Peredhil's Mistake

Thought I would replace the pump in my HOB skimmer. So I set up a siphon to drain the water out of the skimmer and walked away.

When I came back, the bucket was almost full. I thought as the bucket is 5 gallons and the skimmer holds 3 gallons... tops. If that.

OMG. I can't believe what I did... or didn't do rather. I didn't break siphon on the skimmer... I was draining it, but it was pulling water out of the DT...

crap. 2 power heads were blowing air. but even worse... oh yeah, I have an ATO now :-/

I drained 5 gallons of saltwater that automatically got replaced with 4 gallons of fresh water (my entire ATO reservoir). My ATO pump was basically running dry.


oh bother. the DT is normally at 1.027. It was now at 1.024. This took place in no more than 30 minutes.

So I did an emergency 5 gallon water change using 1.027 mix. I refilled slightly higher than normal so that it would evaporate back down to the ATO line. Hopefully putting my SG where it was...

That was last night. I'm about to run my full gambit of tests. Wish me luck.

Oh yeah, forgot to mention. I recently got two peppermint shrimps because I'm testing whether or not I can safely keep shrimp now that my Royal Gramma is gone and I have an ATO so I can keep a steady SG for them... Well hell... are the shrimp OK? beats me. : stupid karma

I recently got all Ca/Alk/Mg perfect and was maintaining... now I may need to redose again to bring it up (maybe).

Lastly, I'm in the 'don't do water changes' camp... luckily, I still keep mixed salt-water on hand... stupid karma.

What are your predictions? Way off params now? Basically on target as water was removed and replaced evenly? I'll find out soon enough.

what a crappy friday.

 

I dont think salinity will be back where it should. If you could take the freshwater out that went in and replace it would be perfect but Im sure it diluted in so much that your salinity will still be low. I would just keep up what your doing take some out add some at a higher salinity over the next few days until it right. You could also try making your top off water low salinity so its slowly adding salt for you.

 

What a drag...especially after getting EVERYTHING just right...I feel ya man.
Good luck...clean it up and move on...what else? peps are pretty hardy fellas...
you should be cool....sounds like a cold one was in order ahter that!! LOL.
LG

 

I think things will be just fine

 

I think you'll probably be ok too. If you lost X gallons and replaced those with fresh RO/DI water, whatever your salinity was before the mishap was obviously brought down, so water needed to be replaced with saltwater in this case. That you know, I'm sure. I would have used water of a salinity higher than tankwater to achieve your original total salinity before the mess.

That's nothing that adding a bit more salt won't accomplish. As for the mag, alk, and calc, if you have ample amounts of each supplement on hand; all it takes now is time. Get your mag right first, then do the next two; one at a time, of course.

Unless you have a lot of SPS that might be very sensitive to these shifts, I think you'll fare well.

We all make mistakes. In this hobby, we tend to make a particular mistake only once, however! Don't be hard on yourself. I once knew a foreman who's favorite expression was, "if you're not messing up, you're not working."

You'll be OK.

 

Thanks everyone.

Ran my tests.

Previous/Today's

SG: 1.027/1.025
Alk: 12/12
Ca: 450/440
Mg: 1470/1290


Not too bad all in all. It'll take a while to get the SG back up : but I do have a question now.

I know SG affects Mg (well, I think it does). Should I get my SG back or my Mg back up first? Part of me is thinking Mg will go up on its own when the SG goes back up... but that might be silly thinking... not sure.

Being the only param that went down (Ca isn't enough that I care) I'm wondering if it went down for real or if it's just an effect of the SG lowering...

Thoughts?

 

Yes, sorry--I should have specifically mentioned this. Get the salinity right before anything else. Mag levels are dependent upon salinity. And the others upon mag--so in a way, it's ALL dependent on salinity.

 

Man, I am GLAD I asked. I almost went and dosed the Mg... phew!

Thanks 1500 times!

 

Peredhil makes mistakes?!?!? WTF?!?!