Bifferwine
New member
I had an accidental kalk overdose in my 90 gallon tank three days ago. This is the first time in 10 years that it's happened! I was so upset.
Anyways, the pH spiked to 8.8+. I added too much vinegar, apparently, which dropped it down to 7.2. DOH! So then baking soda brought it back up to 7.8 (this all happened over a period of about 3 or 4 hours). Even after adding two boxes of baking soda, I couldn't get it above 7.8. All the corals and fish were alive, but the corals were sliming all over the place and the fish were at the bottom gasping. I sucked out as much of the slime as I could with a turkey baster. I stayed up for a couple more hours just to watch everybody, and the fish slowly recovered. By this time, it was 3 am, I said, "Screw this, there's nothing more I can do tonight -- I'm going to bed."
The next day, everyone was accounted for, and I did about a 40% water change. I've been running carbon 24/7 too.
Three days later, shrimp is fine, clam is fine, two big starfish are fine, fish are fine, SPS corals are fine, zoas and shrooms are fine, urchins are fine, most of the LPS are fine, but some of the other corals are hurting. My blastos haven't fully opened since, none of my 5 euphyllias have opened since, my open brain has remained shriveled and sad looking, and the big cabbage leather has shrunk to half its previous size.
And, I've had a mass exodus of mini brittles from the rocks. There are hundreds of them littering the sandbed, struggling to stay alive. I'd never seen their bodies before -- they'd all just wave their arms around from inside the rocks. Now it's like they all decided to leave the rocks at the same time and commit mass suicide on the sand.
Water params are back to normal -- nitrate, nitrite and ammonia at 0, pH at 8.0, alk and calcium are good again.
What can I do to try and help the guys out that are suffering? Is there anything else I can do? More water changes? I'm really concerned for the corals that haven't opened up in 3 days now.
Thanks. I've never had to deal with anything remotely like this before.
Anyways, the pH spiked to 8.8+. I added too much vinegar, apparently, which dropped it down to 7.2. DOH! So then baking soda brought it back up to 7.8 (this all happened over a period of about 3 or 4 hours). Even after adding two boxes of baking soda, I couldn't get it above 7.8. All the corals and fish were alive, but the corals were sliming all over the place and the fish were at the bottom gasping. I sucked out as much of the slime as I could with a turkey baster. I stayed up for a couple more hours just to watch everybody, and the fish slowly recovered. By this time, it was 3 am, I said, "Screw this, there's nothing more I can do tonight -- I'm going to bed."
The next day, everyone was accounted for, and I did about a 40% water change. I've been running carbon 24/7 too.
Three days later, shrimp is fine, clam is fine, two big starfish are fine, fish are fine, SPS corals are fine, zoas and shrooms are fine, urchins are fine, most of the LPS are fine, but some of the other corals are hurting. My blastos haven't fully opened since, none of my 5 euphyllias have opened since, my open brain has remained shriveled and sad looking, and the big cabbage leather has shrunk to half its previous size.
And, I've had a mass exodus of mini brittles from the rocks. There are hundreds of them littering the sandbed, struggling to stay alive. I'd never seen their bodies before -- they'd all just wave their arms around from inside the rocks. Now it's like they all decided to leave the rocks at the same time and commit mass suicide on the sand.
Water params are back to normal -- nitrate, nitrite and ammonia at 0, pH at 8.0, alk and calcium are good again.
What can I do to try and help the guys out that are suffering? Is there anything else I can do? More water changes? I'm really concerned for the corals that haven't opened up in 3 days now.
Thanks. I've never had to deal with anything remotely like this before.
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how are things looking? if you need to put some of your corals in a temporary tank, your always welcome to put it in my in line frag tank and come get them when your ready.
