Overdosed soda ash

[Alazo1]

I accidentally left the doser on and it dumped 1/2 gallon of brs soda ash. I come home and there's precipitate all over the tank.
Tank is 120 gallon sps.
Alkalinity did not spike much. Was 9.3 on Feb. 25th and now it's 10.3
Calcium went from around 400 to 275
Ph seems ok at 8.15 now.

Should I just wait it out or add calcium, water changes? I turned the alk doser off.
Corals look fine but I guess still to see what their future holds for them.

Thanks,
Albert

 

[Dennis Cartier]

Odds are your alk spiked a lot and the precipitation event(s) brought it back down each time. At some point you will need to re-balance your ca and mg, which will be diminished. However, being an SPS tank, my gut says let the tank settle and then slowly bring the parameters back inline. If you do make and changes, I would do them slowly as your corals are most likely stressed.

Let's see what the SPS folks recommend.

 

[mdb_talon]

Seems odd that 1/2 gallon of presumably full strength soda ash did not spike your ph and only increased dkh by 1 (which i realize is probably due to the precipitate)

I had a similar issue several months ago, but in my case i had minimal precipitate but alk went through the roof. I did daily water changes of about 20% with a low alk salt. Goal was to reduce it quickly without doing it too quick lol. I didnt end up losing anything.

I would do the same in your case, but more to get the calc back up. I fear if you just start dosing calc you are going to end up with more precipitate(which will get your alk down but seems main goal should be getting calc up)

 

[Alazo1]

Thanks for the replies. I did look at the ph meter this morning and it read 8.3. I thought that it may have been that I upped the kalkwasser dose a bit yesterday to increase ph in the tank. I didn't think anything of it.

I do know now why the alk timer was on instead of in Auto. I cleared out the alk, kalk and calcium dosing lines with vinegar the day before yesterday. I only had very little alk left and made up some more yesterday.

I'll retest alk and calcium tomorrow as I read that false readings are typical when this happens. Corals have been with me for a long time so hopefully they will be fine.

As a side note, I'm wondering if my infestation of vermitid snails will die since the rocks are all white. Wishful thinking!
How to eliminate vermitid snails = dump 1/2 gallon of soda ash..LOL

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Here's my generic directions for a limewater overdose which apply here as well:

What Your Grandmother Never Told You About Lime by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

Since limewater has a pH above 12 (even when a reasonable amount of vinegar is added), it causes a substantial rise in pH when added to a reef aquarium. This attribute has both positive and negative aspects. It limits the speed at which limewater can be added without raising the tank’s pH too much (discussed above). It also can be a serious problem in accidental overdosing, where the pH can rise very high. Often, this overdosing can lead to the aquarium turning white like milk as calcium carbonate precipitates throughout the water column.

In such cases of acute overdose, here is my advice:

1. If the pH is 8.5 or lower (as it often is since a precipitation event itself reduces pH even if it was much higher to start with), there is little that can or needs to be done. Just wait a few days for the white calcium carbonate to slowly disappear. A water change is not necessary, although once the water is clear, testing calcium and especially alkalinity is in order (don’t bother to test the cloudy water as it will give false high readings as these tests detect solids even though they are not truly in solution). Few aquarists suffer the loss of organisms from such events. I’ve had several such events without any apparent losses.

2. If the pH is above 8.5, some action to reduce the pH is warranted. The higher it is, the faster and greater the needed action. Since such events may happen when few tools are available to solve them (e.g., New Year's morning when few stores are open), I’ll provide a number of options, although some are better than others. In all cases, reduce the pH only to 8.5 to avoid overshooting.

The best option is to add carbon dioxide, either by bubbling the gas directly, or by adding soda water/seltzer (or blowing into a skimmer inlet if it is your only option). At least in the normal aquarium pH range, a teaspoon of soda water per gallon of tank water will lower pH by a couple of tenths of a pH unit. Overshooting with carbon dioxide, while undesirable, is less of a concern than is overshooting with any other option.

