Help guys my dosing pump overdose 64 Oz of bionic alkalinity in my reef tank is 180 gallon most of the corals are lps and some sps what can I do to lower alkalinity I usually run my alkalinity at 8 and I tested and it shows 11 do I need to worry about it or leave it alone Mt tank looks like it was snowing.
Overdose alkalinity
- Thread starter angel
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The only way to reduce it quickly is to do some water changes. The snow you're seeing is mostly calcium carbonate precipitating out of the water. It is usually advised that you do not raise your alk by more than 1.5 dkh change a day. So... you're not that far out of that range... and since I know some reefers that keep their dkh around 10-10.5. I don't think you need to panic yet. Definitely go ahead and do some water changes and keep a close eye on the big 3, Ca, alk, and mag. If you opt to go for water changes, use some lower alk water like instant ocean for example.
+1 You may want to make sure the salt your using isn't higher than what your at now as it will increase it with more water changes. For example, I believe Reef Crystals is at 11dkh and Vibrant Sea is at 6dkh. Depending on the salt your using you may need to let it drop naturally.
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stop dosing a few days an let it fall on its own.
Yes, stop dosing and let it fall naturally. Turn up the powerhead flow a little so the particulate doesn't fall all over the corals, blow them off if they're dusted. Then keep an eye on your Cal and Mag. They may have dropped some with the precipitate and raising both back up, starting with the Mag, will also help drop the Alk some as it will bring it back in balance.
If you have low nutrients to begin with you may see a little burning of the sps tips. If so turn the lights down a little and feed just a little extra. Once the big three are where you normally keep them do a water change and resume dosing.
If you have low nutrients to begin with you may see a little burning of the sps tips. If so turn the lights down a little and feed just a little extra. Once the big three are where you normally keep them do a water change and resume dosing.
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Keep dosing the Calcium. That's too low... which is normal when you get precipitation of calcium carbonate as you did. You just lost a nice chunk of calcium. Normally that precipitation does not occur with minor swings in either Ca or Alk because magnesium will interrupt the bonding process between the two. So keep an eye on the big 3.
What's your Mag at? If it's below something in the upper 1300's then manually dose it to get it in that range.
Once that's covered and several hours have passed manually dose the Cal to get it into the 430 range. You can safely raise Cal by 50 points per day. So raise it to 410 today and then get it into the 430's tomorrow. As the Cal goes up the Alk will drop some as well.
Once that's covered and several hours have passed manually dose the Cal to get it into the 430 range. You can safely raise Cal by 50 points per day. So raise it to 410 today and then get it into the 430's tomorrow. As the Cal goes up the Alk will drop some as well.
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hold on guys.
I may be wrong, but I would think he needs to stop dosing everything until his alk gets corrected.> THEN does his mg and his ca so that all 3 are in balance. If he pulls up MG and CA to balance at this high alk it will never get sorted.
Lots of things die from weird ALK, but most things are fine with low ca or mg.
I may be wrong, but I would think he needs to stop dosing everything until his alk gets corrected.> THEN does his mg and his ca so that all 3 are in balance. If he pulls up MG and CA to balance at this high alk it will never get sorted.
Lots of things die from weird ALK, but most things are fine with low ca or mg.
Good reading here. Wondering what your parameters are now and how you managed @angel
Also wondering which dosing pump you had the issue with?
Nice tank you have and this things always happen.
Hopefully you have it sort it off.
Also wondering which dosing pump you had the issue with?
Nice tank you have and this things always happen.
Hopefully you have it sort it off.
Hey Brandon, per RHF.
https://www.advancedaquarist.com/2002/11/chemistry
Hey guys thank you for all your comments sorry I didn't reply but I just got back from our trip. I test my water and this is the result
Alk 7.1
Calcium 360
Magnesium 1100
Everything looks good I did loose one head of gold torch and one gold hammer all my other corals look good all my sps look very good actually they look better than before I didn't do anything I just let the alk go down by it self.
I'm going to start dosing again tonight to bring everything back to normal
Alk 7.1
Calcium 360
Magnesium 1100
Everything looks good I did loose one head of gold torch and one gold hammer all my other corals look good all my sps look very good actually they look better than before I didn't do anything I just let the alk go down by it self.
I'm going to start dosing again tonight to bring everything back to normal
