Overdosed tank with Red Sea NO3:PO4-X ALGAE MANAGEMENT

[reefo420]

I have a 35 gallon fish tank with 4 fish and a pistol shrimp goby pair and instead of pouring a few ml nearly 30ml of that went in, x15 the recommended daily amount
i have another cycled 120 gallon tank ready, i can maybe move them to different compartments of the sump untill my RODI system makes enough water to replacce all that water
i currently only have around 15 gallons of RODI Water ready, what should i do?
just do a big water change? I've never lost a fish in the tank and i'm trying to stop any bad thing from happening
fish seem to be acting ok so far

 

[DanyL]

I would be more worried about corals if there are any, because you can bottom out.
But generally speaking, it's not such a big deal - you might experience a bacteria bloom, it'll do no harm for your fish or shrimp, but it'll look a bit intimidating clouding the water.

Let the skimmer do it's thing, empty it regularly and do a WC.
If there are any corals - check nutrients as well, feed a bit more if needed.

 

[taricha]

Skim and Aerate strongly.
Low O2 in a bloom would be my largest concern.

 

[reefo420]

Corals are all okay and my my oyster is open again and nothing bad is happening with the fish still, did a 30% water change and will be doing another one tonight, is it likely to get worse in the next few days? are these bacterial blooms still likely to happen?
Thanks!

 

[DanyL]

is it likely to get worse in the next few days? are these bacterial blooms still likely to happen?

Given enough fuel, bacteria will multiply exponentially, sometimes over night, other times after just a few hours.
But it's hard to nail it down because there are multiple variables here put into play.

Like I said earlier, I wouldn't panic. Just make sure your skimmer is doing what it's supposed to do and do a WC.
@taricha's advise to agitate the water is a good point too.

 

[reefo420]

Woke up to a bacterial bloom, I have 2 wavemakers doing x40 agtating the surface, and a 150gph air pump in there
fish look okay, only two of them ate, only a baby clownfish is swimming at top she only had a piece of food and went back up there, other fish seem to be acting better already
any other recommendations? i can move them to a sump for 2 days while it clears out, i did a 10 gallon water change again

 

[dmsc2fs]

Woke up to a bacterial bloom, I have 2 wavemakers doing x40 agtating the surface, and a 150gph air pump in there
fish look okay, only two of them ate, only a baby clownfish is swimming at top she only had a piece of food and went back up there, other fish seem to be acting better already
any other recommendations? i can move them to a sump for 2 days while it clears out, i did a 10 gallon water change again

Trying to move the fish will do more harm then good. Moving them to a sump with the same water doesn't change anything. Do another water change or let it ride out.

 

[AlexandraDreadlocksPanda]

I would be more worried about corals if there are any, because you can bottom out.
But generally speaking, it's not such a big deal - you might experience a bacteria bloom, it'll do no harm for your fish or shrimp, but it'll look a bit intimidating clouding the water.

Let the skimmer do it's thing, empty it regularly and do a WC.
If there are any corals - check nutrients as well, feed a bit more if needed.

I wouldn’t be that worried about bottoming out Nutrients with one overdose - it’s not something that will chemically strip like Lanthanum, and you ramp up dosage of it to give chance for bacterial colonies to establish… my hunch is that it’ll not be around long enough for that to happen. Worth keeping an eye out on, not an immediate worry though imho. Agreed though water change & skim for the win!

 

[reefo420]

My only worry is the first aren't eating, also the sump i was talking about is a different tank, with similliar water params(they don't share the same water) and nothing was overdosed there, i know it would stress them but i was just worried about them dying from this, they've never stopped eating since the day they have been here even with re-aquascaping..etc so that's why i'm considering moving them to the sump of the other tank till this clears out

 

[DanyL]

I wouldn’t be that worried about bottoming out Nutrients with one overdose - it’s not something that will chemically strip like Lanthanum, and you ramp up dosage of it to give chance for bacterial colonies to establish…

Where did he mention it was a new system, or a ramping up regime for bacterial establishment?
For all we know this is an established 35g system with an overdose of x15 times the regular, daily dosage of carbon.
Yes, it's not a binder in any means, and it's not a chemical reaction with an immediate effect - but if the bacteria was carbon bounded (and it evidently was, because otherwise he wouldn't dose carbon in the first place), a bacterial bloom will follow, and since bacteria multiplies exponentially, a scenario where he's bottoming out isn't out of the blue.
Now if you add high nitrate and low phosphate to the picture, you got yourself a potentially harmful environment.

That being said - and I mentioned this, chances are that everything will be ok, and no harm will be done to the system.
But one should be warned about what may happen and watch out for it.

 

[DanyL]

My only worry is the first aren't eating, also the sump i was talking about is a different tank, with similliar water params(they don't share the same water) and nothing was overdosed there, i know it would stress them but i was just worried about them dying from this, they've never stopped eating since the day they have been here even with re-aquascaping..etc so that's why i'm considering moving them to the sump of the other tank till this clears out

Moving the fish back and forth will stress them as well, so the question is at what point it'll be beneficial to take action.
Given that an event like this usually passes fairly quickly, I would give it an additional day and watch closely to see how the fish react and recover.

 

[reefo420]

Where did he mention it was a new system, or a ramping up regime for bacterial establishment?
For all we know this is an established 35g system with an overdose of x15 times the regular, daily dosage of carbon.
Yes, it's not a binder in any means, and it's not a chemical reaction with an immediate effect - but if the bacteria was carbon bounded (and it evidently was, because otherwise he wouldn't dose carbon in the first place), a bacterial bloom will follow, and since bacteria multiplies exponentially, a scenario where he's bottoming out isn't out of the blue.
Now if you add high nitrate and low phosphate to the picture, you got yourself a potentially harmful environment.

That being said - and I mentioned this, chances are that everything will be ok, and no harm will be done to the system.
But one should be warned about what may happen and watch out for it.

nitrate are currently at 2ppm and phosphate at 0.03
I moved most of my coral to avoid losing it and it's already doing okay in the other tank, my oyster was open today and it was just shutting and closing and spitting sand everywhere so i moved it, some of the fish ate but the 2 clownfish are not eating like usual, i've got a massive air pump for extra oyxgen in there and i'll be watching it till it clears out, is there anything else to do?

 

[reefo420]

Moving the fish back and forth will stress them as well, so the question is at what point it'll be beneficial to take action.
Given that an event like this usually passes fairly quickly, I would give it an additional day and watch closely to see how the fish react and recover.

Sounds good thank you! will keep an eye on the tank and see what happens, My rodi is super slow so I've been doing water changes the minute i have a good amount of water ready, around 40% of the water has already been changed
going to my lfs after work to see if i can get more

 

[DanyL]

i've got a massive air pump for extra oyxgen in there and i'll be watching it till it clears out, is there anything else to do?

While you do want good oxidation, you also want to avoid bubbles that may stress your inhabitants and it could be the reason why your clownfish isn't eating.
If you have a filter in your system you can make the air stone go through it to break the bubbles.

around 40% of the water has already been changed
going to my lfs after work to see if i can get more

With a 40% WC already been done, I believe you most likely prevented a cloudy bacteria bloom already.
Don't stress yourself, let the skimmer pull out what's left - If it pulls out a lot of water, you also need to watch your salinity and replenish with saltwater as needed.