Tank water white due to my brain fart

[Freed]

Randy, went down to my 75 gallon frag tank this AM and couldn't see half way thru it, water was opaque white. I turned my peristaltic pump on last night to raise the pH a few hundredths and then forgot about it and left it on. This was at about 2:30 am. Woke up today and went down at 12:45PM and saw what I had done. I shut the pump off immediately and luckily, as I always do, I had only left the uptake tube in the kalk tub in the water about 2 inches or so but that still equals more than enough kalk going into the tank by the time the pump doesn't have any more kalk to suck up. So I grabbed my pH tester and saw the pH in the tank was only reading 8.06 which baffled me. Checked the pH in the QT tank and it was reading in its normal range at 8.29. I then hurriedly did a 40-50% water change in the frag tank and checked the alk~8.3dkh, calcium~300-310 with Salifert which was a bit low. Is what I am seeing a calcium snow storm? I will test the alk and calcium here in a bit as soon as the new water change water mixes more in the tank to see what I am at now. Should I do more water changes when I can? Should I add some of my Dowflake liquid calcium to bring the calcium back up a bit or wait a while? None of the frags have changed color or deteriorated as of right now. Any algae up at the top of the tank has turned white which may be a good thing. The water is now a bit more clear but still difficult to see all the way thru as normal. Any recommendations? Any idea if the frags will make it? Should I put some in the main tank just in case? Any help will be appreciated. Thanks, Jeff

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Probably it was a calcium carbonate precipitation event. When that precipitation happens, it drops the pH, so perhaps it initially was higher, then dropped.

Also, alkalinity readings are not reliable in cloudy water as the suspended CaCO3 will dissolve in an alk test and be counted as alkalinity. Calcium may be similarly confounded.

The solids don't seem to hurt anything, so just wait it out. I expect everything will be fine.

This article has more:

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

 

[Freed]

Wheeeeeeew!! Thought I was going to lose most of my EXOTIC frags. I have several in there. Don't think I need to add calcium to bring it up a bit? Move some frags to another tank? Thanks for the quick response.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

In a day or so when things settle down, I'd look to make whatever corrections to calcium and alkalinity are needed. You could add calcium chloride now, but I wouldn't boost alkalinity yet.

The only time I ever heard of anyone loosing something from such an event was an extreme case there the pH stayed above 9 for a long time.

 

[Freed]

THANKS A BUNCH FOR CALMING MY FEARS!!!! Jeff

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

You're welcome.

Good luck.