Overdosed all for reef...

liam31 · Nov 2, 2020

Hello! Had my 20g setup for a few months all going well... Last week I did a test and my alk was 7 calcium 380 and magnesium 1200. All was fine a bit low but.. did a 20 percent water change last night @ 35ppt with red sea blue. But for the past 4 days been dosing 2ml of all for reef each day. My problem I was working a lot and didn't test. The dosing calculator said start at 2ml and increase if need be to a max of 12ml (I just dosed 2ml). I thought this would be safe. My fault for not testing.

Just did a water test with red sea pro
Kh 10.9
Mag 1500 plus
Calcium 480 - 500. So basically I overdosed. How can I safely bring this down? Everything apart from my Duncan us opened up fully etc. Snails are moving etc.
Thanks

Montiman · Nov 2, 2020

I would call this a safe range. What was dangerous was the change. I would just stop dosing and wait for the parameters to drop. Keep testing your levels and resume dosing at a lower level once your levels settle back at your target parameters.

liam31 · Nov 2, 2020

Montiman said:
I would call this a safe range. What was dangerous was the change. I would just stop dosing and wait for the parameters to drop. Keep testing your levels and resume dosing at a lower level once your levels settle back at your target parameters.

Thanks this is what I thought but wasn't sure. So even if it's over the 500 and 1500 range just let it drop? No water changes?

Montiman · Nov 2, 2020

500 calcium is what some salt mixes mix at and I have raised magnesium to 1600 to kill bryopsis so I would not worry. Whatever your normal water change cycle is I would stick to it. Dropping the levels back down rapidly could be as stressful as raising them up quickly.

liam31 · Nov 2, 2020

Okay thanks. I'll stick to my weekly 10 percent and retest next week. Thank you

Randy Holmes-Farley · Nov 2, 2020

Alkalinity may continue to rise substantially. I'd keep an eye on it.

liam31 · Nov 2, 2020

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Alkalinity may continue to rise substantially. I'd keep an eye on it.

Okay. How would I go about reducing it of need be?

jesspal · Nov 2, 2020

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Alkalinity may continue to rise substantially. I'd keep an eye on it.

Due to the way it the bacteria work in the product works?

SMSREEF · Nov 2, 2020

You could do a water change.
But likely leaving it alone and letting levels come down naturally will be best.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Nov 2, 2020

jesspal said:
Due to the way it the bacteria work in the product works?

Yes. When first dosed, it is not present in a form that can be detected with an alkalinity test. At this point, we do not know how much has been converted.