Sand clumping up...

02tts

New member
Having a weird thing going on. My sand is starting to clump up. I dose calcium and alk 2 part daily. Test kits say both calcium and alk look good so I'm a little confused as to why sand is clumping, rest of parameters:

Ph: 8.1-8.2
SG: 1.025
CA: 400-410
Alk: 7.5-8
Mag: 1350
Nitrates: 0
Phosphates: 0.02

I also dose vinegar daily at 1ml per day.

The alk is being dosed right in front of my return inside the tank so there is plenty of flow when it's dosed.

Thoughts...
 
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A few reasons it could be happening..(localized low ph...calcite formation..bacterial glue secretions)..but you basically either need to just mix/break it up or replace the sand
 
A few reasons it could be happening..(localized low ph...calcite formation..bacterial glue secretions)..but you basically either need to just mix/break it up or replace the sand



I broke most of it up today, there are some smaller pieces that are hard to break, I could always replace going forward but I wasn't sure if this was caused due to the vinegar dosing which I due to keep nitrates at bay or if there was over dosing of alk/cal going on...but the tests don't seem to show that.

Anyway to stop it?
 
I might try soaking a clump in some bleach, to see whether that breaks it up at all. If so, the cause should be bacterial action, which is going to be hard to stop. Most often when people try this, though, the clumps don't break up, which is more ambiguous. I haven't heard of a way to stop this that works in all cases, but a lower-pH alkalinity supplement or a lower alkalinity level might help, at least in theory. Usually, the clumping slows down after a while for new tanks.
 
I might try soaking a clump in some bleach, to see whether that breaks it up at all. If so, the cause should be bacterial action, which is going to be hard to stop. Most often when people try this, though, the clumps don't break up, which is more ambiguous. I haven't heard of a way to stop this that works in all cases, but a lower-pH alkalinity supplement or a lower alkalinity level might help, at least in theory. Usually, the clumping slows down after a while for new tanks.



Thanks! I'm going to try that tomorrow with a piece and see if it breaks up.
 
Once had to remove the sand from a running tank. 70% of it was the consistency of concrete... once replaced it didn't do it again.
 
Once had to remove the sand from a running tank. 70% of it was the consistency of concrete... once replaced it didn't do it again.


Had this happen to me. My entire sandbed was one giant clump of concrete. It was a PITA to get out of the tank and replace. Once replaced it hasnt happened since.
 
Had this happen to me. My entire sandbed was one giant clump of concrete. It was a PITA to get out of the tank and replace. Once replaced it hasnt happened since.



Right now it's not that bad, I'm still able to break up most of it with a stick. I sure hope it doesn't get that bad, trying to take it out of the tank is going to be a big project.
 
Likely bacterial. I'm not sure thee is a way to tell.



I will say that having an adequate sand sifting CUC is a must have.



Yeah I can't have any sand sifting stars or snails because of my type of tank overflow. Those bastards climb all the way up and get sucked into the overflow which is a nightmare to say the least. I've even put a grate in the overflow to stop them from getting in but still they make it up there every night, or I should say used to, because one of my new angels, either the blue face or queen decided to pick at them and kill them off. And the big crabs are doing their work on them :(

So, no more snails.
 
I don't think mine is due to over dosing because I lowered my alk dose and it dropped to 6.5. I have 500g (maybe a little more) of total volume so I dose 200ml of calcium which keeps it at 400 and had 357ml of alkalinity; however, it dropped to 6.5. Probably consumption is going up as I'm trying to establish coraline growth. I just bumped the alkalinity to 500 and will see what it does tomorrow night as it doeses over a 24 hour period.

Anyway, I'm guessing it's bacterial at this point, going to try the earlier suggesting about putting the clump in bleach and see what happens.
 
This is going to do absolutely nothing unless your tank is extremely small



Well it's not heavily stocked at the moment. Still re-stocking it so to avoid cyano or anything else as a result I'm starting real low.

Currently nitrates still at 0.

Tank is 500G total volume.
 
I might try soaking a clump in some bleach, to see whether that breaks it up at all. If so, the cause should be bacterial action, which is going to be hard to stop. Most often when people try this, though, the clumps don't break up, which is more ambiguous. I haven't heard of a way to stop this that works in all cases, but a lower-pH alkalinity supplement or a lower alkalinity level might help, at least in theory. Usually, the clumping slows down after a while for new tanks.



Bleach didn't do anything to it :(
 
I'm not surprised. I suspect the problem will stop on its own after some period of time, but I'd check the sandbed now and then and remove larger chunks as they appear. That might save some trouble in the future.
 
I'm not surprised. I suspect the problem will stop on its own after some period of time, but I'd check the sandbed now and then and remove larger chunks as they appear. That might save some trouble in the future.



What's a good thin sand to use that won't leach anything into the water? The batch I have in there now was live sand but I don't want to buy any live sand as that will probably just end up crashing my tank, hear many nightmares due to dead bacteria in the sand, etc. Any particular brand of sand that recommended?
 
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