Calk overdose

[kratosxxl]

Hi all
Yesterday due to power outage and my overflow box being stupid ato puts 5 gal limewater in to the display tank(half tlbs per gal kalk) after 6 hr cloudiness disappeared and everything is alive but it looks like snow storm went thru the tank Any suggestions ? What to do ? Can change 100% water obviously.
Thank u

 

[kratosxxl]

Anyone ????

 

[CStrickland]

not a big deal

The following important points should help in dealing with a limewater overdose:
1. Don't panic! These overdoses do not usually cause a tank to crash.
2. The primary concern is pH. If the pH is 8.6 or lower, you need not do anything. If the pH is above 8.6, then reducing the pH is the priority. Direct addition of vinegar or soda water is a good way to accomplish this goal. Either one mL of distilled white vinegar, or six mL of soda water, per gallon of tank water will give an initial pH drop of about 0.3 pH units. Add either to a high flow area that is away from organisms (e.g., a sump).
3. Do not bother to measure calcium or alkalinity while the tank is cloudy. The solid calcium carbonate particles will dissolve in an alkalinity test, and all of the carbonate in them will be counted as if it were in solution and part of "alkalinity." The same may happen to some extent with calcium tests. Wait until the water clears, and at that point, alkalinity is more likely to be low than high. Calcium will likely be mostly unchanged.
4. The particles themselves will typically settle out and disappear from view over a period of 1-4 days. They do not appear to cause long term detrimental effects to tank organisms.
5. Water changes are not necessarily beneficial or needed in response to a limewater overdose.

more here, toward the bottom of the page http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-07/rhf/

 

[jason2459]

My biggest concern would be the pH? What is that at? The alk and calcium would precipitate out causing the storm. Filter that out.


Edit: just saw this happened yesterday. pH should have normalized by now. In the future more aeration and soda water could help bring down the pH with out effecting much of anything else.

Good read on pH problems and cures by RHF
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-03/rhf/

 

[kratosxxl]

Thank u soo much now i can sleep ) ph is around 8,5. I was wondering about unsolved particles but all corals look good to me

 

[jason2459]

8.5 is on the high side but with in the recommended range. I'd let that fall more before dosing more kalk.

 

[kratosxxl]

Yeah ill skip kalk for 2-3 weeks

 

[jason2459]

Yeah ill skip kalk for 2-3 weeks

I doubt you'd have to wait that long.

 

[kratosxxl]

The good thing is it killed almost all algae i tank also from sump. Is it something that usually happening ?

 

[jason2459]

The good thing is it killed almost all algae i tank also from sump. Is it something that usually happening ?

Could have been the pH spike, quick absorption of the CO2 which caused the pH spike, the precipitation covering it, or limewater(kalk) can precipitate out phosphates that the algae was consuming or a combination of all the above or something else entirely.

Chemistry subforum would be a good place to post that question and scenario.

 

[kratosxxl]

Thank y so much for ur input. )) i hope this turns out good

 

[kratosxxl]

Im using pickling lime. U think its possible that it was expired thats why didnt killed stuff ?

 

[jason2459]

Im using pickling lime. U think its possible that it was expired thats why didnt killed stuff ?

don't know it's shelf life but I'll assume it was fine and why your pH is at the higher end of the recommended range along with causing a precipitation "snow" storm.. These kinds of events have happened many times before with other people. Some have reported no issues and some have reported dramatic losses.

 

[kratosxxl]

So im guessing its just luck

 

[kratosxxl]

Btw can u recommend good overflow box ? To prevent things like this. Cant drill its a tempered glass

 

[jason2459]

I used a lifereef one for a very short period when i had my 55g otherwise I went HOB with everything.

What I do to ensure there isn't an overdose is use a controller. I've done it with both a reefkeeper and currently an Apex.

I have a pH probe in the sump that will not allow my ATO pump to run if pH is higher then 8.5.

I also have a conductivity probe that will shutdown the ATO if it falls below 32ppt converted to salinity.

Then I have the ATO pump on an outlet that the controller will not run for more then 10minutes at a time with out a 20 minute break in between dosing if it needs to.

Then I have several switches with the main water low is a dual float switch run in series. So if one fails the one just above it is a failsafe.

Then I also have another high switch as redundancy in case that twin series switch fails.

Then on top of that one I also have a tsunami AT1 pressure switched outlet that the ATO pump is actually piggy back plugged into that is what's plugged into the controller outlet. This is if the controller as a whole fails and the pressure switch will shutdown the ATO pump.

And to top it off I make sure my ATO container isn't to big in case all the above fails and the container is emptied into the sump. On my 55g I used a 5g bucket under the stand. On my 180g I have a 29g container and may have 25g usable.

That all protects against limewater overdose and ATO flooding.

 

[kratosxxl]

That is a nice setup

 

[Sk8r]

Turkey baster. Clean new one. Blows off dust.

 

[Bent]

This recently just happened to me. I literally did nothing and it was business as usual in the glass reef. No one cared, and nothing had any problems.

Just wait it out brah, you'll be fine. Don't panic like I did.

 

[kratosxxl]

I tried turkey blaster it makes water cloudy and then its again on rocks ) useless