Calc overdose help

[kintle]

I was running water tests and doseing. My calc was below 200 so I dosed and moved on to test magnesium. I went to pull the reagent and realized I'd used the wrong liquid reagent for calc and when I tested it. I tested again correctly and it was out of range high. I did a 25 percent water change and tested it's still high. I did another 25 percent water change and it's still high. I'm useing red sea testing so i withdrew another ml of liquid reagent and used a total of 1.13 ml. I believe that's putting me around 650 for calc. I'm out of water, feel stupid and can already see the tips of one acro look burned. Any advice. I have no idea what it was up to and will leave shortly to get more water at the lfs but how bad is the high calc. I'm glad I acted quick and it's the only coral that looks like this affected very fast but hopeing I didnt just crash my tank

 

[Ike]

Hard to say... I can tell you that most corals will be pretty unfazed by 650. Getting it down will be largely dependent on your tanks usage and the the calcium level of your salt mix. If you're seeing burnt tips it's probably from the WC boosting alkalinity and not the calcium levels.

At this point you may be best at letting it come down naturally. How are you dosing and maintaining things now?

 

[Crashjack]

I don't know what you are using to manage alk and Ca but you if are using a 2-part, maybe just manage alk and allow Ca to drop on its own. You might also let alk drift down some as a lower alk might also help with the burned tips.

 

[kintle]

Hard to say... I can tell you that most corals will be pretty unfazed by 650. Getting it down will be largely dependent on your tanks usage and the the calcium level of your salt mix. If you're seeing burnt tips it's probably from the WC boosting alkalinity and not the calcium levels.

At this point you may be best at letting it come down naturally. How are you dosing and maintaining things now?

Having to dose is relatively new for me. As I've added sps the consumption jumped of alk. And calc. I'm doseing by hand twice a week on average about 20 to 30 ml a week of calc on top of 2 25 percent water changes a week. Was thinking of cutting back on the water changes as the only reason I was changing that frequently was to keep calc levels up and i finally started consuming faster than was practicle. Alk I've only had to dose 3 or 4 times I think because I've been doing such frequent water changes ita been slower to drop off. Today tested at 7.9 I'm trying to get it to maintain around 8.4.

 

[kintle]

The acro is already looking better but it has lost color and tips are still burnt just not as bright white

 

[kintle]

Was planning on cutting the slow necrosis on the bottom of the stag off and recounting now I'm not sure if I want to stress it anymore for a day or 2. It used to be yellow and pink and now it's more pink and cream.

 

[kintle]

I don't know what you are using to manage alk and Ca but you if are using a 2-part, maybe just manage alk and allow Ca to drop on its own. You might also let alk drift down some as a lower alk might also help with the burned tips.

Useing red sea alk calk and magnesium. I haven't had to treat magnesium more than twice but it does occasionally drop a little. Its red sea salt too.

 

[Ike]

Just maintain your alk where you want it and stop dosing calcium. It's going to take a long time to come down though... Also, what salt are you using that you're able to do that many water changes and be below or at 8 dKH?

 

[kintle]

Just maintain your alk where you want it and stop dosing calcium. It's going to take a long time to come down though... Also, what salt are you using that you're able to do that many water changes and be below or at 8 dKH?

Its red sea. I buy premixed at a lfs, my tank is a 28g cube so havent rushed to make my own mix station till I upgrade to a larger tank.

 

[Justin Cook]

I 2nd or 3rd the idea to let it come down on it's own. The only reason I'm even posting is to say don't be too hard on yourself. This is exactly the kind of thing that happens on a regular basis and it's just part of the hobby. You do what you can, educate yourself and talk to the reefing community to avoid errors but stuff like this still happens. I've done the same thing but with alk and the results were quite a bit worse. The damage is done and it's not a mistake you'll make again!

 

[Ike]

Also, I wouldn’t trust a majority of LFS water that they sell. This obviously varies by shop...

 

[Brett S]

One thing to keep in mind is that quick change is bad. Often worse than bad levels. For example, even if your calcium was at 200 and you wanted to raise it to 450, dosing enough to raise your calcium by 250 ppm in one shot is going to be much more stressful on your corals than leaving it at 200 and dosing small amounts daily to slowly bring it up over a week or two.

This also has the advantage of avoiding this situation. If you had only dosed 25ppm worth of calcium and then realized your mistake then you might have only raised your calcium from 450 to 475 which wouldn’t have been a problem at all, instead of 450 to 700 which could definitely be an issue. But even here, the bigger issue is the huge jump over a short time than the actual 700ppm number.

Along the same lines, now that the damage is done, you are better ignoring the gut instinct to “fix this immediately” and instead allow it to come down naturally over time. Again, even 700ppm is definitely not high, but it’s not dangerous. You will cause more stress and damage by trying to lower this number quickly than you would by leaving it and allowing it to slowly come down over several weeks.

 

[LARedstickreefer]

Also, I wouldn’t trust a majority of LFS water that they sell. This obviously varies by shop...

I once had my lfs water dkh test out at 18.

