Urgent!! NEED HELP ASAP!!!

K

killinit123

New member
here's the story, so yesterday I replaced my 5 gallon bucket of for my ATO. everything was fine until this morning when i woke up.. I noticed that it was empty!! so it turns out that my fload switch got stuck in the on position and 5 gallons of RO water and Kalk went into the tank.. this happened over the course of 10-11 hours.. so my question is should I be taking action on this quickly?? seeing as it happened over such a long period of time would the salinity/ alk swing be a major issue? I was thinking about just letting it evaporate to to the correct water level which should bring all my levels back down to normal.. I had to run into work this morning so I did not get a chance to check the salinity or alk before leaving, but i'm assuming the salinity level is low!! I did notice that all my corals appeared to be fine with polyps extended. any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.. for reference this is a 75 gallon tank with a 40g sump so total water volume is a little over 100g. mixed reef with mostly LPS and SPS. I'm really freaking out about this because I am at work and can not monitor the tank right this second but if people here think it is urgent I get home to correct the problem I would have no issue leaving work and doing so please help!!!
 
Personally I would not sweat it. When you can check your numbers see where you are and act accordingly. More than likely let things settle out on their own. Just my 2 cents good luck
 
I would do your normal test and see where there at. Worst case is do a water change and get it back into parameters.
 
gone fishin said:
Personally I would not sweat it. When you can check your numbers see where you are and act accordingly. More than likely let things settle out on their own. Just my 2 cents good luck
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Yea just talked to the fiance who is monitoring the tank now she said all corals look fine and opening up and sps have good polyp extension still.. I'm more worried about the alk swing ill see if I can tech her how to test it over Facetime lol.. but thanks for the help really appreciate it.

1fstnsx said:
I would do your normal test and see where there at. Worst case is do a water change and get it back into parameters.
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thanks a lot for the help and quick responses love this forum
 
The salinity is the big issue. PH is somewhat of a tiny issue, since kalk goes in at ph 12, while 7.9 typical of the ocean. You COULD fix this with a little dose of (I kid thee not) Schweppe's Bar Soda, but it self-adjusts so very fast, you could easily kick it down much TOO far. SO generally just call it a salinity accident or a topoff accident. The kalk will look crappy for a while, but will ultimately dissolve and not be a problem. THis is why we call it one of the SAFEST dosing methods.
 
Sk8r said:
The salinity is the big issue. PH is somewhat of a tiny issue, since kalk goes in at ph 12, while 7.9 typical of the ocean. You COULD fix this with a little dose of (I kid thee not) Schweppe's Bar Soda, but it self-adjusts so very fast, you could easily kick it down much TOO far. SO generally just call it a salinity accident or a topoff accident. The kalk will look crappy for a while, but will ultimately dissolve and not be a problem. THis is why we call it one of the SAFEST dosing methods.
Click to expand...

thanks for the info!! while I am concerned about the salinity swing I was under the impression that kalk is a good supliment for alkalinity and from what i have read too high or too low of Alk can have detrimental effects on corals specifically sps which i have a lot of is this true?? also even though SG can have a very big negative effect I cant imagine that 5 gallons would bring it down to lethal levels am i safe in assuming this? I just got a report back from my fiance that everything is still looking normal in the tank as well.. but thanks a lot for the responses
 
Kalk mostly feeds calcium, in the presence of a good alk level and a good mg level. Go 420 calcium by hand-dosing, likewise 8.3 alk and 1300 magnesium, then switch on your kalk and just keep testing magnesium to keep it up, and keep refilling your reservoir with fresh water to dissolve more kalk. I can go on vacation a full month with a friend to switch out reservoirs midway. [I use 32 gallon Rubbermaid Brute trashcan as reservoir.]
 
Sk8r said:
Kalk mostly feeds calcium, in the presence of a good alk level and a good mg level. Go 420 calcium by hand-dosing, likewise 8.3 alk and 1300 magnesium, then switch on your kalk and just keep testing magnesium to keep it up, and keep refilling your reservoir with fresh water to dissolve more kalk. I can go on vacation a full month with a friend to switch out reservoirs midway. [I use 32 gallon Rubbermaid Brute trashcan as reservoir.]
Click to expand...

thanks for the info once again.. all of my parameters are in check with cal 410-450 on the high end mag 1300-1350 and alk 8.5-9 but I have not yet tested since this happened so I will have to do so when i get home to make sure nothing is out of whack.. which im sure it probably is but if nothing negative is noticeably happening im just going to let it evaporate then do a water change tomorrow which i do every single Sunday and then test again and go from there.. thanks for all the help
 
5 gallon should disrupt your salinity too much in a 75. Most likely will evaporate over a few days and slowly drop it back to normal levels.
 
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