Overdose tank

RockStarReefer · Mar 4, 2019

Over the weekend I made a big mistake and mix up my dose instead of doing alk then calcium I double dosed by mistake the calcium and kill 4 fish I did a 10 gal water change and now my take is cloudy should I do another 10 gal water change or let it run for few days and retest water

saltyfilmfolks · Mar 4, 2019

Water changes at what you want yes.

What product are you using?

The water should not be cloudy.
Calcium should not kill fish.

Dylan Cutchin · Mar 4, 2019

Yeah, Calcium shouldn't be harmful to fish, perhaps it was the Alk swing?

laverda · Mar 5, 2019

Calcium can kill some fish if it participates. The participate collects in the gills and chokes them to death. Wrasses are especially susceptible to this. That said normally a double dose should not be enough to cause this to happen.
What size tank? What was you Ca level? How much did you dose total? What are you dosing with? What are your ALK & Mag levers? What is your PH?

SeaDweller · Mar 6, 2019

laverda said:
Calcium can kill some fish if it participates. The participate collects in the gills and chokes them to death. Wrasses are especially susceptible to this. That said normally a double dose should not be enough to cause this to happen.
What size tank? What was you Ca level? How much did you dose total? What are you dosing with? What are your ALK & Mag levers? What is your PH?

I’ve never had calcium precipitates kill fish. I’ve added 2 part where there were precipitates formed and nothing has ever happened. Has this actually happened to your fish?

laverda · Mar 8, 2019

TitanCi said:
I’ve never had calcium precipitates kill fish. I’ve added 2 part where there were precipitates formed and nothing has ever happened. Has this actually happened to your fish?

No not that I recall. I have been keeping saltwater fish for 26 years now so hard to remember everything bad that has happened. I have had fish show signs of stress and heavy breathing when dosing phosphate remover. When phosphates are near zero it causes calcium to participate. It is a know to be a potential issue. Some fish are more susceptible than others.

vetteguy53081 · Mar 9, 2019

Calcium should not have impacted the livestock, but rather skeletal coral. I would look at the water with water change. Was the water the same as tank temp and not colder which could cause shock? was it RO water or tap or well water?
Now that water has settled, test again and see where your levels are at