Doser line exploded and alk drop on sps

[SBB Corals]

Hi my doser line got clogged and all dropped from 8.9 down to 5.4.. I just got the doser backonline and Manuel brought alk up to 6.0.. my tank is sps dominate. Is the tank gonna crash and how slowsly should I bring the alk back up?

The sps today looks better then it has in along time. Could the acros like the lower alk?

 

[Ron Reefman]

No they don't like lower alk!!!

Everybody here will tell you to bring it up slowly. However, I have some sps (acros) in my tank (mostly zoas) and I dose manually once a week. I bump alk from 6.5 or 7.0 to 9.5 in one shot over about ten minutes and I've never seen a bad reaction. But that's me and you'd probably be smart to bump it up by 0.5 to 1.0 dKH every 12 hours until you get where you want to be.

Good luck.

 

[trido]

I would not bring your Dkh from 6.5 to 9.0 in ten minutes. Just put your doser back on line and increase the output of the Dkh and Calcium by about 10%. It will raise back up over the course of a week or so. And, In some tanks, SPS do prefer a Dkh of 7-8 over a Dkh of 9-11. It depends on your nutrient load in the water. ULNS need lower Dkh where a tank with dirtier water (more coral food) get faster growth with higher Dkh.
HOw often are you testing your Dkh that your parameters dropped so low?

 

[SBB Corals]

I would not bring your Dkh from 6.5 to 9.0 in ten minutes. Just put your doser back on line and increase the output of the Dkh and Calcium by about 10%. It will raise back up over the course of a week or so. And, In some tanks, SPS do prefer a Dkh of 7-8 over a Dkh of 9-11. It depends on your nutrient load in the water. ULNS need lower Dkh where a tank with dirtier water (more coral food) get faster growth with higher Dkh.
HOw often are you testing your Dkh that your parameters dropped so low?

i test twice a week. i saw it was low at 5.4 and then checked the doser and saw the tubing somehow got knocked off and all alk spilling onto the floor. im dosing 150ml per day so dosing alot.. luckily i cought it in time

 

[trido]

I missed the SPS dominant. My dkh will drop from 10 down to 8 in 12 hours if my Calcium reactor is off line for any reason. I have never had a tank crash from the occasional glitch. My Dkh has been as high as 16 and as low as 6 over the last two years but these usually happen over the course of a month or two. I quit being lazy and test weekly again.. For ease of maintenance long term, I'd recommend a calcium reactor in your future.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Now that you caught it and its flowing again, let it build itself back up via the doser and do not chase it to make it go back up quickly as it will end in a disaster

 

[Saltyanimals]

Just had a doser issue too that dropped alk to 4.5. I manually dosed and quickly brought it up to 7 over two doses about 4 hrs a part. Bit fast and hindsight personally but was in bit of panic and wouldn’t be home to resolve it properly. Will see how that affects the corals.
My doser issue was with alk and ca lines switched around and containers and I wanted ca offline for a bit to correct high ca. I ended up taking alk offline for 3 days. Oops.