Help after tank crash w/ uncalibrated ph probe

Vdlibrtr · Dec 19, 2022

Well, I crashed my tank. I accidentally went too long without calibrating my PH probe and when it started to show me a Ph of 9.9 i didnt even think to recalibrate (doh!). dumped in what would've been an appropriate amount of white vinegar if the probe had been accurate, and bam, everything started melting.. I then ran to my lfs to get the water tested and It was reading 6.7! ran home, did a 30% water change but that barely brought it up, only to 7.5-7.7 depending on the time of day. added some reef code a and b, and that didn't help either. more wc, more reef cod a and b, which again, didnt help do anything but throw my dkh out of wack.... one last water change and im done adding anything but bacteria, now im confused (as if I wasn't already).

the question is, will any of this slowly fix itself? do I need to do a 100% water change? I've lost 3 BTAs and a few hammers that already weren't happy are starting to look even worse. whats my best course of action? thanks!!

Randy Holmes-Farley · Dec 19, 2022

Sorry to hear this.

It will come back on its own but there might be a bacterial bloom from all the vinegar.

I would do anything else that the moment except keep aeration up. More water changes may sped up the recovery, but are not actually going to change the final water chemistry much.

Vdlibrtr · Dec 19, 2022

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Sorry to hear this.

It will come back on its own but there might be a bacterial bloom from all the vinegar.

I would do anything else that the moment except keep aeration up. More water changes may sped up the recovery, but are not actually going to change the final water chemistry much.

thanks! I've got all filter media out except some carbon because of said bacterial bloom, ill take that out after work as well. I also ran out of salt and had to use red sea pro instead of my regular tropic marin (non pro), im sure that didnt help

Dburr1014 · Dec 19, 2022

Vdlibrtr said:
thanks! I've got all filter media out except some carbon because of said bacterial bloom, ill take that out after work as well. I also ran out of salt and had to use red sea pro instead of my regular tropic marin (non pro), im sure that didnt help

Yikes.
Yes time, that's all.
Is your probe old? Or just out of calibration?
With reefing, only bad things happen fast.
I try to double check things before making any moves and the moves I do are small. Then I check again.
Just give it time and it will come back together.
Sorry OP.

Vdlibrtr · Dec 19, 2022

Dburr1014 said:
Yikes.
Yes time, that's all.
Is your probe old? Or just out of calibration?
With reefing, only bad things happen fast.
I try to double check things before making any moves and the moves I do are small. Then I check again.
Just give it time and it will come back together.
Sorry OP.

its probably less than 2 years old but I've recalibrated it a few times, I never really used it a whole lot either. when I originally found the ph high I added a portion of the amount to bring it down, it dropped, then a few hours later rose back up (according to faulty ph probe). thats why I kept dosing vinegar. I appreciate the info! ill let it hang out and hopefully the torches, hammers and my Chicago sunburst will make it!

Dburr1014 · Dec 19, 2022

Vdlibrtr said:
its probably less than 2 years old but I've recalibrated it a few times, I never really used it a whole lot either. when I originally found the ph high I added a portion of the amount to bring it down, it dropped, then a few hours later rose back up (according to faulty ph probe). thats why I kept dosing vinegar. I appreciate the info! ill let it hang out and hopefully the torches, hammers and my Chicago sunburst will make it!

2 year old probe is time to replace. Probably won't calibrate correctly. Make sure to get a double junction as a replacement.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Dec 19, 2022

I've also corrected problems that didn't exist, and would strongly urge anyone who gets a test result that warrants a strong action, to double or triple check before taking that action.

brandon429 · Dec 19, 2022

Drop your light intensity -30% and sustain a while, failure to adjust high par level setups to insults involving alk, pH temp etc= bleach and rtn factor. First step is -30% overall light intensity drop. That wouldn’t even hurt a normal running reef, it’s why it’s such good initial cpr first move.

Vdlibrtr · Dec 27, 2022

brandon429 said:
Drop your light intensity -30% and sustain a while, failure to adjust high par level setups to insults involving alk, pH temp etc= bleach and rtn factor. First step is -30% overall light intensity drop. That wouldn’t even hurt a normal running reef, it’s why it’s such good initial cpr first move.

thanks for the info, I did lower my whites by about half even though it wasn't high to begin with and limit exposure to 8 hours down from 10. the ph is fluctuating between 7.4 in the morning and at night sits about 7.6 or 7.8. havent been doing anything other than stepping my feeding up because of double zero phosphate and nitrate that caused a dino outbreak. its a lot at the same time and figure if by next Monday dinos havent gotten better and im still testing 0 nitrates ill start dosing. I also just started using pro reef tropic marin salt because of course during all the commotion I ran out of salt, im sure that didn't help but hoping it'll bring my alk down and my ph and everything will stabilize. thanks for the input!