I think I destroyed my tank

[Breakthecycle2]

Ughhhh!!!!!!

I did a water change yesterday. Against my better judgement, I bought unsalted RO water and salted it my self. Two things then happened. After adding salt, I tested and tested and tested. I also added Kent Super buffer to the water. Well, after not paying attention, I added to my tank. The buffer did not dissolve correctly because of the salt water. My tank turned all milky. I tested the Salinity and it read 1.30 from 1.24. I did another water change, this time just fresh. This morning, I get up and all the corals look extremely bad, my wrasse, fire shrimp and possibly all my snails are dead. The rest of the inverts that I can see, appear to be alive but are not moving. My clowns are just hovering at the bottom of the tank. No ammonia, nitrites or nitrates. Salinity is about 1.24. HELP ME!

 

[Supa Belle]

Id say put everything that's alive in buckets and 100% water change the bb will colonise back quickly it's in the LR

 

[Sniperhank]

Good lesson as to why you should mix your water in advance, I do mine 24 hours before the water change to make sure things are ok.

In this case, mix up more water for water changes and get your tanks system under control ASAP.

 

[Breakthecycle2]

Well, two water changes later, the salinity is up (from 1.20) to 1.22-23. I cleaned all the hardened buffer build up on the glass and tried to get it all off the corals. the alkalinity was over 16. It's down to around 14 -15 before my last water change. PH is stable at 8.0-8.1. He fish seem more active now but the inverts are not yet. Corals are no where near what they should be.

 

[Ingy]

There is nothing wrong with very high alkalanity. It will not hurt anything.

 

[Breakthecycle2]

So based on what I told you, what do you think killed my fish and some of the invertebrates? The raise and drop in salinity?

 

[Supa Belle]

I can't say for sure I don't use a buffer

 

[melosu58]

The quick rise and drop of the salinity probably did it. Inverts and corals cant take a rapid rise and drop of salinity. As mentioned above always wait 24-48 hours before adding the water to your tank. Do water test before you add also.

 

[ccCapt]

There is nothing wrong with very high alkalanity. It will not hurt anything.

I totally disagree with this. High alkalinity is more than likely what cause the precipitation event (water got milky). By adding a buffer to the fresh mix, the alk was pushed past the super saturation point and precipitated out of solution. High alkalinity also can burn many corals. Natural seawater on most reefs is 7 dKH. The recommended alk level for a reef tank is 7 dKH to 11 dKH. Pushing alk any higher can lead to precipation events and coral burning. I would never suggest anyone keep their alk any higher than the recommended levels.

I agree with Mike that the rapid rise and fall of the salinity also played a factor in the fish and corals health.

 

[bskerrichard27]

Sounds like you did not let the salt disolve in the ro water long enough and it shocked the tank proubly burning the fishes gills and killing the inverts which are very sensitive to salinity changes...

 

[Ingy]

I totally disagree with this. High alkalinity is more than likely what cause the precipitation event (water got milky). By adding a buffer to the fresh mix, the alk was pushed past the super saturation point and precipitated out of solution. High alkalinity also can burn many corals. Natural seawater on most reefs is 7 dKH. The recommended alk level for a reef tank is 7 dKH to 11 dKH. Pushing alk any higher can lead to precipation events and coral burning. I would never suggest anyone keep their alk any higher than the recommended levels.

I agree with Mike that the rapid rise and fall of the salinity also played a factor in the fish and corals health.

Although I do agree a sudden rise in Alk can cause excessive precipitation, I disagree with with high levels causing "burning". There is nothing in calcium carbonate or bicarbonate to cause stress if the pH is within a normal range.
Now I have to go find the aquarium report where the guy actually tested very high Alk levels and noted his corals grew even better although so was the buildup on his equipment.

 

[Breakthecycle2]

Well it I don't know if the alkalinity itself killed.anything but the build up did. Every coral with build up was burned and died. My hammer frags and torch had no build up and are fine.

 

[Ingy]

About 3 weeks ago I was cleaning my tank and knocked a couple tiny pieces of salt buildup into the tank. They landed on my pagoda cup and although the pieces were very small compared to my coral, the damage was INSTANT. The normally green lining on the cup was burned and turned grey. The size of the burn was many times larger than the salt piece, and I suspect just the localized super salinization of the water was enough to cause the damage.
Here's a pic I just took, and although much of it has recovered, the damage is still evident





The combination of high Alk and high salt content may have caused the precipitate to contain high levels of salt causing damage. Or the high level of salt in the water may have done it on its own and the precipitate is simply coincidental to the damage.
But high Alk should not cause damage on its own. Even the advanced aquarist says if your Alk is very high just to let it come down on its own.

 

[Breakthecycle2]

You're probably right, the salt maybe "solidified".

 

[Breakthecycle2]

OK, well, I got the AK down from about a 24-25 to a 19-20. I had the calcium tested a few days ago it was a whopping 130, which is obviously very low. I have been dosing calcium, so I would assume it is what is bringing down the AK.

 

[ccCapt]

How are you testing them? I don't see how that alk reading can possibly be correct. I don't think saltwater can hold that much bicarbonate (alkalinity) in solution. I don't how the calcium can drop that much either.
If those results are right, I would do a 100% water change with freshly made saltwater.

This may help you understand the relationship between calcium and alkalinity.
A Simplified Guide to the Relationship Between Calcium, Alkalinity, Magnesium and pH by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

 

[Breakthecycle2]

They are correct. I was told that because of putting so much ak/ph buffer it raised the alkalinity that high which in turn, dropped the calcium.

 

[Vazter]

Last 2 week my alk was 14dkh and some of my sps start to bleach and die after i brought it down to 9-8dkh my coral start to look good again

High Alk could kill sps Just keep alk between 8-9 and make sure you test with different test kit!

 

[ccCapt]

Let me throw some number at you...and I will round off to make it easier.
When calcification occurs, a set amount of alkalinity and calcium is used. For every 2.5 dKH of alk used, 18 ppm of calcium is used.
Let's assume before you did any dosing, your alk and calcium were in the normal ranges of 9 dKH and 400 ppm.
According to the directions from Kent, 1 teaspoon per 40 gal of water will raise alk 0.5 dKH.
You are currently 10 dKH above "normal', which means you would have had to put in aprox 7 teaspoons in your 16 gal tank just to get it that high, but.......
Your calcium is aprox 270 ppm below normal. For it to drop that much, calcification would have had to "use" 34 dKH of alk.
Now you would have had to been at 54 dKH at the high point, which means you would have had to have added 36 teaspoons of supplement.
(It's early so the math may be off a little, but you get the idea)

 

[Breakthecycle2]

Well, if those directions are correct, I REALLY screwed up. I put 2 cups in. The directions on my can stated 1 teaspoon per glass (16 oz) of fresh water.