Need Help kalk overdose

[Robert S Colton]

During a routine water change the kalk ato was left on and shot up my alk from 8.2 to 11 and ph from 8.2 to 9.2 and ph is still 9.05 now. What can I do to save the system?

 

[Dread Pirate Dave]

What's in the tank? Possibly another water change or two to lower things and just ride it out?

 

[Robert S Colton]

What's in the tank? Possibly another water change or two to lower things and just ride it out?

Full sps 265 gallons. Lots of fish and corals. Currently in full panic mode.

 

[LARedstickreefer]

I could be wrong, but I’d leave it alone and let it slowly come back down. Avoid another swing, even if it’s to lower it.

 

[GatorGreg]

Holy moly that’s a beautiful tank…….id be a nervous wreck too. I can’t imagine it taking very long for all that hard coral to soak that Alk up. Maybe just switch over to normal RODI water for ato until your corals soak it up and your back at normal levels? I bet some stick heads will chime in soon with more qualified responses.

I done this very mistake before. I now have all my stuff on a Controller. When I press water change. Everything besides the lights are disabled with one press of a button.

It doesn’t come back on until I’m ready and press the normal mode button. Then the entire tank resumes normal function.

 

[Robert S Colton]

Thank you all for chiming in thus far. Ph is down to 8.97. I have the top off skipping the kalk stir and it’s helping drop. Anything else I can do besides wait it out? Of course I have a couple thousand dollars worth of frags coming to my doorstep tomorrow. ***

 

[goosemans]

I know Ryan from BRS said he avoided a huge catastrophe much like yours by dumping distilled vinegar into his tank. Maybe @Randy Holmes-Farley can help

 

[bakbay]

Good luck man — as shared earlier from Randy’s post way back, pH at 9 is very dangerous for the inhabitants. Either slowly dosing CO2 or vinegar to bring it down to 8.5.

Alk is fine and should naturally come down. The last thing you want to do is quickly lower Alk at this juncture.

@Randy Holmes-Farley @vetteguy53081 thoughts?