Had an alk overdose, now what?

[Bustyraker]

Had an alk overdose, everything seems fine. My brs dosing pump was accidentally left on all night and dumped half a gallon of alk into my 120 gallon. Came home to a snowstorm. Ph was around 8.3 and no stress from anything I could see. I added some calcium to help combat the high alk. More or less just looking for some advice to clean up the snowstorm mess. I'm barebottom so everything is covered. I read that as long as my ph is lower than 8.6 then it will all dissolve back into the water within a few days?

 

[StikHedRon]

I did a very similar thing and about 3months later all my acros started STN'n. Lost over 75% of them. Good Luck.

 

[reeffirstaid]

Hmmmm... alk doesn't really dissolve into water. In 3 days the snowflake like chunks will disappear, but all that extra alkalinity will be in your water. I would recommend using a siphon hose to vacuum out as many of those chunks, as you can. Then conduct water changes, daily, to combat a spike in alk. Have you tested your alk? Anything about 14 dKH can spell doom, for most corals and many inverts. As for adding calcium to combat the alk overflow, bad idea. This just creates a whirlwind of instability.

 

[Bustyraker]

Alk is around 12 and calcium is about 400.

 

[-Logzor]

Do nothing, just let it pass. I've had the same thing happen. Your alk will measure artificially high for awhile, when that much hits at once it just precipitates calcium out. Water changes may help a little but don't do anything dramatic.

 

[Bustyraker]

So should I try to add calcium daily or just let everything alone until the alk drops more?

 

[Reefing Madness]

Nothing wrong with the numbers you've posted, I'd wait til they drop a bit more, then resume dosing. Your ok, nothings out of whack there.

 

[Dowtish]

+1000 on not doing anything.

Just let it drop on its own.

I did the same thing when I turned my alk pump on from my phone and I didnt know it. My alk went from 8dkh to 14dkh. I did one small 5 gallon WC to get alk down to 12dkh and then just let it fall over the next 5-6 days. Nothing happened to my SPS.

 

[petemichelle]

the alk in my 29 gal biocube is 11.8-12.2, the calcium is 430-450. the mag is 1360-1400. I keep the levels here and everything is fine. in fact if you check the red sea salt mix and watch their foundation video, that's what they recommend for accelerated growth.