i might have screwed up now

[mrabolli]

I accidentally overdosed my carbonate/bicarbonate addition and calcium chloride. The tank went white. Im checking PH and its ok. 8.1-8.2. What can I expect?

 

Also (this is odd) I just tested my kalawasser solution that was mixed about 1.5 weeks ago and its PH is 7.8. How can that be? It is supposed to be around 11 right? Not that I could test 11 but it should test off the high end. I use a API saltwater test kit.

[Maeda]

a horrendous tank crash at worse.

 

nothing at best.

 

 

 

test your calcium and alk.

[mrabolli]

Ok well i just tested a new batch of kalkawasser immediatly after mixing and its PH was off the charts. above 8.8 So at least I have some faith in the test kit again. Kalk must lose its PH after a while with the addition of air. My dosing system pushes air through a acrylic cylinder immersed in the kalk and bubbles come out into the solution so its adding alot of carbon dioxide every few hours. That must be really lowering the PH I guess.

 

speaking of kalk. How dangerous is it really? I seem to get the powder all over when I go to mix. It gets on my hands and I breath in some of the fine powder that is in the air. Is this common or do you guys wear bio hazard suits when you open your jar of the stuff?

[mrabolli]

well the tank is clear this morning. It snowed in there last night. I added more calcium in an attempt to equal all the carbonate. everything seems ok for now. I dont have a test kit for calcium or hardness so its a guessing game.

[tinyreef]

when in doubt, waterchange it out.

 

kalk should be around 12 pH or so iirc. it does react with atmospheric CO2 like you said so it will normally form a "calcium carbonate skin" at the top (where the actual kalk solution resides, like cream in milk). naturally, this will lower the ca+ content.