DKH is over 16!!!

[SactownReefer]

Hey guys. I woke up this morning and heard my dosing pump constantly going... and it dumped about 6 months of All for Reef into my 80 gallon tank. My DKH is over 16 at this point and I'm worried about everything dying. I'm mixing some water now and plan to do a big water change... but I've also read that a large water change can kill everything. I tested my Alk yesterday morning and it was at 8... so the change was sudden. Not sure if that helps.

I'm just looking for some advice. Please help!!!!

 

[therootcause]

Do the water change (make sure to bring the water to tank temp first).

@Randy Holmes-Farley is quoted on 3/26/2011 at 10:59am on Reef Central in regard to correcting a 150 gallon aquarium with 17dKH "Water change is probably the best way. Adding muriatic acid works, but will drop pH a lot and risks overdose very easily."

 

[Cell]

Big Water changes and acid if needed.

 

[Borat]

6 months worth of dosing ? I would think your DKH is around 100-160, rather than 16...

 

[therootcause]

6 months worth of dosing ? I would think your DKH is around 100-160, rather than 16...

Not yet. A4R doesn't dose alkalinity the same way a two part doses alkalinity. A4R is consumed by a bacteria that raises alkalinity. And right now they FEASTIN.

 

[Troylee]

Hey guys. I woke up this morning and heard my dosing pump constantly going... and it dumped about 6 months of All for Reef into my 80 gallon tank. My DKH is over 16 at this point and I'm worried about everything dying. I'm mixing some water now and plan to do a big water change... but I've also read that a large water change can kill everything. I tested my Alk yesterday morning and it was at 8... so the change was sudden. Not sure if that helps.

I'm just looking for some advice. Please help!!!!

Is your tank pure white like milk? What’s your ph level at?

 

[SactownReefer]

Hey guys. Thanks for all of the replies!

Surprisingly, my PH is at 7.9. I expected it to rise... but looking at my Apex Fusion info it slowly decreased yesterday.

My water is slightly cloudy but not too bad. It also occurred at night, I believe. So I turned off my lights, hoping not to stress out my corals and maybe that is also keeping a bacterial bloom from occurring. Which reminds me... I gotta make sure to aerate my water so the fish have enough oxygen. not sure if that's a good idea or not but made sense to me.

As for the 6 months worth of AFR... that's just a guess. I made about 2.5L of solution and most of it is gone at this point. I'm thinking of going with a smaller container moving forward.

As for acid... is there a recommended dosage? I have gallons of it for my pool.

Again, thank you all!

 

[therootcause]

As for acid... is there a recommended dosage? I have gallons of it for my pool.

It's muriatic acid, it's really effin dangerous, do the water change.

Here is a more recent thread also involving A4R.

All For Reef Overdose ALKALINITY 17.7dkh!

75 gallon mixed reef heavy with a lot of LPS corals and a few fish. 3 years old. My son dosed All For Reef early this morning when I wasn't home (don't ask me why he did or how much) but I noticed at dinnertime a couple of my Hammer' heads looked like they were bailing on me. Nitrates 5ppm and...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

When was the last time you measured alk?

What if the 16 dKH is a test error?

 

[SactownReefer]

I tested my Alk yesterday morning and it read @ 8.2 dKH. I tested again this morning three times just to make sure I didn't mess up the test and each time it read 16.4-16.5. I'm using a Hanna checker.

When I added in the reagent solution to the 10ml vial... I could tell something was way off just based on the color. It was really blue instead of a greenish-blue color.

 

[Someshmuk]

I tested my Alk yesterday morning and it read @ 8.2 dKH. I tested again this morning three times just to make sure I didn't mess up the test and each time it read 16.4-16.5. I'm using a Hanna checker.

When I added in the reagent solution to the 10ml vial... I could tell something was way off just based on the color. It was really blue instead of a greenish-blue color.

It probably had a chemical runout and started precipitating out. When your parameters clear up, check your equipment for calcium buildup.

 

[SactownReefer]

It probably had a chemical runout and started precipitating out. When your parameters clear up, check your equipment for calcium buildup.

I will. Thank you.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I’d use that same kit right now on new salt water. Unless you had a sudden massive overdose in the last 24 h, the high values now seem likely to be test error.

 

[SactownReefer]

I’d use that same kit right now on new salt water. Unless you had a sudden massive overdose in the last 24 h, the high values now seem likely to be test error.

Definitely a massive overdose. My dosing pump added about 2L of All for Reef into my system... when it usually gets about 25 Ml a day. I was messing with the app for a new program... and apparently, I left it in a constant run mode. So definitely my fault.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Ah, OK. I'd do a water change as the alk may keep going up.

 

[Bitcoin Reefer]

Do the water change (make sure to bring the water to tank temp first).

@Randy Holmes-Farley is quoted on 3/26/2011 at 10:59am on Reef Central in regard to correcting a 150 gallon aquarium with 17dKH "Water change is probably the best way. Adding muriatic acid works, but will drop pH a lot and risks overdose very easily."

dang bro. Finding old Randy posts to answer questions. Next level support hahahah

 

[Bitcoin Reefer]

Hey guys. Thanks for all of the replies!

Surprisingly, my PH is at 7.9. I expected it to rise... but looking at my Apex Fusion info it slowly decreased yesterday.

My water is slightly cloudy but not too bad. It also occurred at night, I believe. So I turned off my lights, hoping not to stress out my corals and maybe that is also keeping a bacterial bloom from occurring. Which reminds me... I gotta make sure to aerate my water so the fish have enough oxygen. not sure if that's a good idea or not but made sense to me.

As for the 6 months worth of AFR... that's just a guess. I made about 2.5L of solution and most of it is gone at this point. I'm thinking of going with a smaller container moving forward.

As for acid... is there a recommended dosage? I have gallons of it for my pool.

Again, thank you all!

So what can you do to make this not happen again. Relying on not forgetting to turn off constant mode (human error) is probably not best, we tend to make mistakes again lol (Or I do at least). So in this case I would probably think, only put enough to dose 1 month or 2 at a time, so even if it gets full dosed, it isn't AS bad as 6 months lol.

 

[SactownReefer]

So what can you do to make this not happen again. Relying on not forgetting to turn off constant mode (human error) is probably not best, we tend to make mistakes again lol (Or I do at least). So in this case I would probably think, only put enough to dose 1 month or 2 at a time, so even if it gets full dosed, it isn't AS bad as 6 months lol.

Definitely my plan. I'll make a batch every month.. .so about 750Ml. I'm so annoyed with myself. We put so much time into this hobby and then to make a bonehead mistake like this is so upsetting. haha.

 

[Bitcoin Reefer]

Definitely my plan. I'll make a batch every month.. .so about 750Ml. I'm so annoyed with myself. We put so much time into this hobby and then to make a bonehead mistake like this is so upsetting. haha.

Anything having ill effects yet? Corals acting funky? Any other weird stuff? I wonder if dKH is logarithmic like pH where each 1.0 is order of magnitude increase (10x)

 

[SactownReefer]

Anything having ill effects yet? Corals acting funky? Any other weird stuff? I wonder if dKH is like pH where each 1.0 is order of magnitude increase (10x)

My hammer, frogspawn, and torch corals aren't extending that much... but the rest seem to be okay for now.

That's a good question... I'm not sure if it's exponential like PH. hopefully not!