New to SPS, added some and had a huge alk drop. Did I just break everything?

S

splix

New member
Added some SPS into my tank from a guy near me that was tearing his down. I QT'd the stuff to look for critters and things, which I didnt figure I would find, but better safe to be sorry.

Added it into my DT this morning. I know I tested my alk the night before and it was around 8. Tested it tonight, it was 6.5! :headwalls:
I didnt want to swing it back up too fast, so I dosed enough to get me back up to 7 at least.

Of course now I'm freaking out. Mag and Calc of course are crazy high because of the alk drop. It's going to be 3-4 days before I can get alk back up to 8.5-9 and calc back down to 400 and mag below 1500.

Did I just screw up all this SPS I got for a stupid good deal?
:headwalls::headwalls::headwalls:
 
My suggestion is don't do anything too quickly--if your corals look ok, they probably are ok, if they did respond adversely to the spike, changing quickly again only perpetuates the damage. Resist the temptation to make a lot of changes, go slow, sometimes a partial water change is all thats needed...


Mark
 
How many SPS you added that in 12 hours the Alk dropped from 8 to to 6.5, assuming that at the morning, when you added the new SPS's, it was still around 8 dkh.
 
a couple tips of my pink lemonade are bit white but they have polyps. I've noticed it hasnt gotten worse or better since yesterday.

The green staghorn hasnt polyped yet. I'm hoping it's not shot.

The montiporas look healthy. The seasons greetings had a bit of a white center to it when I got it. Hopefully I can reverse that. It wasnt bleached totally white, just a bit of a shade lighter than the rest of it.
 
What size tank is it? That much coral shouldn't affect a large system too much but on a smaller tank it might. But I would agree with trying to keep things stable for now. Maybe do a little dosing to make sure it doesn't drop more, but swings are going to hurt you more than low ALK.
 
They'll probably be fine, only the bad nutrients (ammonia, nitrite) will cause SPS to die in that speed. test and chart your alk consumption like 3 times a day for the next few days, and start dosing to keep your kH at 7 now. The worst thing is to try change it now it's there, leave it at 7 and aim for 8

I've had my kH swing 2 dkh a day, and calcium upto 500, as long as it's gradual changes it's fine, but being put into a new tank usually triggers a slime response which would have made this new drop less impactful I believe. Try now to stabilise and in the next week or so to get it back to 8 / 400. Magnesium doesn't really have an impact, it's either higher than 1200 and ok or not
 
I would retest everything. When adding new corals they generally are not going to suck up your alk that fast, especially with just a few additions.

Also your cal/mg and alk should all drop in the same ratios. If you found you went to raise your alk and the cal and mag went crazy high chances are something is wrong in your test kits. They should all go up in the same balanced ratio.
 
doing a 10% water change this morning. I'll let you know how it goes.
Just tested alk again at 6.5 this morning. I havent tested anything else. I dont want to waste the test kit. I'll do the WC real quick then test.

I just got brand new calc and mag test kits. I dont think this alk one went bad in a couple of days. It was testing fine. I'll test the new water before I do the WC with it just to make sure.
 
Ah I just realized you have a 1.5 gallon setup. 6.5 should not be too bad, but it can be tough to get the parameters in check with so little water volume.
 
nevermind, I was not paying attention enough.

OK, parameters don't generally change that quickly with that kind of an addition, something is not right.
 
After the 10% water change alk is sitting around 7.5. Calc is above 500, mag is 1400. I'll let calc drop on it's own and dose up alk to 8.5 over the next 2 days.
 
Here is my theory on what happened.
These montipora have live rock attached to them, probably 5 lbs worth of it. Also keep in mind this is my first SPS venture so it's all still a learning curve to me on SPS. I know LPS and fish, etc.
I asked the guy that I got him from what his salt and alk were at. He said his alk was high around 10 or so. Salt was at 1.024. When I got home before putting them into QT, salt was 1.026 and alk was 8.5 in the water from him. My QT tank was 8.5 and 1.026 as well so I dropped them right in. They were in QT for 36 hours before going into DT.

I'm betting his calcium was crazy high and so the water from the LR got into my QT and raised the calc in that just keeping it probably in the nighborhood of 600. I didnt test calc on his water or my QT. With soooo much SPS in such a little QT tank, it just ate all the alk dropping it dramatically. This I didnt know SPS "ate" alk basically. I knew calcium but didnt realize the affect it would have on alk in total. So when I brought that low alk water from the LR into my DT, the SPS was starving for alk and just shocked my tank for alk dropping the level but at the same time raising calc from the water leaching out of the LR.

That would explain my both ways swing.

So far things dont look horrible, but they're not looking great either. The montiporas look brownish in full spectrum but glow their colors when the anctic(spelling?) is on, the green staghorn is whiteish without polyping (might be a goner), and the pink lemonade tips are white but have full polyps. White edges on the montipora havent grown so thats good, I'm not sure if they're growth rings or RTN. White tips on the pink lemonade havent gotten any whiter, they're just as they are. Not a lot of color in the pink lemonade, but it wasnt either when I got it. I'd like the pink lemonade to survive, along with all the montipora. If I lose that large seasons greeting I'll be a bit angry at myself.

I know all of this was from my own doing and my inexperience with SPS. Now I know, and now I understand a lot better.
 
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In a 175 G Tank that amount of SPS will never reduce the alk in that way in hours.

Someone wrote...measure Alk in 3 days.... That is what you normally will do in that size tank and that SPS bioload. Of course, you have LPS too that use some Alk, but your tank was equilibrated for those before.

Nevertheless, with an Alk of 6,5-7.5 I will not worry at all. If you are dosing a 2 part solution and doing weekly WC of around 10% I will be measuring Alk almost every day and Ca every week. Mg will replenish from WC. I never measure it. Once in a while only !!. But I will start to look also carefully your Phop and Nitrate levels, that need to be in balance with your Alk. If you have very low Phop. And Nitrates, you ~7 dkh is OK.

Cheers

Ps: a Salifert Alk kit cost me ~ $12 in Amazon and has 100 test in high resolution. Measuring Alk is cheap. Do it frequently until your system is in equilibrium again. Then do it twice per week, more or less, to fine tune your 2 part dosing.

All the best !!! You will get it !!! But be ready for some loses !!!
 
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I'm testing alk every 12 hours. Something is wrong.
I had alk at 8 last night at 10pm. Tested this morning at 10am. it's at 6. Mag is dropping about 1000 every 24 hours right now, but it's still at 1300. Calc is rock solid at 600, it wont drop down for some reason.

I've got to get calc down to help keep alk up. I'm doing another 10% WC right now.
 
I just figured it out. While prepping my WC I tested the WC water and it's at 650 calcium! HOLY S.....

So by doing my water changes I was screwing myself....awesome. I always tested PH and alk in my WC water, but not calc. I didnt think it would be that high. Because the calc is so high, it's causing my alk to drop, and well as mag while it's being used. I'm having to dose around 60 ml of seachem fusion part 2 (alk only)every 24 hours just to maintain my alk.
I'm using seachem reef salt. Never again.
 
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