please help fast

[horsefarm5]

Please help...just had a major white out...iI'm in the middle of a major water change ....what else can I do ...please help

[brodden]

what do you mean by white out? Did you kick up a lot of sand?

[horsefarm5]

no my ato must have failed and it pumped 7 gallons of kalk water into the tank

[Jandree22]

...or did you somehow have a calcium dosing mishap? If it's the calcium, you can add small amounts of vinegar if kalkwasser has severely spiked your pH (I would not mess with your pH unless it's above 9). Also, if any calcium precipitate has settled on your corals, you'll want to make sure you clear them off in short order otherwise it might kill them

[kgross]

Just change as much water as you can to drop the pH back down to normal levels.

Kim

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I don't think water changes are the way to go.

I give my advice here:

What is that Precipitate in My Reef Aquarium?
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-07/rhf/index.htm

from it:

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-07/rhf/index.php#11

Precipitates from Overdosing Limewater
When limewater is substantially overdosed, the transient precipitation of magnesium hydroxide from normal use may not be the only precipitate that forms. If the pH becomes elevated and stays that way long enough, calcium carbonate can precipitate throughout the water column. In such situations, the entire aquarium can become very cloudy, looking almost like skim milk (Figures 9 and 10). Such precipitation events have the beneficial effect of lowering the pH and alkalinity that were raised by the overdose, limiting the ongoing damage that takes place. In many cases, there is no apparent harm after a day or two, but in a few rare cases, when the overdose was especially extensive, a tank crash can occur, killing many organisms.

The following important points should help in dealing with a limewater overdose:

1. Don't panic! These overdoses do not usually cause a tank to crash.

2. The primary concern is pH. If the pH is 8.6 or lower, you need not do anything. If the pH is above 8.6, then reducing the pH is the priority. Direct addition of vinegar or soda water is a good way to accomplish this goal. Either one mL of distilled white vinegar, or six mL of soda water, per gallon of tank water will give an initial pH drop of about 0.3 pH units. Add either to a high flow area that is away from organisms (e.g., a sump).

3. Do not bother to measure calcium or alkalinity while the tank is cloudy. The solid calcium carbonate particles will dissolve in an alkalinity test, and all of the carbonate in them will be counted as if it were in solution and part of "alkalinity." The same may happen to some extent with calcium tests. Wait until the water clears, and at that point, alkalinity is more likely to be low than high. Calcium will likely be mostly unchanged.

4. The particles themselves will typically settle out and disappear from view over a period of 1-4 days. They do not appear to cause long term detrimental effects to tank organisms.

5. Water changes are not necessarily beneficial or needed in response to a limewater overdose.

[horsefarm5]

Thanks to all who responded...and thank you Randy...I did do a water change because I did panic, and moved some fish and corals to my other tank. By doing this my ph was normal and all seems well this morning. Again thanks to all on RC for helping with my problem.

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Does everything still in the tank seem Ok?

[horsefarm5]

Yes it does...Ph is at 8.2 and all percipitaion has cleared, and no loss of livestock. I still don't know why the ato kept filling the tank all switches seem ok. But again thanks for your time and knowledge

[kgross]

I for one am glad you did not loose anything. When that happened to me, I lost almost everything in the tank.

Kim

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

and all percipitaion has cleared, and no loss of livestock.

Glad to hear everything is OK. That is by far the most common result. Only in a few rare cases do folks experience loses, as Kim reports. The pH must have gotten very high and stayed high from a large overdose.

Happy reefing. :)

[kgross]

In my tank I know it put a lot of kalk into the tank. I did not check the pH, I just started doing lots of water changes. I ended up changing about 100 gallons in 200 gallon system in about 6 hours. Lost all fish but about 3 I think, and just about all corals. now a year later I have some of the soft corals coming back. I wish I would have had a pH monitor and tried to just bring the pH back down with vinegar as you suggested, but my probe was bad and I worried about other problems so I did as much water change as I could get mixed up and ready to go in a short order.

kim

[horsefarm5]

I discovered the overdose just minutes after it happened and did a water change immediately....good or bad the ph was only elevated for a few minutes