Doser Mishap: ALK at 6, Please Help!

LeanneP · #1 11-16-2014, 05:55 AM

My hose came off on my doser for my alkalinity and when I checked my levels a couple of days later (I was away) my alk was at 6.8. I dosed 25mls at 10 am this morning and by 5pm it was down to 6.4 so then over the next hour and a half I added another 125mls but it has now dropped to 6.0. My calcium is still being dosed as usual but it has gone from about 410 to just over 500 tonight. I am totally lost on what I should do and why the alk is not going up. Should I be adding more calcium to balance it? Have I totally screwed my tank? The tank is 90 gallons and my test kit is new so I know it is accurate. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks. Leanne

TimT · #2 11-16-2014, 06:17 AM

Hi Leanne,

You haven't screwed your tank up but some of the corals may get stressed and you need to deal with it quickly.

The probable reason for the line to come off the dosing pump is that the other end is plugged with calcium carbonate. You can replace the line or use pliers to break it up and then run the dosing pump to flush it out the residue.

With your calcium going up to 500 you will need to make sure your magnesium is 3x that so 1500mg/l. With the Magnesium in the correct ratio the chances of carbonate precipitation on the pump impellers, heaters and sand/gravel is greatly reduced.

So action steps to take are:
1. Temporarily stop calcium going into tank until it is back down to 425 - 440.
2. Add magnesium to bring water to 1500mg/l
3. Then add sodium bicarb to bring the alk back up.

Cheers,
Tim

LeanneP · #3 11-16-2014, 06:35 AM

Hi Tim,
My hose just came off when I was changing jugs so it was found off by my parents who were looking after my tank. I have now added Mg and I have been manually adding alk from my jug that I use for dosing from Two Little Fishies C-Balance. I am just confused on why the alk keeps dropping when I have added 150 mls of it today. Is it because the tank is unbalanced now?

Proteus · #4 11-16-2014, 07:54 AM

What's your mg at.. You won't see alk come up until mg is at the rate of 3x the cal as Tim stated.

reefwars · #5 11-16-2014, 02:42 PM

Your calcium went up because corals and ther animals stop calcification once you get below 7 so since the animals stopped using it and the calcium doser was still going it went up , it will fall naturally ver the course of the next two weeks once alkinity is back in range and the animals start using it again.

Something is fishy with your Alk numbers what do you dose and how big of a tank? 150 mls in one day should see a rise of a few points even in larger tanks so either the test was wrong , solution is mixed wrong or the measurement was wrong .

What do you test Alk with?

Proteus · #6 11-16-2014, 03:44 PM

Myka did a great write up on the big three and how they affect each other just thought you like the read to help you along the way
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=48321

LeanneP · #7 11-16-2014, 04:44 PM

Thanks for the responses. Tank is all good now. I am a dumbass and switched the jugs by accident and was dosing Ca manually. Alk is coming up nicely now and the calcium is down to 470. Things look okay so hoping I didn't damage anything too seriously. Have to make sure I am not tired when I do things to my tank.

TimT · #8 11-17-2014, 05:27 PM

Hi Leanne,

Kudos to you. It is good that you are humble enough to admit your mistake and learn from it. :-)

You might want to take a sharpie and mark which jug is Ca and Alk. It gets frustrating when your tired and you pour the Alk into the Ca jug and it turns into something resembling skim milk. ;-)

Cheers,
Tim