Small disaster

[MikeG]

I just have a small learning experience to share for people who may just be starting out. I woke up this morning and checked on my skimmer because I had cleaned it last night, just wanted to make sure it was adjusted right. I opened up the cabinet door to see the waste collection bottle full (It holds about 1 gallon in addition to the collection cup). This has happened before when I added an air pump to the venturi intake to try to produce more bubbles, which it did but the foam production was very variable.

Anyway, I had hooked up an auto top off connected to a 5 gallon bucket 2 weeks ago and after filling it yesterday all 5 gallons ended up in the sump. I have no idea how fast this was added and haven't had a chance to measure ph, alk, or calcium levels yet. There was no precipitation so I assume alkalinity and calcium are ok. I did have a swing in SG from 1.026 to 1.0245, and again I don't know how quickly this changed.

The moral of the story and my project for this afternoon, if you have any waste containers hooked up for things like this it may be a good idea to set up a high water level sensor to shut off the pump or at the very least plumb in a line high in the container that returns to the sump so it is less likely to overflow.

I will have to keep an eye on things for a while and hope for no losses!

 

[Moe_K]

Was the auto-top-off water just fresh water or was it kalkwasser?

 

[MikeG]

It was all Kalkwasser, not a good thing. 5 gallons into a 75 gallon tank with 20 gallon sump. Total system volume is about 65 gallons, that's why I was worried about ph and salinity changes. I believe if I had problems with alkalinity and calcium saturation I would get a calcium carbonate percipitation (snow storm) correct?

 

[nunofs]

5 gallons of kalk dumped into a volume of 65 gallons will raise alk by 9 dkH (!!!) and calcium by 64ppm (I played with http://www.kademani.com/reefchem.htm for a bit ).

That salinity change is minimal, nothing to worry about... but that alk increase can be trouble, it's probably best to do a water change to bring the levels down.

Nuno

 

[NateHanson]

I've always been wary of a remote collection container for my skimmer, because of this problem. I believe some store-bought collection containers have float systems that seal the container when it gets full.

That salinity won't be a problem IMO, but you should test your Alk and Ca. If they're far out of the appropriate range I'd do a water change, but if they're just somewhat high, like 500ppm and 14 dKH, I'd leave it be. You have to be very careful with water changes when ca and alk are very high, because it's easy to trigger a precipitation event. If you decide to do a water change make sure the salt is COMPLETELY dissolved, and heated to the same tank temp. Then pump it in slowly rather than dumping it in. Agitation or addition of an undisolved salt crystal or other solid can provide a nucleus for precipitation.

Nate

 

[MikeG]

Thanks for the advice, I was planning on testing alk and calcium levels when I get home. Hopefully all will be well! Luckily I have quite a bit of RO/DI made up so that will cut down on time if I do need to do some water changes.