2 part overdose - snow storm

[vanceny]

I accidently fiddled with my timer that controls my diy 2 part doser. Its very much like the esv doser. I came home today to find my tank snowing. The Ph is at 8.2 and I'm getting ready to do a 20gallon water change. The total volume is about 120 gallons. Should I do the water change or just let it drop on its own? Is there anything I need to do? Everything looks like its doing ok, although I didn't see any of my shrimp through the cloud.

[vanceny]

Also I think the timer started about 10pm last night. It probably emptied about 3/4 of a gallon of both parts.

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

If the pH is 8.2, there is no need to do anything. The white precipitate will eventually disappear from view. All other parameters are likely fine if you dosed both parts equally, but don't bother measuring them until the water clears as they will give false high readings.

[vanceny]

Phew.... Thanks for the quick response. I was about to do the water change. The tank is in the basement and I was rushing to get the water ready. If only the alk was dosed, is there a problem? Do I just wait it out?

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

If you dosed a lot of alkalinity part, you might check later to see how much the calcium got depleted by the imbalanced dosing (or if you know how much you dosed, you can just add an equal amount of the calcium part).

[vanceny]

It was more or less in equal portions. I'll check in a few days to see where my levels are at. Or should I check tomorrow evening?

[bertoni]

The check can be done as soon as the water has cleared completely. Tomorrow evening might be close enough. If the alkalinity is low, then I'd fix that situation. A high reading is harder to interpret.

[vanceny]

So I just checked my parameters. Here's what I got:

dkH = 5.5
Ca = 470

Is that generally what happens? I guess this is normal becuase you seem to have expected it. So I should dose the alk part slowly until I get it to where I want and then dose them together?

Or should I dose both at the same time?

[bertoni]

I would dose just the alkalinity part. A couple of doses to get it to 7 dKH should be fine, if spaces a few hours apart. I'd probably let calcium fall to at least 450 ppm and then start dosing both. Some continued daily testing might be useful, since all the precipitate might not have settled yet.

Those numbers look credible for an overdose.

[vanceny]

thanks for everyones help.

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

:thumbsup:

Good luck and pop back if you have additional issues. :)