Can I overdose Soda Ash

[vinny]

About 3 to 4 cups of pre-mixed soda ash fell in my 30 gallon tank and on the floor and on the wall, this stuff went everywhere mostly in the tank. I've been removing cleaning my sponges, everything is completly white in the tank but not the corals the glass, rocks, sand pumps everything. All the corals look ok nothing looks stressed right now, lights went out an hour ago and I still havent got to a water change, how bad is this situation ?

 

[Chris A.]

Test your alk. It’s probably sky high if that much went in to the tank. You’ll need to get it back down with water changes. What types of coral do you have?

 

[this is me]

Of course you can overdose soda ash!
Check your alkalinity and salinity. 3 to 4 cups of premixed soda ash in a 30gallons is a wipe out IMO.

 

[vinny]

Salinity is 1.027 and alk is 9dkh and im waiting for my 5 gallon batch of new water mix

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[vinny]

Im running a mixed reef

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[Chris A.]

Alk is only 9???
Don’t think you dropped as much in the tank as you thought. How’s your calcium?what was your alk level prior?
Whatever dropped in there might have precipitated on contact with your water.

 

[vinny]

I think your right Chris, about how much went in the tank vs elsewhere. My ca was and still is around 500 I've been trying to get it down.

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[vinny]

Alk was at 7dkh

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[Chris A.]

Just hope you don’t have a lot of acros since those are the ones that might get affected the most from the swing. Don’t do anything major for water changes, gallon or 2 every other day or just let it ride out until it’s back on track. Good luck man

 

[vinny]

Thanks Chris, i just started sps this summer with really good success. Ill only change out a couple of gallons at a time every other day thanks again.

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[this is me]

Something does not make sense here. You either exaggerated the amount of premixed soda ash that was spilled, you panicked and thought a lot of it went into the tank but it really didn’t, or your premixed is wrong and diluted.
Based on the BRS calculator, the amount of soda ash that’s needed to change all of 7 to 9 is 42ml or 0.178 cup. A far cry from the 3-4 cups you thought
https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/reef-calculator/

Again, even a cup of premixed solda ash went into a 30gallons tank, I expect a wipe out in the next couple days.

 

[vinny]

I mixed a gallon of rodi water with a full pouch of BRS soda ash like the BRS instructions say to mix it. I set up 4 cups of the mix next to the tank. When i thought it was all set to start dosing i started to walk away when when I heard something falling. I turned around and it was everywhere. Yes i assumed that most of it when in the tank because my turn my tank very cloudy.

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[vinny]

You said a wipe out, even with the water changes?

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[this is me]

I don’t think you get what I was saying in my previous post. What spilled and how much went into your tank is not anywhere near as much as you think.
In your case, I don’t think much went into the tank if your alk went from 7 to 9. I wouldn’t be concern much about that rise. Most people who manually dose will see that much rise.

 

[dz6t]

The amount of dry soda ash needed to change a 30 gallon tank from 7 to 9 is 0.9 tea spoon.
About 4 gram. I guess not much soda ash was dropped inside the tank.


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[dz6t]

Test the calcium level since your tank is cloudy


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[wdebenedettojr]

No way 3 cups actually went into the tank. I agree if that were to happen a wipe out would be going on. Sounds like only a bit went into the tank

 

[gurumasta]

I agree only a small amount got in the tank if the alk went from 7 to 9. That is still a pretty dramatic instant swing though. Anything over 1dkh in a 24 hr period could cause harm.

Do you know what your pH did through all of this?

 

[vinny]

Just finished testing and this is what i have now.
Calcium 320
Alk 7dkh
Ph 8.2
Salinity 1.026
And this is what my tank looks like now.

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[vinny]

And a close up shot

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