20dKh when I tested. After a very large water change (18 out of 20 gallons) it went down to 13.7. I cleaned the glass from the precipitate but the sump has a lot in the back.

the dosing pump is now off.

What dosing unit was this??

It’s a coral box. I had manually dosed, but when finished using the app I put the phone in my pocket. It activated the dosing pump to turn on in my pocket, so when I went downstairs I just saw a white cloud coming out of my return pump.

 

[Billldg]

If you got it down to 13.7 Dkh then I would let the corals absorb it as @vetteguy53081 said. I would also do maybe another water change tomorrow, or Monday, to drop it further. The tank took a shock with the sudden rise in Alk, and then was quickly dropped, let the tank settle a little before making any more changes. All you could have done was a few water changes to get it within reason, so that was correct, but now the tank needs to settle a little before any more changes.

 

[Andrewrckt]

If you got it down to 13.7 Dkh then I would let the corals absorb it as @vetteguy53081 said. I would also do maybe another water change tomorrow, or Monday, to drop it further. The tank took a shock with the sudden rise of Alk, and then was quickly dropped, let the tank settle a little before making any more changes. All you could have done was a few water changes to get it within reason, so that was correct, but now the tank needs to settle a little before any more changes.

Will do. Thank you everyone for all your help!

 

[Rmckoy]

Automation is great , but this is a prime example why I choose to manually test and dose .

hope everything is ok .

 

[Rmckoy]

Can you dose acid to bring the alk down ?

 

[Andrewrckt]

Can you dose acid to bring the alk down ?

At this point, I am going to let thing play it’s course. PH is at 8.2 so I don’t want to be playing too much more since I did quite a harsh change.

 

[Andrewrckt]

@vetteguy53081 @Billldg looks like alkalinity has stabilized with heavy wet skimming. I have gone down from the 13.7 dKh to 11.3 dKh. I do have some precipitate adhered to the glass and in the sump but will slowly clean that with time.

Thanks again for all the help. I am still going to do a 25% water change tomorrow/Monday as I suspect my calcium values are impacted by the Alk swing.

 

[vetteguy53081]

@vetteguy53081 @Billldg looks like alkalinity has stabilized with heavy wet skimming. I have gone down from the 13.7 dKh to 11.3 dKh. I do have some precipitate adhered to the glass and in the sump but will slowly clean that with time.

Thanks again for all the help. I am still going to do a 25% water change tomorrow/Monday as I suspect my calcium values are impacted by the Alk swing.

Do water change and continue to monitor.
What test kit are you using?

 

[Andrewrckt]

Do water change and continue to monitor.
What test kit are you using?

I am using the Hannah instruments checker. Oddly enough it came in today.

I also have the Red Sea Alk and Salifert Alk test kit (just in case). I used the Hannah checker throughout the problem so I consistently tested with the same method.

 

[nukemdanno]

You can also dose vinegar in small amounts to lower the ALk