So, I screwed up and raised my Alk too high

[waterart]

So, I screwed up and raised my Alk too high....12.65 dkH.

I stopped dosing the Alk on 7/16 and the Alk fell to 8.6dkH by 7/22. So, over 6 days it fell 4 dkH. And, now all my SPS tips are turning white, and things are not looking good.

So, question is, for future reference....how much Alk change can SPS generally handle without taking on any damage?

 

[M007]

I dunno, how much smog can you breath until u pass out? Seriously, sorry about your swing but going forward you need to keep you dKH stable and what ever burns out now was a goner anyway. Damage done, learn from it :headwalls:

 

[rodneyri]

0.5 swing i find acceptable, thats assuming my test is 100% accurate which we know they arent.

but im comfortable if i test and its 0.5 variance from day to day

 

[dirtyBit]

I always thought it wasn't so much the size of the swing but how fast you do it. Acceptable levels are around 7 - 11. I wouldn't move from 7 to 11 in one afternoon but over several months it may be okay.

 

[waterart]

I have been doing web searches tonight, and the most popular opinion I have noticed is that a daily swing of less than 1 dkH seems to be pretty safe. I dropped it 4dkH over 6 days, so perhaps the main damage was done during the high Alk period, rather than the 6 day dropping period.

 

[Fieroguy19]

IMO it was definately the swing that hurt them. There are people that run there tanks at 12dkh and others that run them at 7dkh and they have no problems. I have personally had my alk slowly drop from 8.5dkh to 6.7dkh over several weeks and saw no stress in the corals since the change happened slowly. The rapid changing of the alk is what caused your problems.

 

[bobkill]

I bump the swing as well- just remember nothing good happens fast - a swig of 1 a day seems to much- I would stick with the 0.5 or even less - it won't hurt it to hang around 12 for a while!

Hang in there ! Your built is amazing fyi

 

[dvanacker]

I'm finding this thread interesting. I do believe alkalinty swings can cause the most grief and alk is very important. How ever recently I left my dosing pumps on all night long. I figure my tank went from 8dkh to 12kdh overnight. I then left the dosing pumps off for 4 days which brought my alk back down to around 8dkh. Well actually I only test once a month and havent tested at all yet.

I thought I was going to see some very unhappy SPS but havent really noticed anything much....cant really say I noticed anything at all really. Im wondering if its because my corals in general are so healthy right now that they can handle other environmental factors that go wrong temporarily?

Its been about 2 weeks or more since the incident.

 

[sponger0]

Or better yet, figure some sort of auto dosing that will keep your alk from swinging at all. I use my ATO with baking soda and my alk never swings more than .3

 

[waterart]

I'm finding this thread interesting. I do believe alkalinty swings can cause the most grief and alk is very important. How ever recently I left my dosing pumps on all night long. I figure my tank went from 8dkh to 12kdh overnight. I then left the dosing pumps off for 4 days which brought my alk back down to around 8dkh. Well actually I only test once a month and havent tested at all yet.

I thought I was going to see some very unhappy SPS but havent really noticed anything much....cant really say I noticed anything at all really. Im wondering if its because my corals in general are so healthy right now that they can handle other environmental factors that go wrong temporarily?

Its been about 2 weeks or more since the incident.

Darryl -

Mine is going down the toilet pretty quickly....I think it is a combination of the High Alk Spike & and the switch to Radion LED's from MH 250's x 3.... My paramenters have been stable and right on track, with the exception of the Alk spike. I started doing Vodka 6/2 and a have been slowly increasing the dose...now up to 3.5 ml a day spread out over 7 doses.

All of my parameters are good. However, I have my Mg at 1800....Bryopsis issue...I doublt that is effecting the corals...
I have no real temp swings always 78.5-79. 50 gal of water changes monthly. No salinity swings. Corals are fed every other day. Alk and Ca good. PO4 ~ .03, Can't remember the Nitrate value....I think it was 3 ppm? Flow is good (2 MP40's). And, I set my Radions at 50% initially...and I am slowly ramping them up.

I think I am going to go home tonight and do a 50 gallon water change....and just accept my losses and start over...not buy corals until I get the Vodka where it needs to be....by mid September.

Any major changes in a relatively young system seems to be have major impacts.

 

[waterart]

:thumbsup:

I bump the swing as well- just remember nothing good happens fast - a swig of 1 a day seems to much- I would stick with the 0.5 or even less - it won't hurt it to hang around 12 for a while!

Hang in there ! Your built is amazing fyi

Thanks for the compliment!!! Helps keep my morale up :thumbsup:

 

[reefsafe]

I just had a kalk reactor go nuts and My alk went up to 16 and CA up to 600. did a cup of vinegar and a 40 gallon change. So far everything is doing ok. Not fun.

 

[waterart]

50 gallon water change....done....

 

[waterart]

When things go bad....they go bad fast.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[dvanacker]

Dont give up you have an amazing set up........we have all had those hic ups.

 

[waterart]

And, right after I took that pic above...the bubble blaster pump quit working on my Reef Octopus. So, now I am skimmerless. This is almost comical, that it went out today...of all days.....

Hopefully, Coralvue can get me a replacement quickly. If not, I wonder if I should lay back on the Vodka dosing?

 

[ashok sakthivel]

And, right after I took that pic above...the bubble blaster pump quit working on my Reef Octopus. So, now I am skimmerless. This is almost comical, that it went out today...of all days.....

Hopefully, Coralvue can get me a replacement quickly. If not, I wonder if I should lay back on the Vodka dosing?

I've had the same issue with the pump after an alk overdose, the fact that your alk has gone down to 4 would suggest that you have had a lot of precipitation. My bubble blaster 2000 pump was back to normal once I opened it and soaked it in vinegar for a day. The impellor was completely white with calcium carbonate and jammed when i removed it.

Hope this helps,

Ashok

 

[blakers82]

I have some input here. My calcium reactor had a few issues recently while I was on a business trip. Upon my return my testing showed a dkh of 16. I slowed up my reactor and brought alk back down to 13 over the last 5 days. ((I do normally run my Alk pretty high.)) Fortunately, most all of my corals are fine. Unfortunately, my Oregon tort started to blow apart. Honestly, I'm very glad to see almost all of my sps handle the fluctuations and I have a good variety of acropora. Not sure if this experience helps , but I thought I'd share.

Side note: I enjoy the cal rx setup, but even the few instances of trouble keep me drifting closer to installing dosers.