A second option is to add vinegar. Be especially careful to not overshoot pH 8.5 or so, because when bacteria begin to metabolize the acetate, the resulting CO2 will further lower the pH, and oxygen will be consumed (equation (14)). For this reason, it is especially important to maintain aeration when using vinegar in such a fashion. I’ve added vinegar to my aquarium in similar situations without difficulty, although the pH was only marginally high and I did not need to add much.

A third rung of options involves adding a mineral acid such as muriatic acid (HCl or hydrochloric acid) or sulfuric acid. I’ve added HCl to my aquarium in similar situations without difficulty. When performing such a mineral acid treatment, be very careful not to overshoot, and to monitor the pH during any acid additions. I would intervene in this fashion only if I could monitor the pH in real time, and could add the acid to a high flow area far from any organism. Diluting the acid in water (say, 20:1 or 100:1) prior to adding it to the tank is highly recommended for the safety of both the aquarist and the tank’s inhabitants (diluting vinegar, which is already dilute, isn’t necessary). One other drawback to adding a mineral acid is that it reduces the alkalinity. In such a case, the result may be elevated calcium and reduced alkalinity that will require significant correction.

 

[Alazo1]

Thanks Randy, the issue was overdose of soda ash no kalk.
Tested calcium and still low at 300 today. Alk is at 8.5 so I turned the doser back on. Corals look fine so far.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Thanks Randy, the issue was overdose of soda ash no kalk.
Tested calcium and still low at 300 today. Alk is at 8.5 so I turned the doser back on. Corals look fine so far.

I know, That's why I said

"Here's my generic directions for a limewater overdose which apply here as well:"

Anyway, calcium will need to be boosted and you can start that now. Glad to hear the tank seems OK.

 

[Alazo1]

Well, things took a turn for the worse.
Two days ago water was cloudy.

Yesterday, I tested nitrite and ammonia which read 0 (api)
This morning, I did a water change, I also cleaned the sleeve of the uv sterilizer to help in clearing up the water.

I come home (5 hours later) and noticed a few of the corals slouching tissue. So far one larger coral, a few smaller ones and a medium size oregon tort that I've had for a few years. I'm sure I'll be seeing more in the next few hours / days.

My water sample had come back from an icp test and everything was fine before the crash.

I'm preparing more water for another wc. I'll remove some of the dead ones then as well. Fish room smells like dead acropora.

So what happened?. The precipitation caused cloudy water?. Last time I had a tank crash it was due to a water conditioner that I put in the tank (said it was ok to use in tank). Water turned cloudy and things went south from there.

 

[Alazo1]

Randy, I misinterpreted your post. Sorry and thanks for the insight

 

[thewedge]

Randy, I misinterpreted your post. Sorry and thanks for the insight

I just had the same thing happen overnight, though with about half as much soda ash water. My tank is 130 gal and I've done a 20 gallon water change so far. My reservoir was low so I need to mix up more water. I had a big pH spike which came down fairly quickly. I realized what happened when I went up to bed last night and I immediately configured my DOS auto water change to do 10 gallons between 2:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. Now I just completed another 10 gallon change. So far my Trident has not registered an increase in alkalinity, which is pretty shocking. PH is back to normal. Calcium will get tested in about 30 minutes.
How did things wind up with your tank? I put four new frags in yesterday and hoping I don't lose them or anything else. So far everything is looking normal with the exception of it looking like a white Christmas in the tank.

 

[CK00020]

What kind of dosing pumps are you guys using, just out of curiosity? Mechanical failure?

 

[thewedge]

I use DOS. In my case it was pure dumb-assery. My alk was a little low and I wanted to bump it up so I turned it on and promptly forgot until 2nhours later.

 

[bushdoc]

I use DOS. In my case it was pure dumb-assery. My alk was a little low and I wanted to bump it up so I turned it on and promptly forgot until 2nhours later.

