Yesterday, I was doing my usual quarterly maintenance on the Neptune probes of my office tank. This is a IM 200. I usually soak them in citric acid and then check the calibration once cleaned off. I don't have a lot of slack for the probe wires, so I usually end up setting the citric acid cup on top of the cover for the filter sock section of my sump. Done this 1000 times, no issues.
Well yesterday, it became an issue. While the cup was sitting there, I decided to check the calibration of the dos for my AWC. When I pulled the tube out, it pulled one of the probe wires and the whole cup of citric acid came crashing down into my sump! Within 3 minutes, most of my fish were gasping for air and laying in the sand. My fox face was vertical and pressed up against the mp40. I checked chatgpt to see how much sodium bicarbonate I needed to counteract about a cup of citric acid. It called for about 220g. I thought that was a lot so I poured in about half. At that point I noticed the pH was about 6.6. I waited another 2 minutes and it hadn't risen much so I added the other half. The pH rose to about 7.2. I added several air stones and raised myp40 close to the surface. The fish were starting to perk up a little more, but still breathing heavy. I added in about another 80g of sodium bicarb and the pH rose to 7.8. I added a big bag of carbon and also added some carbon to a reactor. I don't have any large brute cans at the office, so I upped my dos AWC to 30g/day.
Within a few hours, most of my fish were accounted for. The pH slowly rose to 8.1 over the next several hours.My torch, goniapora, and 2/3 of my alveporas were retracted. At that point, I left for the day. Unfortunately, the 6pm alk test kept failing. I figured Iust have kinked the line in all the chaos. I came in this morning, all fish were accounted for. All the coral were open and looked great, including my sps. I manually tested the alk and my tank is sitting at an Alk for 21! The pH is about 8.1-8.2.
Is the super high alk protecting the pH from crashing? I would expect a much higher pH with an all that high. My pH usually runs around there at baseline with an all of 9. Anything else I can do to remove the rest of the citric acid or has it all been neutralized at this point?
Well yesterday, it became an issue. While the cup was sitting there, I decided to check the calibration of the dos for my AWC. When I pulled the tube out, it pulled one of the probe wires and the whole cup of citric acid came crashing down into my sump! Within 3 minutes, most of my fish were gasping for air and laying in the sand. My fox face was vertical and pressed up against the mp40. I checked chatgpt to see how much sodium bicarbonate I needed to counteract about a cup of citric acid. It called for about 220g. I thought that was a lot so I poured in about half. At that point I noticed the pH was about 6.6. I waited another 2 minutes and it hadn't risen much so I added the other half. The pH rose to about 7.2. I added several air stones and raised myp40 close to the surface. The fish were starting to perk up a little more, but still breathing heavy. I added in about another 80g of sodium bicarb and the pH rose to 7.8. I added a big bag of carbon and also added some carbon to a reactor. I don't have any large brute cans at the office, so I upped my dos AWC to 30g/day.
Within a few hours, most of my fish were accounted for. The pH slowly rose to 8.1 over the next several hours.My torch, goniapora, and 2/3 of my alveporas were retracted. At that point, I left for the day. Unfortunately, the 6pm alk test kept failing. I figured Iust have kinked the line in all the chaos. I came in this morning, all fish were accounted for. All the coral were open and looked great, including my sps. I manually tested the alk and my tank is sitting at an Alk for 21! The pH is about 8.1-8.2.
Is the super high alk protecting the pH from crashing? I would expect a much higher pH with an all that high. My pH usually runs around there at baseline with an all of 9. Anything else I can do to remove the rest of the citric acid or has it all been neutralized at this point?
