Rookie mistake?

[triggerhappy8]

I have been running my nanofor about 4 months now and recently added my first corals other than my ricordea I have had for a while now. I added a frogspawn, two more ricordea, zooanthids, a candy cane, GSP, and xenia. I know this is a lot to add at one time but they were all really tiny frags so I thought that it would be ok. I checked my levels at the end of the week and at first all seemed well. Ammonia, Nitrites both at zero, Nitrates at 1ppm, alk at 11, pH at 8.0. The pH was on the brink of being low and the alk at the brink of being high but they were in the right range so I thought nothing of it. I then checked calcium and it was at an amazing low of 190! I started to freak since I thought weekly water changes would rid the need to dose calcium and ran to the store to get calcium additive. I dosed calcium a bit more than reccommended since it was so low. The pH was low so I thought dosing calcium at 8.6 pH would actually help. I checked the levels again the next day and calc was up to 250 (reasonable jump) but my pH had dropped to 7.5! I know I don't understand the balance between alk-calc-pH but is that normal? For the past days I have been dosing like crazy trying to bring the levels up to no avail. HELP. I am now at 310 calc, and 7.7 pH.

[triggerhappy8]

Oh by the way, this mistake slaughtered my frogspawn but all the others have bounced back and are looking fine. The GSP was the only other one that seemed to even notice.

[LIVEROCKER]

ha! that happenedto me i added too much stuff at once .i paniced and decided to do a 50 percent water change 25 at once and 25 an hour late. thaen,everything was fine.oh yeah,i ad calcium to my ro di water when i mix my salt.i think it gives it a little boost.

[supernip]

maybe your tests were the problem :|

[MrKrispy]

I am pretty sure the B-ionic says to not does more than 1 ml / gallon for a while, that will raise the Ca 16ppm. You could probably add more Calcium to your change-water (?) and let it mix and let the pH stabilize before using. Your calcium and alkalinity are going to fluctuate for a few days even if you are raising it 50ppm.

 

Personally, if you have it up to 300ppm I would slow down, try dosing every other day or every 3 days.

 

What test kits are you using for the Calcium and Alk?

[Dingo]

Having a low calcuim reading is not like poison. It will be a long term problem, but not immediately harmful. You need to add CA slowly because, as you found out, it will mess up your PH if added too fast. Your additive probably tells you how fast it can be safely added on the bottle.

[triggerhappy8]

I use Salifert test kits for everything. Aren't they the best?

[triggerhappy8]

Oh and I am going to try a water change to try to stabalize everything a bit.

[MrKrispy]

Salifert are the best for the money, my opinion. The titration kits are far more accurate than color matching tests. Good work!

 

I don't know if I would do a water change yet unless the pH is still messed up. You need to give the system time to equilibrate. However, the new water might have a decent supply of calcium and should be stabilized (assuming it mixed long enough).

[OneOfDaZZZ]

I think that if I were put in that position you were in:

 

I would have mixed that kalk additive in 5 gallon bucket (or what ever you use for water changes at your house) full of saltwater. Then I would have gave the water a few hours to adjust. Finally once that water tested at the levels that I felt comfortable with then I would have either added that water by a drip system or one cup at a time over a period of a few hours.

 

You just spent a bunch of money on all corals...I don't know about you but I hate to throw away money.