Alkalinity problem!

[bdif]

Thanks for the help in advance. Tonight I dosed my B-Ionic part 1 (alk) and instead of the cloud disappearing the solution seemed to precipitate into a kind of snow and settle at the bottom of my sump. What is the most likely cause of this? My calcium reads 400ppm. but i recently ran out of alk test kit. Also, I have no test for Mag. Thanks

[MinnFish]

Ph readings?

[bdif]

Ahh, will check right now.

[Aquarist007]

You have probably heard this before but I will state it again, not to be condescending
but always measure before you dose.

I would suggest you hold off on any more two part until you get test kits for alk, cal and magnesium and find out what those levels are

[MPeer]

I agree with Capn - you don't want to raise your alkalinity too high.

Do you have any corals in your tank now?

[bdif]

Ph seems to be right at 8.1 to 8.2. It's a color test kit but comes in a smidge lighter than the reference which is 8.3.

[bdif]

Lots of corals (soft/lsp). all fish/corals seem to be fine for now.

[fattyratrat]

I bet that the 'active ingredient' in the alk solution has crystalized on the bottom of your bottle (probably from getting too cold when shipped). This means that all doses before this one have almost been useless. Just shake up and bang up the bottle really well to get all of that stuff dissolved again. And then + 1 capn, test before use.