Pics of a kalk overdose

[Swimboy123]

So I did a water change last night and refilled my kalk reactor at the same time. After traveling all day my mind was wandering and i forgot to unplug my ato (which runs through my kalk reactor) and went to bed about 1 am. I woke up at 5 like normal and came down to check on my tank which was a nice pure white color. I'm pretty sure all of my fish are dead with the exception of two chromis and my cleaner shrimp. Half of my corals are totally bleach and the other half look like they are really having a bad day. Pics are below and I will keep everyone posted.

 

 

 

 

[Swimboy123]

Also, thanks to YiatzofEden and her husband for an early morning phone call and clam delivery. My large squamosa was transferred to their tank and I'm hoping it pulls through. I can get more frags and colonies, but it would be devastating if that clam didn't make it.

[Der ABT]

oh man sorry to hear and see this, with all the work your doing it cant be easy to see.....my condolences on the fish

 

does your ato run constantly??? i just dont think mine could dump that much in even if i had a pump stuck on.

[bbyatv]

Braden,

 

From someone who has had 2 major tank losses in the past 8 months, I understand your pain.

 

Good luck recovering. It hurts to see so much loss. Maybe add a dosing pump to you Kalk to prevent future failure.

 

Bruce

[Origami]

So sorry, Braden. Except for the fish, your pics bring back memories of that stark scene that I faced not all that many weeks ago. Different circumstances and situation, but that picture of the white coral skeleton standing out against the cloudy haze is sooooo familiar.

 

Did your salinity crash, too?

[roni]

Braden,

 

I'm so sorry for your loss. I'm not that far from you and can give you some frags when you're ready again. Sorry again.

 

Roni

[Chad]

Man, I am sorry to see. Pictures like this are truly heartbreaking to see. Let me know if there is anything that I can do to help out with your recovery.

[surf&turf]

So sorry to see this!!!

[Supernova26]

Oh man sorry to hear that Braden. That really sucks. You are more than welcome to have your frags back to restart your colonies.

[Swimboy123]

Thanks for the condolences. Duty calls so once my oh had dropped I had to head off to work. I know that a good bit of my smaller colonies are dead but I am hoping the larger ones pull through. There was an absurdly large amount of mucous so I am hoping they were protected. Salinity dropped to 1.019

[BowieReefer84]

Sorry to see this, and wishing you the best.

 

I don't understand what happened. Did you do a waterchange with less water than you took out, and then your ato ran for an extended period dumping kalk and lowering salinity?

[Alieu07]

Sorry to hear that. I know is very hurts see things like this.

Edited August 22, 2011 by Alieu07

[khalid]

Sorry to hear about the crash, it is always sad when you see this happen.

[Swimboy123]

@bowiereefer84- Basically that is what happened. I have a larger than average kalk reactor and i had just put about 5 cups of kalk in so it hadn't had time to settle to the bottom. I put my skimmer on standby(for 60 minutes) which hold about 3 gallons of water and my refugium (3-5 gallons) was on a timer to refill at a certain point in time. It's not a great practice to have but one that I have done multiple times before. I can tell you now that it will never happen again!!

 

Basically my timers turned back on both and my ATO did its job like it was supposed to and dumped about 6-8 gallons of freshly mixed kalkwasser into my system. I didn't find it for about 4 1/2 hours later. As of my departure this morning, I have two chromis and a cleaner shrimp, various mixed snails and hermits, and a lot of coral skeletons. I dread going home this evening knowing what is waiting for me there.

 

I have talked with my buddy and he has relayed to me that my large squamosa clam is doing great. I'll give it a day or two to recover and hopefully there won't be anymore problems with my tank.

[Swimboy123]

@supernova26- I appreciate the offer Rak but given the state of my tank I think I will let you grow them out and I'll get a frag from you down the line. Thanks!!

 

@roni- Thanks, I don't think we have met yet but I really appreciate your offer and I probably will take you up on it!

 

 

[DaveS]

Oh man, sorry to see this. As you work to avoid the chance of this happening in the future, one thing you can look into is an ATO that has a built-in timer. They make ones that shut off after running for >10 minutes. Maybe that would have helped, although you may have a burned out return pump instead. Come see me for frags when you are ready!

[Swimboy123]

Of course I will come see you Dave! You took all of my money at the last frag meets, why not keep it going??

[kingfish]

really sorry to see this has happen.

[flowerseller]

Sorry to see this has happened to you.

 

Moving forward,

this unfortunately is a very avoidable situation for anyone using a kalk reactor.

This applies to all sizes of reactors, any make or model and whether you use an ATO, the drip method or simply add as needed.

Never put more kalk into a reactor than your system can use (run thru) in one weeks time.

By use I mean evaporation verses actual kalk added to reactor chamber.

 

As a of a general rule of thumb,

use 1/8th TEASPOON for each gallon of water you anticipate evaporting per week.

That's how much you should be adding each week. You can add a little more but not more then a 1/4 tsp per gallon, it just does not do any benefit. Adding each week is far better than each month or so on.

You will achieve a much more stable pH this way also.

 

reasoning for this;

you will not get more than an 1/8 tsp per gallon to actually mix and stay in solution per gallon. Staying in solution being key here.

In the event of an accidental overdose, you will not be able to raise the tank pH as much as over filling the reactor to begin with.

You will be adding weekly, cleaning completely at least every couple months and re filling.

 

I've done this for 10-12 years and proved this to work effectively when I actually had a snail cause this to happen to me about 2-3 years ago.

[Origami]

Here's our pinned Kalk overdose thread:

http://www.wamas.org/forums/topic/28120-how-to-respond-to-a-kalk-overdose/

 

Here's another post showing the topoff configuration that I used for my topoff system. It has multiple redundancies as shown. After I added the timer/solenoid combination, I reaped the additional benefit of longer-lived DI resin.

 

http://www.wamas.org/forums/topic/34603-one-step-away-from-disaster/page__view__findpost__p__297966

 

Here's the image from the post linked above:

 

 

 

[GraffitiSpotCorals]

I just use a maxijet with no recirculation vent (whatever its called) and that makes it time out when its ran for a few min. I am sure there are a few things that can go wrong with this setup too... So its on my list to upgrade next, but its saved me a few times.

 

Braden when everything gets stable you know your welcome to come by and grab some stuff. Sucks to see thoes pics.

[Swimboy123]

Thanks Paul, I really appreciate it. I am literally biting my fingers at work thinking about my colonies and hoping everything pulls through. BTW, I still have the media reactor for you! Don't put kalk in it!!!!!!!!

[mogurnda]

Been there. Lost a tank full of seahorses. I am so sorry to see it happen to you. Surprisingly, my corals all survived.

[zygote2k]

sorry to hear of the fish loss-

FWIW, I find that using 2 part on a doser works so much better and is a zillion times safer than using kalk reactors. I maintain a heavy growth SPS tank this way and will only add tiny amounts of kalk dosed by hand on an as needed basis to make up alk differences in the 2 part system.

[lowsingle]

Sorry to hear, I have had a similar incident happen to me, but luckily I didn't lose anything......I hope the rest pulls through for you......

 

cheers,

Darren