pH dropped to 5.5!!!

[bigben2057]

Hmm thats strange vinegar is very weak. Sucks though hope you get through it without a loss.

 

[Schism]

Hmm thats strange vinegar is very weak. Sucks though hope you get through it without a loss.

Well as Capt pointed out it was somewhere in the range of 250ml in a 29g tank to go from 8.0 to 5.5 so id say quantity overrides weakness lol but thanks, im pretty sure everything will pull through. Stressed a bit im sure but doing good.

 

[Schism]

Looks like im experiencing a bacteria bloom tonight as expected. 2am and water is cloudy, almost milky, ph is fine, fish are fine, corals appear fine.

I got water made up, will be doing a 50% change tom after full testing to first see where everything stands.

If i have 0 nitrates and 0 phosphates tom when i test im gonna laugh my you know what off. Ill start a new fad and call it 'EXTREME Carbon Dosing'

Maybe im on to something lol.

 

[bavass]

I can't imagine you getting that much vinegar in there to drop PH. I dose about 50mL a day to my 55g with no PH drop. When i do clean with vinegar i soak everything after

 

[Schism]

I can't imagine you getting that much vinegar in there to drop PH. I dose about 50mL a day to my 55g with no PH drop. When i do clean with vinegar i soak everything after

Yeah i didnt believe it as first either, I think this morning pretty much proves it tho, heavy bacteria bloom.

The way it happened i can easily see that much getting in there. In a 5g bucket after all 2g of it was vinegar. The skimmer holds about 1.5 g or so, so i dumped a good amount in the tank.

Here is this mornings bloom.

 

[reefrunner69]

I'm glad you got it under control, but your math is off. 270ml is way less than a gallon. 1 gallon = ~3785 ml. So much less vinegar than you thought. 270 ml is a little over 18 tablespoons.

Good luck with the bacterial bloom, I had one this week (not nearly as bad as yours) and just waited it out.

 

[Schism]

I'm glad you got it under control, but your math is off. 270ml is way less than a gallon. 1 gallon = ~3785 ml. So much less vinegar than you thought. 270 ml is a little over 18 tablespoons.

Good luck with the bacterial bloom, I had one this week (not nearly as bad as yours) and just waited it out.

Thanks. A little confused as to what your saying with the math. I poured about 1.5 g of water that was in the skimmer into the tank. This 1.5g contained a diluted vinegar, about 2 parts vinegar And 4.5 parts water. And capt calculated it would have taken 270ml to go from 8.2-5.5. If your trying to say something that im missing please let me know thanks again.

 

[reefrunner69]

The way it happened i can easily see that much getting in there. In a 5g bucket after all 2g of it was vinegar. The skimmer holds about 1.5 g or so, so i dumped a good amount in the tank.

Here is this mornings bloom.

This is what I was replying to.

The "after all 2g of it was vinegar. "

Obviously you meant that was your soaking solution and I mistook it as you pouring 5g of water into your tank 2g of which was vinegar. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

 

[Schism]

This is what I was replying to.

The "after all 2g of it was vinegar. "

Obviously you meant that was your soaking solution and I mistook it as you pouring 5g of water into your tank 2g of which was vinegar. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

Ah ok, lol, yeah i was wondering if you misunderstood or if i did. No biggie thanks for the help tho.

Bacteria bloom is pretty crazy right now. Can barely see the back glass. Saltwater is mixing and heating up. Ive never accidentally dosed vinegar so I'm gonna be curious to see if i had a reduction in nitrates and phosphates. Ill let you all know if there was a change.

 

[CorallineAlgae]

This could be relevant but I'm not sure. I used to use an acclimation method for fish that were shipped across the country called ammonia acclimation. I learned it from an international Florida live animal importer. What you do, simplified, is to take the fish that arrived from the bags and pour them into a styrofoam box then test the pH with a meter. Sometimes it was below 6. Then I would take tank water and add muriatic acid until the pH matched the water that the fish came in. I then drip acclimated them to allow them to safely flush out the ammonia that was in their tissue. Ammonia is incredibly destructive to saltwater fish at normal pH levels but not at low pH levels. You then discard most of the ammonia diluted low pH water and re-acclimate them with higher pH water (about 7-7.5), then pour out the water again and acclimate them a final time with regular tank water. The survival rate that came from all this work was draaaastically higher than any other method I know of but the big benefit was much less fish illness.

