Possible emergency - Overdosed All For Reef

Reefing102 · Jul 31, 2023

Hey guys,

Quick question. So I accidentally pushed a shelf into my Neptune Dos and didn’t realize it got the manual dose button stuck on. My tank is about 75 gallons total volume. It dosed approximately 1300 ML of All for Reef. As of right now, my Alk isn’t terrible at 10.5. Since All For Reef is more of a parameter balancer more than something to raise Alk. Is there anything I need to worry about? My Alk normally runs about 9-9.5. Do you guys think the all “spike” is peaked or should I wait longer?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jul 31, 2023

Alk is certainly going to rise. What was your usual dose?

Reefing102 · Jul 31, 2023

5 ml. I just started dosing and was attempting to balance it out

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jul 31, 2023

Assuming alk begins to take off, water changes or acid (not vinegar) are the ways to keep it in check.

Reefing102 · Jul 31, 2023

Thanks! I have plenty of water. Could probably do 100% water change if needed.

Reefing102 · Aug 3, 2023

So just an update…for my tank…no ill effects

Troylee · Aug 3, 2023

Reefing102 said:
So just an update…for my tank…no ill effects

What did you end up doing if anything?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Aug 3, 2023

How is the alk doing?

Reefing102 · Aug 3, 2023

I did nothing and let it ride.

For testing purposes it peaked at the 10.5. I had to be away the following day so didn’t get to test additional times. My rainbow BTA and leathers looked sad for a day but everything else seemed perfectly fine. Currently, back to the 5ml dosing,

PH peaked at 8.46 (not unusual anyway). Didn’t test calcium. As of today, PH is 8.41, calcium is 450 and Alk is sitting at 9.6 currently.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Aug 4, 2023

Reefing102 said:
I did nothing and let it ride.

For testing purposes it peaked at the 10.5. I had to be away the following day so didn’t get to test additional times. My rainbow BTA and leathers looked sad for a day but everything else seemed perfectly fine. Currently, back to the 5ml dosing,

PH peaked at 8.46 (not unusual anyway). Didn’t test calcium. As of today, PH is 8.41, calcium is 450 and Alk is sitting at 9.6 currently.

I'm surprised it didn't peak higher. Maybe there is still formate in the water, but in any case, glad its working out.

Reefing102 · Aug 4, 2023

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
I'm surprised it didn't peak higher. Maybe there is still formate in the water, but in any case, glad its working out.

Im sure it probably did. The only thing I’ve noticed is the water has been getting cloudy in the morning and then clearing up once the halides come on. I don’t think that has anything to do with it but just an interesting thing.

Edit to add…Just tested, twice, and all is sitting at 15.7 (the highest reading on Salifert). Still no I’ll effects really showing though. I’m guessing the cloudiness is precipitation (I think that’s the term). I’m just turning off my doser and letting it ride out

Randy Holmes-Farley · Aug 4, 2023

Reefing102 said:
Im sure it probably did. The only thing I’ve noticed is the water has been getting cloudy in the morning and then clearing up once the halides come on. I don’t think that has anything to do with it but just an interesting thing.

That could be bacteria consuming the formate.

Pod_01 · Aug 5, 2023

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
That could be bacteria consuming the formate.

Randy, out of curiosity would it not be easier to measure Calcium in case like this?
I used AFR and I recall that calcium is available soon after dosing while the Alk is bit of mystery (Time wise).
Maybe the Calc just precipitated out just as fast?
1.3L of AFR in 75 gal tank would be like 185 mg/L of calcium. My math is probably wrong.

areefer01 · Aug 5, 2023

Depending on the age of the display I probably would have done a series of water changes. Especially if the water was available.

I tend to agree as mentioned above. I'm surprised you are not seeing an Alk spike after a few days. Also no Ca increase? Seems odd.

Reefing102 · Aug 5, 2023

So I edited my above post shortly after posting and now I see I made an error in spelling. I’ll break out all my kits to see where numbers are when I get home from work. Yesterday, shortly after posting the Alk was up to 15.7 or higher (that’s the highest number on salifert). I’ll also likely do a water change tonight if it’s still that high. So far still no visible ill effects other than high numbers. Right now my doser is turned off til I get my numbers straightened back out

Randy Holmes-Farley · Aug 5, 2023

Pod_01 said:
Randy, out of curiosity would it not be easier to measure Calcium in case like this?
I used AFR and I recall that calcium is available soon after dosing while the Alk is bit of mystery (Time wise).
Maybe the Calc just precipitated out just as fast?
1.3L of AFR in 75 gal tank would be like 185 mg/L of calcium. My math is probably wrong.

If you want to judge the overdose, calcium can work but is cruder. A 20 ppm bump in calcium (barely detectable) corresponds to a 2.8 dKH bump in alk.