Clumping sand bed

[Jun Hong]

I discovered that part of my grade 0 sand are clumped together and it is as hard as rock.

Do you guys encounter the problem also? What is the reason of it and how to prevent clumping sand?

FYI, I dosed Kalkwasser water(night time) and Reef builder(day time) daily. Could Kalk drip the cause of sand clumping. But the KH is only 7~8 and I didn't measure the Ca level.

Will clumping sand affect the healthy of the DSB???

[FuEl]

To prevent a sand bed from clumping together you need microfauna such as worms, etc that will churn your sand..

[Jun Hong]

To prevent a sand bed from clumping together you need microfauna such as worms, etc that will churn your sand..

Thanks Fuel for your suggestion

After a search from Internet, I think I know the reason why my top layer of sand cement together.

The "clumping' of sand substrate is actually calcite deposits caused by precipitation. My mistake is I added another layer of New Grade 0 sand onto the existing sand bed. The new sand has basically ZERO bacteria in it in the begining so there is NO bacterial biofilm form in it. The daily Kalk drip cause calcite to precipitate from solution, forming crystals.

Beside Fuel's suggestion, there are also some possible solution to prevent it:

1) Slowing reduce Kalkwasser input.

2) Maintain optimal Magnesium level to inhibits the chemical precipitation of calcite.

3) Before add new sand into your tank, soak them in water that has bacteria in it. Use water change water from an existing tank. This is chock full of bacteria. Soak them in it for a few weeks if possible. Add flake food or apple juice or SOMETHING to support bacterial growth. You need to get that biofilm established. Don't do water changes- maintain salinity, but don't add new salt water. You want to minimize any calcite formation. Then add them into your tank.

4) Use chopstick to break the sand manually.

[giantbicycle]

Apple juice ?????

[Siput]

Apple juice ?????

Ang-mor bacteria...local bacteria take kopi kau....

[seamonkee]

Ang-mor bacteria...local bacteria take kopi kau....

Sori, Ang moh bacteria only goes to starbucks....

[FuEl]

Read it somewhere before I think..to speed up maturation process you add sugar solution to your tank water..