How to recover from a calcium storm?

[Ken Young]

I dosed a little too much calcium hydroxide last night in my 75G reef. I
went to bed around 8pm and my wife woke me up an our later asking about
what I did to the aquarium. I came downstairs and the entire aquarium was
milky white. This is (very) well estabished reef tank with 3 fish -- a
yellow tang, a royal gramma, and a sebae clown. The corals and sea
anemonies are almost too hardy, so I'm not worried about them.

My question is -- what's the proper procedure to recover from a calcium
storm (meaning all (or just some?) the calcium precipitated out of the
water column due to overdosing)? And yes, I do use the drip dosing method
-- although next time I'll only put in measured amounts in my reservoir. :)

The tank has cleared up overnight but there are little white specs of
calcium deposits everywhere. Should I siphon the deposits out or leave it
be?

- Ken

[Wayne Sallee]

As long as your ph is ok, you can go on as usual. The
first thing to do, would have been to check the ph, as
your ph could have been through the roof.

Overdosing can mess up your cacium/alkalinity ballance,
but slowly dripping the lime water in a high flow area
over several days will get it where it should be. Your
magnesium levels may also now be low.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets



Ken Young wrote on 3/28/2006 10:02 AM:
> I dosed a little too much calcium hydroxide last night in my 75G reef. I
> went to bed around 8pm and my wife woke me up an our later asking about
> what I did to the aquarium. I came downstairs and the entire aquarium was
> milky white. This is (very) well estabished reef tank with 3 fish -- a
> yellow tang, a royal gramma, and a sebae clown. The corals and sea
> anemonies are almost too hardy, so I'm not worried about them.
>
> My question is -- what's the proper procedure to recover from a calcium
> storm (meaning all (or just some?) the calcium precipitated out of the
> water column due to overdosing)? And yes, I do use the drip dosing method
> -- although next time I'll only put in measured amounts in my reservoir. :)
>
> The tank has cleared up overnight but there are little white specs of
> calcium deposits everywhere. Should I siphon the deposits out or leave it
> be?
>
> - Ken