Tank Gone 'milky'

[craighuckins]

Got up this morning and the tank has a milky haze to it- there are no obvious particles that are visible. I dosed kalk last night on a slow drip ( 1 drip/second) 1/2 tsp kalk to 1 litre RO, let settle and only used crystal clear water off top. calcium was at 430ppm and alk. at 9 DKH, magnesium is a tad high at 1500ppm but can't see that being a problem in itself. First thing I thought of was kalk precipitation, but surely that wasn't enough kalk addition to cause this at these levels? Any suggestions anyone?

[Glenn@home]

Sounds like its kalk to me, I reckon its like blood, spill a little on the floor and it looks like a real mess.

Same with kalk overdose, a little goes a long way.


JMHO

Glenn

[elliot]

what are your parametrs? That will tell you

could be spawning or bacterial bloom otherwise

e

[vanadium]

i don`t use a kalk stirrer so i can`t comment.....what i do use is a dispenser and i put 3-4 teaspoons in it every week this get churned in 24/7 and i go of the tunze instructions for using it.

[mooch]

do you have any turbo snails in there ? ... ive noticed in mine that my turbos will release what seems to be gallons of sperm/semen every now and then, and make mine look like ive been doing top ups with semi skimmed..just a thought

[Marc Foord]

do you have any calerpa/halimeda ? when that crashes you can get this sort of problem...just a thought.

[craighuckins]

I have 5 turbos, 35 ceriths, 35 IO's and 100+ stomatellas. I have seen them have a tank orgy like this before but it didn't turn the tank white. Must have been taking snail viagra!!!
No halimeda or caulerpa.
If I have had a kalk precipitation, any explainations of why it has happened? what have I done wrong???I didn't think I added too much too quickly!

[Jonesii]

Just a long shot, are you fluidising any type of phosphate remover? If so what brand?

[craighuckins]

Originally posted by jonock@Mar 14 2005, 15:47
Just a long shot, are you fluidising any type of phosphate remover?
nope!

[Glenn@home]

Craig

As elliott suggested testing the tank parameters may give you a better clue, I went for a precipitation simply because you dosed kalk last night andf the problem was seen this morning.

Although you may not have thought you were dosing too much, I have seen the same kind of thing and it doesnt take much, escpeailly if your dosing is raising your levels and your not aware of it.

Are you using a homemade dripping device ?

Could be a couple of things came together to cause this event. mayeb to many drips per second compared with the flow rate perhpas the kalk was more saturated than normal.

Check you levels for Ca/Alk and see what they are like, I suspect if this is a precipitation they will be lower than you would expect.

HTH

Glenn

[vanadium]

the way i dose kalk is by far more dangerous to the live stock in my tank to most..like i said i dose the stuff 24/7 and not by the drip method prefered...

now i know the method of dosing kalk safely is by the drip method....elliott,glenn,kim..etc..sorry i can`t name you all..i class as advanced aquarists and all posts by them i have to respect..

i have been putting kalk into my system like this for 18 months now...i monitor with good equipment so i can keep an eye on things..everything looks good..

i also have checked the saturation of my kalk using the conductivity meter...2 days of tests have proven good....i will post the results after a week of testing.

tunze are well respected for there products....if it was so bad for kalk to be added this way then why bring this product out?

opinions will be most appreciated.

[elliot]

i agree with your method for tanks that have a higher alk/ca demand.

I used to add 24/7 .. but always on a timer - not via a float switch!!!!!. The reason for this was my demand was so high.. so high in fact that I need a calcium reactor to take up the slack.

Adding at night only adds a stability advantage for low demand tanks.... Which is why we would alway advocate that first..... but for high demand tanks I find a slow and constant addition far more stable (<.1 swing in 24 hours).

Do not add kalk via a float switch IMO... having learnt the hard way... only one thing will happen long term.....

e


p.s. who says I dont post on kalk.. must be 3rd or 4th tonight alone!

[vanadium]

i agree with what you are saying....i have had to order a reactor for the demand on my system...

thanks for your input.. ;)

[craighuckins]

bump> well this morning the tank has cleared,I checked params last night, alk. was up 0.4 DKH and magnesium was unchanged. I am waiting for a new clacium test kit to arrive as I used the last of the other one before adding kalk! Does that shift in alk. correspond with the addition of half tsp kalk in a 100 gallon system or do you think this is indicative of calcium precipitating and alkalinity rising as a result?

[elliot]

If you MG is fine, and alk only up 0.4.. then I dont think it is precipitating.


e

[craighuckins]

Originally posted by elliot@Mar 15 2005, 10:09
If you MG is fine, and alk only up 0.4.. then I dont think it is precipitating.


e
That's what I thought, Elliot. Wonder what caused it? I have had 3 or 4 Ilyanassa Obsoleta snails expire in the last couple of days, I wonder if that was sufficient to cause a bacterial bloom?

[Glenn@home]

Craig

I dont know enough about the chemistry to comment in any depth about what happens when life goes bottoms up.

If you have overdosed kalk i would have expected ultimately that Ca would drop signifcantly but im not sure about the Alk part of it.

The variation in Ca and ALk would probably be proportional to the amount of overdose, if you seriousely overdosed kalk then i would expect Ca to drop due to precipitation, but alk and pH to rise. But here were talking massive overdose not just dripping to fast.

With slightly too fast addition I would expect Ca to fall and alk and pH to remain fairly constant. BUT I hasten to add this is an uniformed opinion I need to go read more.

Perhaps you could psot your Ca results when you get a chance to test it.

Glenn

PS Vanadium im not advanced mate i just like to post alot!!

FWIW I have seen those tunze devices for adding kalk advertised just couldnt afford one myself. I do agree with Elliot there is a potential danger from adding kalk via a float switch which is why i usually try to suggest making a limit to the top up system to redcue the risks.