Dumped Almost 1/2 Gallon of Alk!

FrankAbagnale · Apr 16, 2015

I am very sad! My apex just woke me up and the tank is all white! Looks like my doser dumped about a 1/2 gallon of ALK into the tank. PH was 9.07 and has now gone down to 8.74.

Is there anything I can do? I'm afraid of doing large water changes, but in all honesty I have no idea what to do.

Tank is 75 gallon. Lots of coral.

7hogwarts · Apr 16, 2015

Do Large water changes until the levels return. I had a similar situation,my doser put in 3 gallons of alk, my sand bed turned to rock. I lost many coral, but not all. My bed never reversed, but my corals are now all fine. I did daily water changes for 2 plus weeks. PITA.

FrankAbagnale · Apr 16, 2015

I'm just concerned that large water changes may actually hurt. I worry that it would be another drastic change in a short period of time.

It looks like my PH went up to 9.36 at its peak. It's down to 8.58 now.

Shep · Apr 16, 2015

FrankAbagnale said:
I'm just concerned that large water changes may actually hurt. I worry that it would be another drastic change in a short period of time.

It looks like my PH went up to 9.36 at its peak. It's down to 8.58 now.

It might hurt but its much better than all that alk being in there. You don't really have a choice, if you do not remove the extra alk its going to kill everything.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Apr 16, 2015

You probably boosted alkalinity by about 40 dKH. That's pretty significant, but the precipitation has lower it a lot, and you cannot get a useful reading when the water is cloudy.

An alternative to water changes is to bring the alkalinity down with muriatic acid, slowly and carefully, with lots of aeration to keep the pH from dropping too low for too long.

FrankAbagnale · Apr 16, 2015

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
You probably boosted alkalinity by about 40 dKH. That's pretty significant, but the precipitation has lower it a lot, and you cannot get a useful reading when the water is cloudy.

An alternative to water changes is to bring the alkalinity down with muriatic acid, slowly and carefully, with lots of aeration to keep the pH from dropping too low for too long.

I was hoping you would reply. I did a pretty small water change, but may try the muriatic acid. How much do I add and how? Do I drip it? Or is there a certain amount I should add?

FrankAbagnale · Apr 16, 2015

And should I take carbon and/or gfo offline with the muratic acid?

Alabamareef · Apr 16, 2015

I just had this same thing happen except my pH was at 10. I used vinegar to lower my pH. It was what I had handy and if you've got muratic acid I'd do as Randy says. He is who told me about the vinegar

Alabamareef · Apr 16, 2015

I also did a large water change. Lost a few fish and some coral. I't will bounce back. Just keep your water quality good.

Alabamareef · Apr 16, 2015

Don't forget areation and don't drop you pH below 8.5

FrankAbagnale · Apr 16, 2015

Alabamareef said:
Don't forget aeration and don't drop you pH below 8.5

My PH is at 8.2 right now! Did you mean 7.5?

How much vinegar did you add? I could do muratic or vinegar. I'm just not sure how much to add!

Randy Holmes-Farley · Apr 16, 2015

Instead of muriatic acid, you can also use sodium bisulfate, such as Seachem acid buffer.

For muriatic acid, here's a recipe for someone who wanted a 6 dKH drop in 13 gallons:

The "acidity" (that being essentially negative alkalinity) of muriatic acid straight from the bottle is about 11,000 meq/L.

So adding 1/11,000 of the water volume as this acid will drop alkalinity by 1 meq/l (2.8 dKH).

You want a drop of 13-7 = 6 dKH, or 2.1 times that amount, so you'd add 1/5,100th of the water volume.

13 gallons ~ 49 L

1/5100 of 49 L = 9.6 mL

Alabamareef · Apr 16, 2015

If your pH is at 8.2 I'd do nothing else. And I did mean 8.5

FrankAbagnale said:
My PH is at 8.2 right now! Did you mean 7.5?

How much vinegar did you add? I could do muratic or vinegar. I'm just not sure how much to add!

Alabamareef · Apr 16, 2015

Ok. I wen t back and you dumped Alk and the issue I had was Kalk. So Randy is telling you how to bring your Alk back down. Sorry

deerhunter06 · Apr 16, 2015

Alabamareef said:
If your pH is at 8.2 I'd do nothing else. And I did mean 8.5

just a side comment here... 8.5 is on the high side of ok......ideal ph is 7.8 - 8.5

Alabamareef · Apr 16, 2015

Well for the everyday reef yes but when you have an elevated pH as an acute issue such as Kalk and you need to lower it quickly by using something like vinegar you don't want to go below 8.5 because you'll have the initial drop and another drop after a few hours. So the point is to cut off at 8.5 so your final numbers will be around 8.0.
So yes for the normal reef 8.5 is at the high end of good but when your having an issue and dropping your pH with vineger or muratic acid 8.5 is as low as you need to go so you don't oxygen deprive your reef.

deerhunter06 said:
just a side comment here... 8.5 is on the high side of ok......ideal ph is 7.8 - 8.5

Alabamareef · Apr 17, 2015

Any Update

SPS_ · Apr 17, 2015

What caused it to dump so much alk?

FrankAbagnale · Apr 17, 2015

Alabamareef said:
Any Update

Tank has cleared up quite a bit. Looks like it has snowed on everything. I added some smaller micron bags in the sump to catch the "snow" as I blow it off the rock.

All the coral looks good so far! PH has been holding around 8.6-8.8.

SPS_ said:
What caused it to dump so much alk?

Good question! I have a Bubble Magus dosing pump and the 2nd doser failed and just kept running! If I turn the doser on, the 2nd doser just keeps running. I did a Google search on Bubble Magus dosing pump malfunction and found a few other people who had the 2nd doser on their dosing pump fail the same way.

I found that Sea Side Aquatics is the Bubble Magus distributor and have been talking with them. I don't know what the outcome will be on the doser yet, but I don't have any faith in Bubble Magus dosers anymore. Not sure what I'll do for doing now.