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Lukinrats

Think I had my very first Precipitation last night, and it only took YEARS!

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by
Lukinrats
, 04-09-2010 at 10:49 AM (2692 Views)
LOL! I hate that it happened, because it is such a mess, but I am pretty sure that is what happened to my tank last night. I went home yesterday at lunch, and introduced my Berghia nudis to the tank. Since they were new to the surroundings, I turned all the lights off. So, anyway, I get home at like 8 last night, and turn on the lights, and it was a total white out. I freaked, and started to frantically open cabinet doors, turn off pumps, etc. SO, all of the sudden, I see that the sump level is high, and I realize that the ATO must have gotten stuck. It does have a top level, so that when it gets so far above the original level, it cuts itself off instead of on, Thank God!

At this point all I could think was that the kalkwasser was everywhere, and that my PH and ALK have to be really high, so I emptied my new saltwater container by doing a large water change. So there I am re-filling the sump, when it all of the sudden hits me that it could not be kalkwaser, but rather the addition of it had caused a precipitation. I felt like a dumb-***!!!!!!!!!

Just to be sure that I was correct, I checked ALK, and sure enough it was down to about 6.5. WOW!!

So, I got everything back to normal. Soaked my ATO switches in some vinegar. Did the best I could to clean up the white out in my tank, and then raised my ALK back up. Sure was a horrible chain of events, but at least I got my water change done for the next few weeks.

Nathan

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Updated 04-18-2010 at 08:14 PM by melev

Categories
‎ Water Chemistry

Comments

  1. lesd's Avatar
    I've had that happen a few times. The cleanup is definitely no fun. Hope all your livestock made it through OK.
  2. Mockery's Avatar
    Glad everything is all right. Might sound like a funny question but how is the polyp extension on the corals? A local friend had this happen and he said that it his acros had crazy PE for the next few days, and everything thing looked really good.
  3. Lukinrats's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Mockery
    Glad everything is all right. Might sound like a funny question but how is the polyp extension on the corals? A local friend had this happen and he said that it his acros had crazy PE for the next few days, and everything thing looked really good.
    Well, I never have bad polyp extension. I don't really know what it is, but all of my corals have their polyps out, all of the time. I mostly have montis, but I still have some acros. A couple of acros I have are not doing so hot, and I am trying to figure out what is bothering them.

    I would say, for the most part, it really was not a major issure for any of the corals. They all seemed to be very happy with the precip. It did not phase them in the least.
    About the only thing that it did do, was it made me do a 20 gallon water change, which I rarely do.
  4. melev's Avatar
    Gotta be careful with kalkwasser. That's all I'm saying.
  5. Lukinrats's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by melev
    Gotta be careful with kalkwasser. That's all I'm saying.
    ya! It has always served me well, but I let the maintenance slip on my ATO switch. Good thing I had the dual switched one, or it would have been really bad.

    For my new tank, I have purchased a medical doser that is outfitted with a little programmable computer and a timer

    http://reefdosingpumps.com/products/admiral1.html

    I am going to try out the two part method this time

    Later
    Nathan