Alk over 16 DKH!!

[mattruggiero]

Hey guys. I woke up this morning and heard my dosing pump constantly going... I looked and it dumped about 6 months of All for Reef into my 80 gallon tank. My DKH is over 16 at this point and I'm worried about everything dying. I'm mixing some water now and plan to do a big water change... but I've also read that a large water change can kill everything. I tested my Alk yesterday morning and it was at 8... so the change was sudden. Not sure if that helps.

I'm just looking for some advice. Please help!!!!

 

[reefing102]

I had the same happen to me. Except mine was about 3 months worth but still, the same spiked Alk. I let my tank ride it out. Lost quite a few Acro frags and montis. One of my urchins lost several spines but otherwise survived and they grew back. No other visible affects except a cloudy tank a couple days afterward.

It was recommended to do a series a small water changes, but I didn’t. The way I understand it is you don’t want to shock things in the tank. I hope this helps some!

 

[mattruggiero]

So small water changes is the way to go if I want to go that route. Cool. That makes sense... Thank you for the response!

Was there any effect on your fish? I'm not too sure if Alk that high can have negative effects on them.

 

[reefing102]

No visible affect that I noticed on my fish

 

[mattruggiero]

Just occurred to me... should I turn off my lights during this phase?

 

[reefing102]

I didn’t. I’m not sure what affect lights would have in this case

 

[griss]

Agree on the small water changes. You could even do two small water changes a day, one in the morning and one in the evening.

 

[mattruggiero]

When you state small water changes... Are you thinking about 10% changes? Just curious.

 

[reefing102]

If it was to happen again to me, I’d probably do 10-20%

 

[Genetics]

If you just caught it I would be inclined to do water changes until it came down. Over 16 is going to bleach/kill many corals.