Broke up pieces of hard sand bed in reef tank. Is this bad?

[fishmonkey]

Recently I noticed a few spots in my tank where the sand bed had became almost rock hard, so I dug in a little bit with my fingers and dissolved the clump into the sand it used to be. I noticed white powder substance coming out of it.

Soon after I thought maybe that was a bad idea. Then I read a post saying that it caused someone an ammonia spike. I probably did this to around 3 or 4 clumps the size of about 2 inches in my 40 gallon breeder. Should I be worried?

I assume a better idea would have been to take out the clump and dissolve it in rodi water and then put it back, but the deed is done and I don’t want my fish to get hurt.

 

[Arego]

What are you dosing, if anything?

 

[N.Sreefer]

What is your ph? Alk?

 

[JonEB]

dosing issue

 

[fishmonkey]

My ph runs around 8 to 8.2 but I been using the Red Sea kit so it’s hard to tell. Alk usually 9.5 ish. I had to go to work so I didn’t have time to test after but I will when I get home

 

[fishmonkey]

I read some posts by randy Holmes that it happens a lot with newer tanks and may have biological things going on.

But my question specifically is more about the consequences of breaking up the clumps in the reef tank. Does anyone have any experience with this?

 

[taricha]

But my question specifically is more about the consequences of breaking up the clumps in the reef tank.

Nope. I don't think breaking up the precipitated clumps is going to have any major effects, perhaps if you did the whole tank, you would have some issues like somebody who stirs an entire sand bed. But it's not majorly different or concerning just because it's clumpy.

 

[fishmonkey]

If anyone is curious I tested my alk and cal. Alk is 8.5 and cal 450. Those are normal levels for me except that the alk went down by 1 point from last time I checked which was about 2 days ago. Ph was around 8.

Maybe I misread it or something a few days ago and my method of testing was slightly different. (Dripping water on the side of the glass instead of directly into the bottom, but I doubt that would account for a whole point of alk.)

 

[moz71]

In one of my past tanks I had same problem precipitation in the sand I just broke up the clumps that I could have and some clumps were so hard rock I couldn’t even break up, I took out. Is tank new? I only got this when dosed too early in a tank. Need to get bacteria growing on sand before dosing. Even if it is so called live sand. Just my experience.

 

[fishmonkey]

In one of my past tanks I had same problem precipitation in the sand I just broke up the clumps that I could have and some clumps were so hard rock I couldn’t even break up, I took out. Is tank new? I only got this when dosed too early in a tank. Need to get bacteria growing on sand before dosing. Even if it is so called live sand. Just my experience.

Relatively new but definitely not enough bacteria

 

[vetteguy53081]

Sounds like the sand has become calcified and in an area with limited or broken water flow
Regular siphoning will alleviate this

 

[fishmonkey]

Sounds like the sand has become calcified and in an area with limited or broken water flow
Regular siphoning will alleviate this

Yea I got lazy and left the sand alone too long I think

 

[vetteguy53081]

Yea I got lazy and left the sand alone too long I think

You have a weekend plan now. . .

 

[fishmonkey]

You have a weekend plan now. . .

One reason why it happened was I went through a terrible Dino problem I just got to fixing (fingers crossed) all my water changes focused on sucking up brown gunk. I even had to just run it through a filter sock sometimes. Also I hear people like to leave the sand bed alone. So they don’t disturb the biological process. Anyways I’ll probably vacuum the sand bed more now

 

[vetteguy53081]

One reason why it happened was I went through a terrible Dino problem I just got to fixing (fingers crossed) all my water changes focused on sucking up brown gunk. I even had to just run it through a filter sock sometimes. Also I hear people like to leave the sand bed alone. So they don’t disturb the biological process. Anyways I’ll probably vacuum the sand bed more now

It happens

 

[moz71]

One reason why it happened was I went through a terrible Dino problem I just got to fixing (fingers crossed) all my water changes focused on sucking up brown gunk. I even had to just run it through a filter sock sometimes. Also I hear people like to leave the sand bed alone. So they don’t disturb the biological process. Anyways I’ll probably vacuum the sand bed more now

I just vacuum a different little section each water change. Seems to work for me.