Same thing happened to me( I was dosing Soda Ash), but I programmed my apex to stop dosing above certain pH, so it did.

 

[DeanF]

Here's my generic directions for a limewater overdose which apply here as well:

What Your Grandmother Never Told You About Lime by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

Since limewater has a pH above 12 (even when a reasonable amount of vinegar is added), it causes a substantial rise in pH when added to a reef aquarium. This attribute has both positive and negative aspects. It limits the speed at which limewater can be added without raising the tank’s pH too much (discussed above). It also can be a serious problem in accidental overdosing, where the pH can rise very high. Often, this overdosing can lead to the aquarium turning white like milk as calcium carbonate precipitates throughout the water column.

In such cases of acute overdose, here is my advice:

1. If the pH is 8.5 or lower (as it often is since a precipitation event itself reduces pH even if it was much higher to start with), there is little that can or needs to be done. Just wait a few days for the white calcium carbonate to slowly disappear. A water change is not necessary, although once the water is clear, testing calcium and especially alkalinity is in order (don’t bother to test the cloudy water as it will give false high readings as these tests detect solids even though they are not truly in solution). Few aquarists suffer the loss of organisms from such events. I’ve had several such events without any apparent losses.

2. If the pH is above 8.5, some action to reduce the pH is warranted. The higher it is, the faster and greater the needed action. Since such events may happen when few tools are available to solve them (e.g., New Year's morning when few stores are open), I’ll provide a number of options, although some are better than others. In all cases, reduce the pH only to 8.5 to avoid overshooting.

The best option is to add carbon dioxide, either by bubbling the gas directly, or by adding soda water/seltzer (or blowing into a skimmer inlet if it is your only option). At least in the normal aquarium pH range, a teaspoon of soda water per gallon of tank water will lower pH by a couple of tenths of a pH unit. Overshooting with carbon dioxide, while undesirable, is less of a concern than is overshooting with any other option.

A second option is to add vinegar. Be especially careful to not overshoot pH 8.5 or so, because when bacteria begin to metabolize the acetate, the resulting CO2 will further lower the pH, and oxygen will be consumed (equation (14)). For this reason, it is especially important to maintain aeration when using vinegar in such a fashion. I’ve added vinegar to my aquarium in similar situations without difficulty, although the pH was only marginally high and I did not need to add much.

A third rung of options involves adding a mineral acid such as muriatic acid (HCl or hydrochloric acid) or sulfuric acid. I’ve added HCl to my aquarium in similar situations without difficulty. When performing such a mineral acid treatment, be very careful not to overshoot, and to monitor the pH during any acid additions. I would intervene in this fashion only if I could monitor the pH in real time, and could add the acid to a high flow area far from any organism. Diluting the acid in water (say, 20:1 or 100:1) prior to adding it to the tank is highly recommended for the safety of both the aquarist and the tank’s inhabitants (diluting vinegar, which is already dilute, isn’t necessary). One other drawback to adding a mineral acid is that it reduces the alkalinity. In such a case, the result may be elevated calcium and reduced alkalinity that will require significant correction.

Hi Randy. I ran across this article response from a couple of years ago. I did this same thing with Soda Ash last night and the tank turned completely white and could not see much in there at all. I am just setting this tank up now and was almost ready to add livestock. Tank just has live sand and mostly dry rock that is curing. I already cleaned all the glass and took out all the equipment out and cleaned. Everything was a mess. All the rock now has a white coating on it. Am I OK just leaving the rock to recover on its own, or do I need to do something like take it back out and use a diluted vinager bath for for a day to dissolve this. Hope you can provide some guidance. I have 115 gal system and did a 25 gal water change last night. Alk was low today at 7.3. This is why I used the soda ash in the first place to raise it from the 7.5 it at to try to get it more in the 9 plus range. Thanks!!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I’d leave the rock alone. What deposited is just more rock.