Emergency Overdosed Bacto Balance

[EliMelly]

Hello,

I overdosed Bacto balance by inputting the calculation to chat gpt. I have a 200 gallon total tank this was my first day dosing and I dosed 50 ml. I just turned on my UV and plan on doing a 20% water change. Anything else that I should do to save the corals?

I have some acros, torches, and softies…

 

[exnisstech]

Never trust AI ;) I think water changes are the best but I'm far from an expert. I just started listing to a book where AI is taking over the country and killing everyone with drones so I'm serious anti AI at the moment lol.

EDIT: At my age I've seen too much science fiction come true so this whole AI thing has me on edge.

 

[EliMelly]

Never trust AI ;) I think water changes are the best but I'm far from an expert. I just started listing to a book where AI is taking over the country and killing everyone with drones so I'm serious anti AI at the moment lol

Me too now. I have a friend who offered to take the corals not sure that’s necessary…

 

[exnisstech]

Me too now. I have a friend who offered to take the corals not sure that’s necessary…

That would probably be more stress on them. I have a hunch you'll be ok. Maybe keep an eye on N and P to make sure they don't bottom out since BB is basically carbon dosing. I add 10ml daily to my tank of 285g total

 

[EliMelly]

Should I dose anything to keep it from bottoming out?

 

[exnisstech]

Any NO3 and PO4 supplement. There are some commercial brands of stuff ready to use and Randy has some diy recipes. Hopefully Randy or one of the other chemistry folks will chime in with more informed advice for you.

 

[EliMelly]

@Randy Holmes-Farley

 

[EliMelly]

Monitoring phosphates and nitrates, I moved all corals to a friends tank. Added carbon, turned on UV, and doing a water change

 

[RoanokeReef]

Also give @Lou Ekus a call or email office@tropicmarin-usa.com as he may have advice.

 

[EliMelly]

Also give @Lou Ekus a call or email office@tropicmarin-usa.com as he may have advice.

Do you have a number?

 

[RoanokeReef]

Do you have a number?

I found this from google - (413) 367-0101 Hopefully correct

Edit - yea thats it - http://www.tropicmarin-usa.com/contact.html
Edit2 - For future reference - https://calulator.tropic-marin.com/en/control/np-bacto-balance.html

 

[BrokenReefer]

You should be ok with the water change - you'll likely bottom out; however, if you just dosed and then realized the error you very well could have caught it before it fully 'settled' in.

 

[rhitee93]

I think the whole point of Bacto Balance is that it also provides some nitrates and phosphates to keep you from bottoming those out.

 

[BrokenReefer]

I think the whole point of Bacto Balance is that it also provides some nitrates and phosphates to keep you from bottoming those out.

It can bottom out your system if too much is added in ... don't ask me how I know. :(

 

[buruskeee]

I don’t think you can overdose Bacto Balance. It adds at an even ration the same amount of carbon and NP for the carbon chains to feed bacteria with.

I could be wrong, but theoretically it makes sense.

The only thing I’d be concerned with is oxygen. As long as you have your skimmer running and maybe just throw in an air stone, you should be fine. Maybe just add in some PO4 testing daily for it to be detectable.

 

[Court_Appointed_Hypeman]

I doubt it will have a negative impact if you keep nutrients from hitting 0 and have UV going and you baste any cyano that shows up.

I would just leave it at the one time dose for as many days as it takes to get to your days/amount dosed to hit your target. If that was a 10 days worth of a dose, wait 10 days. That's what I would do. Not sure if it's the right answer

 

[EliMelly]

I bottomed out with phosphates. I officially moved out my corals to a friends tank, I’m running carbon, skimmer, and a UV plus doing a water change now. I will be blacking the tank out as well to prevent further growth.

 

[EliMelly]

Thoughts?

 

[Salty_Northerner]

I won't ever again use bacto-ballance! It just caused more problems then I needed. Id just crank up the skimmer and it'll pull it out pretty quickly but also keep an eye out as your pH will take a big hit using that stuff. Besides it gets used up pretty fast so I really wouldn't stress out to much about it. A couple wc's and a few days will sort itself out IMHO.

 

[Hans-Werner]

Watch the skimmer, empty it if necessary, look for signs of a bacterial bloom and for good aeration.

If no signs of a bacterial bloom show up it is unlikely you will get into bigger problems. There have been a few similar and some of them more severe accidents and I can't recall one which really ended bad.

The bacterial processing of our Tropic Marin carbon source seems to be more slowly than the more usual carbon sources which is an advantage to avoid swings in oxygen concentrations and catastrophic results in case of such accidents.