Calcium magnesium crashed overnight

[Shawnman]

My alkalinity pump stayed on and emptied the bottle. This morning found a white substance coating everything. My alk only got raised to 9.9 from 9.0 but my ca went from 450 to 262 and mag tested at 1016 per my lfs. I just did 25% water change then retest. I have to clean all my pumps yet. Should I dose and get back to 450 and 1350 immediately? Again these levels dropped overnight. I dose red sea and they say not to exceed 10 ppm per day. That would take 30 days alone. My animals appear to be okay so far.

 

[Js.Aqua.Project]

Did you perform a retest on both your all and Ca?
Did you ask your LFS to double check the Mg test result?

From experience I am a lot more likely to assume a faulty test or test kit than that dramatic of a drop when you only added a supplement.

There is the possibility of some chemical reaction that is above my pay grade going to work that fast, but I am a Occam's Razor kind of guy...

 

[Ziggy17]

My understanding is Mag can be raised up to 100 ppm daily until desired. So in 3 days you can get up into the 1300s… as your Alk drops naturally, your calcium will start going up naturally. You may just want to let those two play themselves out. Your corals won’t be thrilled, but should be OK. Someone feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.

How is your PH? That would be my biggest concern from an ALK dump.

 

[Shawnman]

My understanding is Mag can be raised up to 100 ppm daily until desired. So in 3 days you can get up into the 1300s… as your Alk drops naturally, your calcium will start going up naturally. You may just want to let those two play themselves out. Your corals won’t be thrilled, but should be OK. Someone feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.

How is your PH? That would be my biggest concern from an ALK dump.

My ph tested at 8.0. I tested calcium mag and alk at home and confirmed the results. I hadn't been testing my mag following the rmm method and subsequently i think it got so low that my calcium precipitated out of solution.

 

[Shawnman]

How much calcium max can you dose?

 

[crazyfishmom]

My ph tested at 8.0. I tested calcium mag and alk at home and confirmed the results. I hadn't been testing my mag following the rmm method and subsequently i think it got so low that my calcium precipitated out of solution.

I think it definitely sounds like a major precipitation event. I would consider dosing magnesium and calcium in alternate days and slowly increasing by let’s say 25-50 ppm daily rather than dosing all the way back up to normal. It’s likely you’ll cause bigger issues. Why not just try to perform water changes every day for a couple of weeks until levels are back to normal? That would be safest.

 

[Shawnman]

I think it definitely sounds like a major precipitation event. I would consider dosing magnesium and calcium in alternate days and slowly increasing by let’s say 25-50 ppm daily rather than dosing all the way back up to normal. It’s likely you’ll cause bigger issues. Why not just try to perform water changes every day for a couple of weeks until levels are back to normal? That would be safest.

That sounds legit and doable. Luckily my animals aren't too affected.

 

[Shawnman]

So I have my levels reestablished at 1500,450 and 9.0. I do have a trachy that's going through hard times since the accident. It's experiencing a little bit of tissue loss. Any recommendations if i should dip or anything or just keep an eye on it? You can see near the mouth its skeleton is showing and the very back center fold starting to lose tissue. Not eating or showing a feeding response but it's color still appears okay.

 

[Shawnman]

Newest pic

 

[crazyfishmom]

So I have my levels reestablished at 1500,450 and 9.0. I do have a trachy that's going through hard times since the accident. It's experiencing a little bit of tissue loss. Any recommendations if i should dip or anything or just keep an eye on it? You can see near the mouth its skeleton is showing and the very back center fold starting to lose tissue. Not eating or showing a feeding response but it's color still appears okay.

I would say maybe try restore at night after lights out. When they’re like this, dipping normally only hurts.

 

[Shawnman]

I would say maybe try restore at night after lights out. When they’re like this, dipping normally only hurts.

Okay thanks. I guess it's to be expected after what occured. My magnesium had been super low for some time. Wish I had trusted my magnesium test kit but oh well. Live and learn. The positive side of things is that my rbta split last night while I was able to observe. Very cool!

 

[crazyfishmom]

Okay thanks. I guess it's to be expected after what occured. My magnesium had been super low for some time. Wish I had trusted my magnesium test kit but oh well. Live and learn. The positive side of things is that my rbta split last night while I was able to observe. Very cool!

That is super cool!