I have a DSB of about 3 - 4 inches made up of about 100lbs of ffexpress live fiji sand, and 100lbs of southdown sand. I let my calcium readings go 480-500ppm and solidified good portions of my sandbed.
In reachable positions, I have been removing this "concrete", however I feel that a great portion of my sandbed under my rock has calcified. I believe this may be contributing to some problems I have been having in my tank.
Problems, I can get rid of hairalgae by raising my alkalinity to ~11dhk, however I get an outbreak of cyno. If I let my alkalinity drop to around ~7dkh I can get rid of my cyno, but the hair algae starts in again.
Numbers
temp ~78
amonia 0
nitrites 0
nitrates 0
specific gravity 1.025
calcium 380-400
PH 8.0 - 8.2
alkalinity variable (see above)
This leads to the next question, if my DSB is the problem, how best replace it in an existing tank, and how much of the old bed should I save to seed a new bed.
In addition, if I let the sand sit in a container with water which matches my tank, and a airstone for a week, will I avoid a great clouding problem in my tank once I put that sand in my tank
In reachable positions, I have been removing this "concrete", however I feel that a great portion of my sandbed under my rock has calcified. I believe this may be contributing to some problems I have been having in my tank.
Problems, I can get rid of hairalgae by raising my alkalinity to ~11dhk, however I get an outbreak of cyno. If I let my alkalinity drop to around ~7dkh I can get rid of my cyno, but the hair algae starts in again.
Numbers
temp ~78
amonia 0
nitrites 0
nitrates 0
specific gravity 1.025
calcium 380-400
PH 8.0 - 8.2
alkalinity variable (see above)
This leads to the next question, if my DSB is the problem, how best replace it in an existing tank, and how much of the old bed should I save to seed a new bed.
In addition, if I let the sand sit in a container with water which matches my tank, and a airstone for a week, will I avoid a great clouding problem in my tank once I put that sand in my tank
