snowing in my tank....HELP!!

[Orlando-Jeff]

My alk is a bit low so I decided today to get some red sea reef foundation part B. It says maximum increase per day should not be more than 1.4 dkh which in my tank should be about 20ml dosed. I decided to play it safe and only dose half of that (10ml) Well..I pour it near one of my power heads to make sure it got some good flow and..WOW snow storm in my tank. Also, my PH went from 8.03 to 8.33 in about 2 minutes. What happened? Hope I didn't do any permanent damage. The snow storm did settle down after a few minutes though

 

[cracker]

Hello Orlando jeff, Maybe it just took a few to dissolve into the water. I don't know about the fast ph change .

 

[Orlando-Jeff]

Hello Cracker.
Yeah...did some research and found that I probably added it too fast. As for the ph, it seems to be going back down. Didn't seem to bother coral or fish but it did look like a snow globe for a few minutes though..

 

[DaveK]

Yes, sometimes additives will cause a precipitate, As you know now, you need to go slow with adding them. Your tank should be ok.

 

[Oxylebius]

I add alk in the middle of the night (w/doser) b/c of the fluctuation in pH. pH naturally lowers at night in salt tanks. By dosing the tank with alk at night verses in the daytime, it helps to maintain a steadier pH reading. My doser is set up to deliver 60mls from midnight - 4am. That doesn't mean that you have to do it this way b/c you don't. I'm just sharing what I do and why.

Agree w/others, it precipitated out. But sounds like it was brief and then went into solution, so there isn't anything to worry about.

 

[Orlando-Jeff]

Thanks for the replies. Good to know it didn't damage anything. I did an alk test just a bit ago and the alk went up .50dkh which would be correct because I dosed less than half last night. Going to do a water change this evening and check again before dosing any more. Seriously thinking about getting a dosing pump. Just haven't done it yet because my tank is only 34 gallons and don't know if a dosing pump would be needed but it sure would keep things more stable I'm sure