Alkalinity overdose

[Silly clownfish]

First time in over 20 years of reefkeeping I have had something like this happen. First it appears that my alkalinity and calcium dosers got switched, then in trying to raise calcium I left what was actually the alk pump on way too long. Calcium has precipitated, alk is off the chart by either Hanna (flashing 20j or API. Both of my serpent stars died in the proc ( one of them I would have had 20 years in February), so I am concerned they released toxins. My flame hawk was dead this morning. All other fish are hiding. I was able to catch my ocellaris while she was still sleeping in her favorite spot this morning and out her in a 1.5 gallon qt that was already running with a new CBS.

I have done 1 water change of 12 gallons (75g tank with 20L sump - probably about 75 g after accounting for rock, etc.). At the speed of my RO filter I think I can do this twice a day, max. I pulled out an old canister filter and am running GAC for whatever the serpent stars may have released. The tank is very cloudy, so I debated whether to run GAC or the micron filter I have for the canister.

Current #s :
Alk = 20+
Ph =8.44 (down from 9.05 last night)
Nitrates ~20_30 (I have a very hard time discerning numbers)
Nitrates - detectable, ~0.01
Calcium -250

I am afraid to dose calcium until things stablize a little. ATO with kalk is OFF.

Should I try to bring the alk down by methods other than water changes due to my limitations of RO production? Vinegar?

If I can catch any other fish, I will move them to my office tank, that only has a pair of clowns, so anyone other than the ocellaris that I moved to qt should be able to go in there temporarily.

Any advice is appreciated.

 

[RBU1]

I would do as large of a water change as you can and wait things out.


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[bertoni]

Also, some ammonia binder like Prime might help.

Bringing down the alkalinity isn't all that important. It's the sudden change or perhaps impurities in the supplement that likely caused the problem.

 

[Silly clownfish]

Thank you both. I have prime for QTing new fish and will add some of that. Cursing the speed of my RO system for water changes...

 

[Vinny Kreyling]

Slow & steady wins the race.

 

[clevername]

iv had a really crappy timer do this twice, left alk pump on.
Water was pure cloudy, left for about 4ish hours.

First put in a filter sock, and change out every 30min. This reduced the precipitation a TON! carbon just gets clogged within minutes (recommended for later).
I let it filter out for a 2 hours in socks THEN i did a VERY large water change.
Havnt lost any corals or fish yet.

next step, got myself a professional timer

 

[Silly clownfish]

Well in this case the overdose was my fault, had the plug in the wrong outlet of my apex. I did 6 or 7 water changes of 15-20% over the long weekend and got alk down to 13.5 (RC is higher alk than I would like) and brought mag back up to 1300 and calculus to 380. Nitrites back to zero and nitrate around 5 (I have a hard time with the color chart).

Remaining fish are acting normal and LPS and softies pretty much recovered, but I think I lost all of my SPS - red and green monti, spongodes, birds nest, Jedi mind trick. I am leaving most of it in the tank to see if any recovers. The monti was so overgrown that this is forcing an overdue remodel.

I think my copepod population crashed. I don't see any on the glass and my mandarin is spending more time at the brine shrimp feeder. I am glad I have maintained a stand-alone pod farm and I trying to ramp up harvests. In the meantime I am hatching brine shrimp every day instead of as a treat a couple times a month.

 

[Drichard]

Man reading this ugh... this just happened to me my cheap pos jaebo doser dumped 750ml of all into my tank. My wife called me and said babe it looks like your tank is snowing. I get home to a complete white out. Thank god nothing died I did a small water change changed all filters and after about a week the white is 3/4 gone. Good luck man


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