Overdosed Kalk

tencwhiskey · Jul 15, 2014

I have been working on getting on my levels good, so I can dose kalkwasser through ATO.

I ran it for the first time last night, I ran 1 tsp per gallon to start. I had 3 gallons in my reservoir. I have the aquasmart ato is has working great. Somehow conveniently, I believe had a siphon problem and dumped my whole reservoir. My sps is bleached. My ph looks like went up from 8.1 to 8.3 maybe. My alk is 9 which is lower then norm. So I'm a loss. Any ideas what I should do??

gdemos · Jul 15, 2014

total water volume in your primary tank? you may have some calcium carbonate precipitate out of solution, so check all pumps/impellers etc. may need to clean them (vinegar or muriatic). from the change in pH from 8.1-8.3 that is insignificant so i'm guessing that is the change in pH over a long period of time (not the immediate spike). you may want to do a water change...but doesnt sound like anything catostrophic. ive had a few white outs due to faulty kalk top off, not ideal, but not devastating.

Adam Baggett · Jul 15, 2014

Me too. I have used Kalk and still do sometimes, I have also had that happen. Water change is the way to go. Do a good healthy water change but not too much to send you tank into a cycle. Keep testing every day until you see things normalize. But and this happened to me, you might not get your figures back exactly to where they were. Don't fret over it. My pH went up, came down some and stayed stable. But is higher from where I started from and all is OK.

tencwhiskey · Jul 15, 2014

72 gallon with 20 gallon sump.
Only significant thing I have noticed thus far is my acro bleached. I was having trouble with it browning but now it's definitely bleaching.

tinctorus · Jul 18, 2014

You should be fine since it was a relatively small amount of kalk you used anyways
Worst thing I've ever seen happen was a customer of mine started using kalk so I told him what to do but he apparently doesn't listen well and just dumped a 16oz container of kalk powder right into his display tank and then called me screaming saying that I killed his tank by telling him to use this crap... I said how is it my fault you can't listen OR read directions and just go dumping this all willy nilly into your tank knucklehead?

tencwhiskey · Jul 18, 2014

lol love it!! Everything is good except that dang acro bleached.

Adam Baggett · Jul 18, 2014

Sorry about the acro. Is it 100% bleach?

clownfitch · Jul 18, 2014

I had an acro bleach from my ato sticking open and allowing too much kalk in. The polyps stayed and are still a bright green. The base has gone from the bright green to bleached, brown, and now finally returning to green. I would be careful about changing too much water and swinging the kh to the lower side too fast as that can have a negative effect also.

my .02