lost power- nothing has rebounded

[Raato]

I lost power yesterday for an undetermined amount of time. When I got home from work the power to the tank was off and it was cloudy. All my rics were shrivelled and closed up, even the couple shrooms looked really bad. Lost a couple SPS, but it is what it is.

I immediately started running some floss and carbon, which semi cleared the water. It was still slightly cloudy this morning, but I wanted to let it settle instead of making a knee jerk reaction and screwing things up even worse.

Well I got home tonight and its still cloudy so I tested my parameters and here is what they are.

PH 8.0
Amm 0
No2 0
No3 0
Po4 .1 (a hint of color change but not enough to register)
Kdh 13
Ca 625 (high don't know why)
Mg 1360
temp 78
SG 1.026

Am I seeing Calcium precipitating out causing the cloudiness? If its Calcium why are my corals hating life so bad. I am afraid I am going to lose everything if I dont get this figured out soon.

In case it matters I use Oceanic salt and API and Red Sea test kits. Any help is appreciated.

[Jstn]

Your alk and Ca seem very high tbh. What is your doing regiment, perhaps the power outage was just anecdotal?

[Raato]

Originally Posted by Jstn

Your alk and Ca seem very high tbh. What is your doing regiment, perhaps the power outage was just anecdotal?

currently no dosing and haven't done any in 6 months. The Oceanic mix is naturally high in Ca and Mg and that's why I use it. I have no clue why my Alk is so high.

Oceanic Ca580 Alk8.5 Mg1650 ** info from synthetic salt mix thread**

With my weekly 10gal changes it keeps these levels more in check. For the Record I crashed my tank about 9 months ago by over dosing so this time I wanted to only do water changes and ATO. Hence the Rics and shrooms in the tank currently.

No fish in the tank in case it matters.

[Jstn]

If the alk is 8.5 from the bottle, then how does it test at 13 in your tank without dosing?

How are you testing SG? I hope a calibrated refractometer, if not a high SG may explain why your parameters are out of whack.

[Jstn]

Also I think a 10 gal water change weekly is rather high for no livestock and only mushrooms and a few sps. Are you feeding your tank?

[Raato]

no idea why the alk is high.

As for the water changes its just a habit. Part of my weekend routine. I lose about 5 gal a week to evaporation and change 10 my total water volume is about 90 so its 1/6 a week.

Yes calibrated refractometer

minimal target feeding of cylopeze and/or mysis. (twice a week)

Inverts are not affected as of now.

I am going to change out my Carbon again.

[bertoni]

I think changing out the carbon is a good idea, and I might do a few 5 g water changes over the next few days. Those numbers all are in the safe zone, most likely. I suspect the organisms just need more time to recover.

[Raato]

changing my carbon and floss again last night cleared the tank up by this morning. The corals are still stressed, but hopefully they start to rebound today.

I am now concerned about my ALK/Ca why would it be so high if I am not dosing?

[Jstn]

Originally Posted by Raato

changing my carbon and floss again last night cleared the tank up by this morning. The corals are still stressed, but hopefully they start to rebound today.

I am now concerned about my ALK/Ca why would it be so high if I am not dosing?

Maybe mix up a fresh bucket and test parameters, perhaps your salt mix is off. I have noticed sometimes my Mg would be low and other times rather high from batch to batch of reef crystals. Also make sure you test kits are accurate and not expired.

[Raato]

hmm I did open a new salt container last weekend.

I'll mix a batch tonight and test it tomorrow.

[Surf&turf]

I've used Oceanic before and Alk is usually around 15 in a fresh mixed batch with SG @ 1.025. Still the same after 24 hrs.