AF dosing mistake help please!

[zulin]

Hi all,

I really need your help, Today I started using the Aquaforest products for the first time, I prepared the solution with calcium and magnesium 50g calcium and 10g magnesium in 1L of RODI water. I misunderstood how to dose this solution and I added the entire solution (1L) on my sump. Which damage could do this to my reef tank of 300L? what I can do to fix this?

Thank you in advance.

 

[Reef Jeff]

Hi all,

I really need your help, Today I started using the Aquaforest products for the first time, I prepared the solution with calcium and magnesium 50g calcium and 10g magnesium in 1L of RODI water. I misunderstood how to dose this solution and I added the entire solution (1L) on my sump. Which damage could do this to my reef tank of 300L? what I can do to fix this?

Thank you in advance.

You mixed 50 grams of calcium and 10 grams of magnesium together in 1 liter of RO/DI water? What chemical did you use for the Calcium and what chemical for the Magnesium?
Test your Salinity, Alkalinity, Calcium and Magnesium right away and post the results. Then we can tell you how to proceed.

 

[zulin]

Double post? What I did wrong?

 

[Reef Jeff]

Double post? What I did wrong?

No...I double posted. Fixed it. See my message for what you should do. Also tell us what you water looks like now...clear, cloudy, snow storm?

 

[Reef Jeff]

I looked at the Aquaforest components on line but couldn't be sure which one you used. I couldn't find a powdered version. Regardless, their products contain a mixture of many elements so you overdosed your tank with too much of major elements (Calcium and magnesium) and trace elements (like Stontium, Barium, Magnesium, copper, nickle, etc etc.) The only fix is a large water change, followed by another large water change. Too much of a water change will shock everything, but that has already happened by that large dose of components. What livestock do you have?

 

[zulin]

All products that I have used is Aquaforest Calcium and Aquaforest Magnesium, and I followed the instructions of the product. The water looks crystal as usual, maybe I should wait half a day in order to see the results?
I will test the parameters right now.

Thanks

 

[zulin]

The producsts that I have used are the following:

https://aquaforest.eu/es/product/calcium/

https://aquaforest.eu/es/product/magnesium/

 

[Reef Jeff]

Yeah...test your water and report back. I'm confused thoguh: You said you mixed a 1 liter batch and then dumped it all in at once, but then you said you followed the instructions. If your water is clear you may not have done something wrong. Can you clarify what the directions told you to do and what you actually did? Maybe it's not as much of an overdose as it originally sounded like.

 

[zulin]

This is my tank

IMG_20180406_195938

• zulin
• Apr 6, 2018

 

[zulin]

I followed this instructions posted on the oficial Aquaforest webpage:

Product to maintain a stable level of calcium in coral aquariums. Dilute 50 g and 10 g of Magnesium Aquaforest in 1000 ml of demineralized water. In order to maintain an ionic balance, also use Kh buffer and Reef Mineral Salt Aquaforest. 10 g of calcium in 100l of water increases by about 35mg / l (ppm) calcium levels. The recommended calcium level in aquariums is 380-460 mg / l (ppm). It contains CaCl2.

Then I adde all the solution in my reef tank.

 

[Reef Jeff]

I checked out the products. Here's the deal:

The good news, is those are pure chemicals so no overdose of trace elements and the Aquaforest mixture creates a pretty weak solution.

The slightly bad news:
1. 50 grams of Aquaforest Calcium added to 1 liter of water creates a solution where 100ml will raise 1oo liters of seawater by 17.5 ppm calcium. By dumping the entire liter into your 300 liter system you raised your calcium by 58 ppm. That is not a crisis, but its way over the recommended max of 20 ppm in one day.
2. 10 grams of Aquaforest Magnesium added to 1 liter of water creates a solution where 100ml will raise 1oo liters of seawater by 1.2 ppm magnesium. By dumping the entire liter into your 300 liter system you only raised your magnesium 4 ppm. That is not a problem. (I need to recheck my math on this...it seems like a very small rise for all that solution.)
3. NEVER mix calcium and magnesium in the same water. Mix each separately and only dose what you need based on test results and no more than 20 ppm calcium a day and no more than 10 ppm magnesium per day. Always wait 10 minutes or so between doses of different chemicals.

Since your water is still clear, I think you dodged a bullet. If your calcium was say 400 and you added 58 ppm all at once, that is not an overdose which explains the clear water. You have a fair amount of hard corals which may stress over the dump of calcium but its not near as bad as I first thought. Water changes most likely NOT needed as they would further stress the system. Lets see what your tests show. Your alkalinity will likely be affected by the large dump of calcium. I'm not sure how much this will increase salinity.

 

[zulin]

Hi,

Sorry for my late response, I have not been able to do it before.
These are my water parameters before the dosing mistake:

Temperature: 27 °C
pH: 8
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 0 ppm
Phosphate: 0.052 ppm
Salinity: 1026 SG
Alcalinity: 6.7 dKH
Calcium: 410 ppm
Magnesium: 1305 ppm
TDS: 0.03 ppm
Notes: Phosphorus: 17

And here are the water parameters after that:

Temperature: 26 °C
pH: 7.7
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 0 ppm
Phosphate: 0.028 ppm
Salinity: 1027 SG
Alkalinity: 6.5 dKH
Calcium: 460 ppm
Magnesium: 1335 ppm
TDS: 0.04 ppm
Notes: Phosphorus: 9

Looks like that your math showed in the previous post was fine because the increments on the different testings are much like the ones you said. Today I am still seeing the water clean and crystal and at the moment I couldn't see any sign on the corals.

Thanks for your help and advice, I will keep in mind all of that information.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

There's no concern. :)

 

[Reef Jeff]

+1 ^. Your in good shape. Might bump your alkalinity up a bit but no harm done. You got lucky!

 

[zulin]

+1 ^. Your in good shape. Might bump your alkalinity up a bit but no harm done. You got lucky!

Yes, I also started dosing AF Kh buffer, this time I started with 10ml every 2 days and testing Kh the day after. Do you think that this is a good approach? I want to keep my Kh between 7.7 and 8.4.

 

[Reef Jeff]

Yes, I also started dosing AF Kh buffer, this time I started with 10ml every 2 days and testing Kh the day after. Do you think that this is a good approach? I want to keep my Kh between 7.7 and 8.4.

Best to dose Kh daily. You have several SPS corals and the need stable parameters especially alkalinity. I keep my alkalinity between 8.1-8.3 and I dose daily to maintain that level.

 

[zulin]

Best to dose Kh daily. You have several SPS corals and the need stable parameters especially alkalinity. I keep my alkalinity between 8.1-8.3 and I dose daily to maintain that level.

Ok I will try like you say.

Thanks for your help!