Think I had my very first Precipitation last night, and it only took YEARS!
by
, 04-09-2010 at 09:49 AM (2399 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