tank ODed on kalk

[Laakmann]

this happened a month ago but I was wondering if there is anything else I should check as far as parameters go.

Anyways, I went on vacation for 6 days and I made sure to hook up an extra container of kalkwasser so it could last the whole 6 days I was gone. I guess on the last day I was gone the tank spring a leak coming out of the refugiums glass, its a 30g AGA tank but I put a 3/4 and a 1in bulkhead in it on one of its sides. Anyways it cracked and leaked water out of the crack. Basicly as it leaked saltwater the the kalk container was drained completly as it topped of the water.

I got back and my pH was 8.7 and I had gotten that way in 7hours because it only started at that time before I arrived. 80% of the coral I had died, I was lucky because the tank only started cycling last May and the first corals went into it in august so it was pretty lightly stocked. All of my acroporas I had gotten 2 weeks before I left, a couple LPS corals, GSPs and every invertibrate in the tank exept for some snails and an emerald crab died.

Anyways for some reason my Alk was all the way up at 17 and calcium was down at 150ppm.

I have gotten it back to 10 and 350 but I want to know if other ions/anions could have been effected and percipitated out or increased? salinity is fine also.

Test Kits I used were sailfert, aquarium pharmicuticalls, and red sea for both calcium and carbonate.

Thanks alot

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

As soon as the pH is down, there is nothing more to do or worry about. Alkalinity may drop a bit from precipitation of calcium carbonate, but aside from that there are no big issues.

Anyways for some reason my Alk was all the way up at 17 and calcium was down at 150ppm.

Was the water cloudy with calcium carbonate precipitate when you measured that, or was it clear? A limewater overdose shouldn't have driven the calcium so low.

This article has more:

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

[Laakmann]

it was cloudy but at the same time I had a powerhead come off a wall and stir all the sand up so that might have masked the percipitant.

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

If the sample tested had any solids in it, the alkalinity may give a false high reading as the solid swill dissolve in the test and be counted as alkalinity, even though it is not. So in such situations I'd wait until the water is clear for testing.