 

[TX_Punisher]

If yiu do decide to perform water changes to assist in lowering Ca, you May want to consider a Salt with lower ca levels like instant ocean. I’ve used IO to combat high ca when mine was 580. Now my tank runs around 470-480 which I’m mostly happy with.

Good luck

 

[kintle]

Wanted to thank everyone for the help and advice. Figured I'd update you all my alk jumped to 9.2 after my 50 percent water change. I never did make it back to the lfs till the next day but held off on the water change an extra day. figured what damage was done and should try to avoid further stressing every thing. I've been testing alk every day and today I'm testing 8.7 alk (hanna checker). I think I'll try to maintain it around here for a bit. Further testing calc 550 (red sea 1.1 ml reagent). 1520 magnesium. NO3 5 which is the only thing I'm seeing as normal right now. Although I havent lost anything yet I have a total of 3 sps I'm hopeing hold on. 2 of which I just got a little bit ago from battle corral and I'd hate to lose the new frags but so far they are holding on just not looking hot. The third Is the initial one with the burnt tips i listed the picture of. It is now a creamy pink which is a completely differant color, the tips are looking less burnt, I'm hopeing it pulls through. I'm lucky that a frag of this I cut about 3 weeks ago looks ok other than just being pink. That frag never had the yellow so if the mother dies I at least have the frag, it just needs time.
Although I'm open to further suggestions/opinions, wanted to thank you all and give conclusions. If I have deaths over this I'll be sure to update. I may look into a brute can and rodi unit soon to start mixing water as I'll need a mixing station for a larger tank when I upgrade anyways.

 

[johnalicia]

the big jump has stressed them, but trying to lower your calcium quickly will stress thing even more. Let it drop on its own until it back at your target number. Remember stability is key.

 

[AZG]

I accidentally dosed a gallon of calc a few years back. All my sps faded. A 25% water change didn’t do much so I let it come down on its own. It took a little over a month for it to come back down. I only lost one stick through the process.

 

[kintle]

Well today Tested my alk is holding steady. This is day three at 8.5. I'll maintain here. So far although what looked bad before still looks bad but the same not any worse if not slightly improved. Today I also decided to take care of some movement and maintenance I've been putting off. My bi color hammer has one head that's extremely stressed as my toadstool has gotten huge and grown to close. I'm assuming this is a chemical warfare issue as it's just then head closest to it. I'd intended to move it to the other side of the tank but needed to frag my pavona back first. Since things went wonky didnt want to stress the pavona so this just got put off. Today it was moved and pavona was fraged. What I'd intended to be three fraged pieces turned into 7. I still got 2 large pieces but lots of broken pieces unintended. This has also split the pavona into 2 pieces on my rock work. Learned how fragile it is. But space was made. My frag rack is out of space and I still have three frags in the sand. All of my sps frags i also cut off my seachem frag plugs. Twice a day I'm picking them up off the sand bed and putting them back on the rack. The rack I have is angled and as soon as a snail bumps them they tumble. Since they were looking recoveredish. I changed them to a square plug with a longer stem. I couldn't get these ones to slip out with pulling them out so hopefully that helps them not fall to the bottom of the tank so often. Hopeing things have stabilized out enough the stress isnt to much but this is everything I put off with the overdose. If all goes well I'm hopeing to trade my pavona frags to the LFS in three weeks. And the sps frags (not the battle coral) when they've colored back up. Hopeing I can eventually get enough credit to upgrade to a larger tank. At least to get the equipment for the tank since I'll probably try to upgrade in the next 10 months. I should have listened and just gone with the larger tank to begin with.

 

[Backreefing]

This may help it’s a good read
https://www.advancedaquarist.com/2002/11/chemistry

 

[kintle]

I wanted to give you all a final update. My calc is still testing in my high range. It really is a long wait to let it fall naturally. Alk has stabilised and I'm not testing daily anymore. I was really excited to see if my sps would start to color up. I had to go out of state for a 3 days and I had my tank sitter come in with the instructions just feed a small pinch of pellets every night. When I came back, I noticed several dead frags and all of my milli colonies where bleached dead. When I started looking into what was wrong I noticed pellets all over the sandbed. I still dont know how much overfeeding had caused this but I immeadiatly started a 3 gal water change to siphon the excess food off the sand bed. It was alot. Within the next few days most of my sps color was awfull I lost another colony, and one of my battle coral frags. In total I lost around 600 dollars in corals. I noticed a cloudiness to the water and was doing small water changes every day. I had diatoms, hair algae, and an explosion of algae on my glass. I'm guessing she triggered another tank cycle with the over feeding. Since my tank was already in recovery mood from my mistakes it was just to much for those sps. Even my frog spawn and hammer looked like they may slip.
Things have finally started to look better. I've even noticed some color comming back at the bases of sps so I'm hoping its finally turning around. I'm done with nano tanks though. When things go bad they go bad fast. I found a 100 gal cube someone was selling on a local facebook group I'm in and I snatched it up. I'll be setting it up over the next few months to start a cycle. I'll be starting a new thread on the build as I plan it out. It's not the ideal upgrade I wanted but for the price I got it at I'm happy for the upgrade and to see how it goes.