I'm just telling you this because I know that fish trapped in a bag with very low pH, high ammonia and low oxygen can survive just fine if the ammonia is dealt with. The brief low pH drop you had shouldn't harm them much if at all the way you handled it. I wish I knew what to tell you about your corals but I think most if them will recover. I can't say that I know a single reefer, including myself, who could've done as good of a job as you did. Plus you were already exhausted when all this went down. Thumbs up!

 

[Schism]

This could be relevant but I'm not sure. I used to use an acclimation method for fish that were shipped across the country called ammonia acclimation. I learned it from an international Florida live animal importer. What you do, simplified, is to take the fish that arrived from the bags and pour them into a styrofoam box then test the pH with a meter. Sometimes it was below 6. Then I would take tank water and add muriatic acid until the pH matched the water that the fish came in. I then drip acclimated them to allow them to safely flush out the ammonia that was in their tissue. Ammonia is incredibly destructive to saltwater fish at normal pH levels but not at low pH levels. You then discard most of the ammonia diluted low pH water and re-acclimate them with higher pH water (about 7-7.5), then pour out the water again and acclimate them a final time with regular tank water. The survival rate that came from all this work was draaaastically higher than any other method I know of but the big benefit was much less fish illness.

I'm just telling you this because I know that fish trapped in a bag with very low pH, high ammonia and low oxygen can survive just fine if the ammonia is dealt with. The brief low pH drop you had shouldn't harm them much if at all the way you handled it. I wish I knew what to tell you about your corals but I think most if them will recover. I can't say that I know a single reefer, including myself, who could've done as good of a job as you did. Plus you were already exhausted when all this went down. Thumbs up!

Thanks a bunch man.

Ive actually never heard of that method but it seems to make sense. I think the sudden drop just shocked them badly but once the ph climbed to about the 7.0-7.5 range they picked themselves up off the sand bed and began swimming like normal.

If it would have been a much more gradual decline then i suspect they would have been fine just like the bagged fish. But i watched it drop in minutes that low, even i was shocked so i can only imagine the fish were too lol.

Was crazy how fast they went down hill and back to normal again. Everything seems fine now, just trying to deal with the bacteria bloom tank is extremely milky.

Bout to do water change and test everything.

Thanks again

 

[Schism]

Well just did a small 15% change. Tested my water and im quite happy with my accident lol.

Temp 79.0
pH 8.02
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 1ppm
Phosphate 0 (undetectable)
Alk 9
Calcium 460
Mag 1380

Tank is still very cloudy. Need to order some more DI resin before i can make more water, so unless its an emergency im gonna let the rest run its course until i get the resin here probably weds.

A mistake actually did something good for my tank at least lol. Corals look a little PO'd but should pull through just fine. Cant see the back glass yet.

 

[CorallineAlgae]

Corals look a little PO'd but should pull through just fine. Cant see the back glass yet.

Corals look a little PO'd... LMAO

Do you run Purigen? It won't fix the BB but it's great at pulling out the dissolved organics that the skimmer may miss.

 

[Schism]

Corals look a little PO'd... LMAO

Do you run Purigen? It won't fix the BB but it's great at pulling out the dissolved organics that the skimmer may miss.

I have carbon running in a reactor along with GFO. Hard to tell but looks like its gotten a tad clearer, still milky tho.

 

[CorallineAlgae]

I have carbon running in a reactor along with GFO. Hard to tell but looks like its gotten a tad clearer, still milky tho.

Do you run them together in the same reactor? My brother tried that and ended up grinding his GFO into mud. I heard that they can be run together if you separate them with a sponge. Glad to hear it's clearing up!

 

[Schism]

Do you run them together in the same reactor? My brother tried that and ended up grinding his GFO into mud. I heard that they can be run together if you separate them with a sponge. Glad to hear it's clearing up!

Yeah you can separate with a sponge but i mix them together. Carbon prevents the GFO from sticking together so no need to tumble. No dust from the GFO to worry about and no constantly adjusting the tumble. Sometimes i run both, sometimes i run one or the other depending on levels.

 

[reefrunner69]

How is the tank today?

 

[Schism]

Tank is much clearer this morning when i woke up. Still cloudy but not really milky anymore. Fish look fine, corals however still seem to be irritated from the experience. Many dont have full polyp extension and some are closed up. Good news is im not seeing any significant color loss or necrosis so thats a good sign.

A few corals appear better than before the incident so thats also kinda strange. I know my acans are loving life right now looking good for some reason, seems to be most SPS are irritated right now along with a few some LPS.