Help - White Out

[gjuarez]

Why did I mention that the PH was high, it was actually low. That's what I get for reading posts too fast. Anyways, its good to hear that you got the problem resolved. Keep us posted. A pic of your setup wouldnt hurt.

[GaryP]

OK, sorry for my absence.

Yes, you had a calcium carbonate precipitation. What I call a "blizzard."

Reason - If you use a two part additive, you must determine what your daily or weekly demand for both alkalinity and calcium is. In other words, how much does the concentration of both fall every day if I don't add anything. Ideally, you want to dose your supplement in an amount equivalent to the daily demand so that your concentrations stay as close to constant as possible. I have worked this out pretty closely and then test on weekends to see if I need to "fine tune" the concentrations. It may require a good amount of testing in the beginning to determine the daily demand and the required dosing.

Also, remember that the demand will change over time. The weekly testing tells me if it has increased or decreased and by how much. You can adjust your dosing program to accomodate for this based on the testing results.

A good rule of thumb is to never dose anything that you aren't testing for. Blindly following the directions on the label is usually a recipe for disaster.

Next, have you tested your magnesium. Magnesium is hgelpful in inhibiting calcium carbonate preipitation. It should be kept up around 1400-1500 ppm.

I'm really surprised your levels are as high as they are after the blizzard. When I have had this happen (yes it happens to the best of us) the levels fall really low and it takes some work to get them back up again. Its like an avalanche, once the precipitation starts, the levels will fall below where they would normally be stable. The calcium carbonate crystals that are suspended in solution act like a catalyst for more precipitation then is normally possible.

Your levels are fine where they are now. I would work out a dosing program to keep them where they are. You can continue to use Oceanic, but you will find that you can probably cut way back on the dosing of the calcium component of the B-Ionic product that you are using. The disadvantage to doing this is that you are going to get bigger swings on calcium concentration unless you have a very high calcium demand in your tank and are dosing the B-ionic calcium to keep up with it.

One of the problems I have with B-ionic is how they tell you to dose it. IMO a two part shouldn't be poured in. I pre-dilute mine and drip it in. If you see a milky white cloud form when you pour it in, you are precipitating and just basically wasted the product. I call this "making sand." When you pour it in, you are creating a localized area of high concentration that causes the precipitation. Most people don't have the paitence to pour it in slow enough. In addition to that, as I stated above, the precipitate that is formed can catalyze an even larger blizzard. Chances are, this may have been what happened in your case.

What to do after a blizzard. 1. Just blow the precipitate of the rock & corals. You just added to your sand bed. 2. Pull all your pumps out and clean them with vinegar. Precipitation usually starts in the pump due to the changes in pressure there and the impellor and impellor cavities will be heavily scaled up. The next time you unplug them or there is a power outage they won't restart because of the friction of the scale deposits there. Better to deal with it now then have water on the floor. If you are using a 2 part you should be going periodic cleaning of your pumps anyway. Over time they always scale up. I'm pulling all of my plumbing out today and cleaning it because I have noticed decreased flow. That's one reason I like using tygon tubing instead of a lot of PVC in my plumbing system. Its a lot easier to pull out and clean.