Wedgee's query

[dodo]

Sorry if this sounds out of topic, but I am having slightly low dKH problems too, though they tend to drop only after a few days to ard 7 or 8...How come they dont drop lower than that?

And I'm having another problem too, my sand tends to stick together at some spots, and algae also binds to them in clumps...is this due to chemical imbalance too? I think i read somewhere b4 dat it is due to an excessive element, though i cant recall exactly wat causes this...

It rolls up into small balls with algae around some of them - when i break it up, it tends to 're-clump' in a day or two

hmmm....allows me to say something abt your 'sticky' problem....i hope tat i am rite....your sand is stcking together maybe becos of excessive calcium...the fact tat your dKH drop after a few days may suggest tat

[Tanzy]

Take a small piece(1" diameter) of that sand cake and drop it in a cup of vinegar.

If it breaks up in one minute, then it's due to calcium precipitation.

If not, drop it into a cup of undiluted household bleach, if it breaks up it's due to biological process.

If not, sell it on eBay as fossil.

Do not attempt to put chemically treated sand back into the tank.

[wedgee]

The problem is dat it is being sorta 'bonded' together by algae too...abit of hair and slime algae, become like meatballs on the sand...funnier is dat it is only at the front half of the tank, so is there something going on here???

I had a cyano outbreak some time back (its going now), and it was like a carpet ontop of the sand, but this time its so wierd, like small cyano-green-calcium meatballs!!!

[dodo]

very interesting ways Tanzy has to test out certain things

Wedgee, did u test your calcium level?