Sand bed binding????

[zulu_principle]

Why do you add vinegar with your kalk ?

[Aquattro]

http://www.animalnetwork.com/fish2/a...io/default.asp

[ron101]

I had the same problem with my tank around the 2-4 month mark. Would get crusty on the top in certain areas of the tank and I would just periodically break it up. The problem completely disappeared after about 6 months. I have used Kalk with and without vinegar and have not noticed any relationship to the problem.
HTH

[Jacoda]

Thanks for the info, I guess I just have to wait and see

[Canadian]

The crusting can also be a result of insufficient sand bed fauna/infauna activity. Without a sufficient turnover rate of the substrate a bacterial matrix will form due to bacterial inactivity (which can be compounded when highly saturated kalk solutions and such are being dosed rapidly and calcium phosphate is precipitated).

This is often an occurence in younger systems with immature or "improperly" set up sand beds. Also, aggressive crustaceans like Cleaner and Peppermint shrimp etc. can quickly devastate the fauna population of a young, maturing sand bed.

Check out this thread on RC for a rather lengthy debate on the subject: Clumping Sand Beds

[Doug]

Andrew points out a large reason why. Lack of critters in a new system and of course, to fast of an addition of kalk or other calcium raising additions.

I was just asking Julian Sprung questions on that at Reefs Org Mag. question forum. He had said in his plenum article, that high alk. could perhaps contribute to clumping.

Anyhow there are a couple good answers there from both Julian & Dana Riddle.

[Jacoda]

Doug:

Would you have an URL to those articles??

TIA

[Doug]

Two excellent online mags, with some of the best authors in the buisness.

www.advancedaquarist.com

The one above is run by reefs.org staff. That one contains the article we are mentioning. By the way I meant Craig Bingham & not Dana Riddle.

Another great mag, run by RC

www.reefkeeping.com

For feedback with the authors, check under forums.

[Jacoda]

Doug Thank you plenty!!! ;)

[TimT]

Ron Shimek(pers conv) mentioned that sand bed clumping is from bacteria binding the grains together. He went on to say that if you put the clump in bleach it will turn into sand again as the bleach breaksdown the binding bacteria/proteins.

The solution to the problem is to incorporate sandbed critters such as conch, nassarius to stir the sand. More imortantly is to have critters that eat the bacteria off of the sand ... enter sand sifting cucumbers such as the Tigertail, pink belly and black.

Cheers,
Tim