BRS calcium causing sand to clump??

M

mikebow16

Premium Member
Has anyone noticed a correlation between BRS calcium and clumping sand? I'm grasping at straws and have no real proof but I cannot figure out what is causing my sand to clump.

The sand is 6 months old, I have a sand sifting star, nassirus snails, and a diamond back goby.

Ca 400
Kdh 10
Mg 1425




Mike
 
How are you dosing and how much are you dosing at once? When I was manually dosing and added a lot at once I would get build-up on things like heaters, pumps, etc. but that went away when I automated my dosing so that it distributed the amount into 24 separate doses throughout the day.
 
Usually if a sandbed solidifies, it is attributed to alkalinity rather than calcium -- although it makes sense to blame calcium since we are seeing calcification. I can tell you this: if you have sand turned to stone, don't break it up. Take it out of your tank as a solid piece and get rid of it. People that broke it up ended up with more losses, unfortunately.

How are you dosing specifically?
 
I use dosing pumps over a 8 hour period I'll have to check the exact amount I'm dosing but it is around 90 ml a day cal /alk but I'll post the actual numbers in the morning.

My alk usually stays at 9-10 consistently




Mike
 
Dosing pumps add it gradually, and you mentioned you have sand stirrers. I can't explain why this is happening to you. I know it happened to David Washington, so you might ask him what he did differently.
 
Before I had a calcium reactor and dosed a lot of Kalk, I would get that too. For me it was dosing too much at once. Maybe you take your water to your lfs to compare your test results.
I've found out i was testing wrong, kit was expired, or results were inaccurate from doing that.
 
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This is the best picture I could take its a little hard to see but there is a clump in the center.

I've noticed it starts around the rocks mostly but I have seen it start in the middle of the sand bed.

Dose BRS recipe 1
Ca 130 ml/day
Alk 125 ml/day
Mg 90 ml/day




Mike
 
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