Sand Clumping and a large solidified clump in the center of my sand bed

[rds85]

I was just curious as to if my sand bed will stop clumping soon. Last January i upgraded my reef tank from a 55 gal to a 75 gal and bought all new sand and used the existing live rock from my previous tank. Some of the factors that i figured would be helpful to know to diagnose this clumping problem. After the first week of upgrade to the bigger tank was complete i was constantly testing and my alk was always extremely low around the 6 dkh range. so i was dosing 30mL of both components of B-Ionic then adding slightly more alk component to raise these levels. I know that these components can almost buffer themselves when dosing the equal amount of both. Five weeks later when i was nearly out of my alk test kit solution (Salifert) i bought a new one to continue testing to find out my first test kit was way out of date. The new test kit showing my alk levels were actually high. After 3 weeks i leveled out the alk and calcium levels to perfect and as of now, completely stable. Do you guys think this could be a reason for the sand clumping? I also dose vodka for nitrates but around 0.9mL a day! Do you guys think this could be a reason? i am also starting to slowly decrease the amount of vodka dosing for i believe all the bacteria growth created by the vodka is causing the clumping.

Now i also would love to know what the best way to go about this problem. Do i remove the clumps and then break out chunks of the large piece over a period of time and remove it from the tank? I know disturbing the sand bed can always lead to major nutrient problems.

Thanks

Happy reefing

 

[Crush Coral]

Unless you have a seasoned DSB you can mess with it. I "gravel vac" my sand pretty much once a month. If I do not for a few months the sand clumps up and I have to use the gavel vac tube to break it up. I need some more "zombie snails" as my girls call them that cruise around in the sand but come up when I feed. Just bust up the clumps and you will be fine.

 

[rds85]

Thanks crushed coral i will try busting up some and then watch my levels the next day just as a precaution