URGENT HELP NEEDED - ALK DOSING pump was on all nice.

zemuss · Dec 16, 2014

So i woke up this morning and saw my tank a milky white so cloudy that i cant see from side to side.. I did a 5 gallon change before i had to leave to work and left the alk dosing pump off of course. My question is how can i reduce the alk to prevent any more damage in the tank?

RalphsReef · Dec 16, 2014

I'd do another water change when you get home from work. And then another later tonight and early tomorrow if possible. Repeat until your alk is back in check.

zemuss · Dec 16, 2014

yea thats the plan and family are standing by to hear from me. I guess I will just ask my sister to do a water change today in 3 to 4 hours then another when i get home.

I must have hit the on switch of the timer and didn't notice it last night.

tonymission · Dec 16, 2014

What dosing pump is that where that's possible? I'm sorry to hear that, hope it all works out!

zemuss · Dec 16, 2014

its a peristaltic pump that doses 1.1 mil per minute. it runs off a timer.

phillrodrigo · Dec 16, 2014

I've done the same thing on my 75. I did a 20 gallon that night which brought it back to 16 I believe. Then I did a 30 which brought it down to 14. I think I did another and just let it drop on its own after that. I use reg instant ocean. For whatever reason I didn't see any negative effects from it even on my few sps.

zemuss · Dec 16, 2014

Phill that is good news for me.

zemuss · Dec 16, 2014

Randy I really could use your expertise here. What do you think?

Thanks,
Concerned Reefer.

menglish · Dec 16, 2014

Here is a post on my local reef club site that may be useful to you.
How to Respond to a Kalk Overdose - General Discussion - WAMAS Forums

zemuss · Dec 16, 2014

Thanks Menglish. I was about to leave work to get the water changes rolling in. Now I wll just test the PH when I get home and in the future know to test PH on a regular basis.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Dec 16, 2014

Sorry to be late. Busy day.

The white precipitate of calcium carbonate has the effect of dropping the alk back toward normal, and you cannot measure alk when the water is cloudy. It will read false high.

If the pH is below 8.6, waiting it out is usually OK.

Water changes may help, of course.

I've turned my tank milky many times with limewater and never lost anything.

zemuss · Dec 16, 2014

Great to hear Randy..

Thanks.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Dec 16, 2014

You're welcome.

Good luck!

zemuss · Dec 17, 2014

I got home pretty late last night but the water was clear and the glass was all white. I guess the white film is calcium?

I have the skimmer skimming pretty wet right now and will be doing another water change friday and another saturday.

Nothing was burnt so i think right now i am ok. Just need to test the alk and figure out when to restart the dosing.

thanks to everyone who chimed in and recommended things.

-Logzor · Dec 17, 2014

I've had this occur before and nothing died, as Randy has mentioned, the precipitation has a lowering effect on the alkalinity. Mine was reading over 16 Dkh but was actually much lower, I'm guessing.