Snowstorm!!

[smorrow5773]

Last night I setup my usual once/week kalk drip, no problem. I got up this morning and the tank was all white, I checked the container and the valve had hallen of the tubing allowing two gallons to stream into the sump. I blew off the rocks and cleaned the side glass, my ph is back to normal, but my anemone is obviously very stressed. What do you recomend doing at this point? I did a 25% water change this afternoon, set my skimmer to pull wet and put in carbon. What are the effects of this happening to my water parameters?

 

[tcottle]

If your pH is back in the normal range you are probably OK. CA and Alk are high and at the saturation points (hence the snow storm). They will fall back into the normal range as they are consumed. I'd do a another 25% water change and watch the livestock closely.

This issue comes up a lot in the Reef Chemistry Forum and I am sure that you will find additional info there

Good Luck!
Todd

 

[smorrow5773]

I tried to look there, but won't let me search and there is only one page worth of listings. Anyways, I googled it and found some people saying everything died, others saying nothing was affected. I thought I would check with y'all and see if it has happened to anyone before.

 

[Horace]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6874451#post6874451 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by tcottle
If your pH is back in the normal range you are probably OK. CA and Alk are high and at the saturation points (hence the snow storm). They will fall back into the normal range as they are consumed. I'd do a another 25% water change and watch the livestock closely.

This issue comes up a lot in the Reef Chemistry Forum and I am sure that you will find additional info there

Good Luck!
Todd

Actually I think the snow storm is caused by the high PH. The PH getting too high causes the calcium to precipitate. For that reason you have to be careful about what you typically run your calcium and PH at because if they are too high you will get alot of calcium on your pumps etc.
To be truthful. A snow storm is not the end of the world. Typically your not going to lose corals/fish because of it. Especially if your PH is now in check (I think the reaction brings PH back in range until it stops). Anyway, just let it come back to normal, dont go crazy doing huge water changes. Its not really needed.

 

[smorrow5773]

Thanks, I held off on the second water change because I used up my premade on the first, I was due for a change this weekend anyway. Actually, this morning my tank looks really good, water is crystal clear, anemone is fully open, just a little white dust in the lower flow areas. The only casualty seems to be in my refugium, normally pods are everywhere. I dropped some food in and all I saw was 1 bristleworm(normally couple dozen) and absolutely no bugs!!