HELP!! with my sandbed

[John 3:16]

yesterday i was getting something off of my aragonite sandbed and noticed it had turned rather hard . with a small amount of pressure, i could stir it up.
i had not really disturbed the sandbed since i set the tank up about 2 months ago.
1. what causes the sandbed to do this.
2. how do i fix it.
3. should i stir the sand up

thanks for the replies, justin

 

[jamesw]

Your sandbed is "cementing" together, where the grains are either "glued" together by bacterial frosting, or caco3 crystalline formation.

What you need is some CRITTERS to biologically perterb your sandbed for you. Bristleworms are the best at doing this. They stir the sand as they move through it looking for detritus, etc.

HTH
James

 

[jamesw]

FYI, those sand sifting starfish should really be called "sandbed critter eating" starfish.

FWIW, they only "sift" the top inch of the sandbed, while looking for your beneficial detritivores to eat. Once star can deplete a sandbed rather quickly.

HTH
James Wiseman

 

[rBeOeBf]

I had this problem as well. I first noticed it a few months after adding my sandbed. There weren't all that many critters in the sand at the time. I removed all of the solid chunks i could find, or broke them up. My population of spaghett worms and bristle worms has greatly increased since then and the "cementing" problem seems to be gone. So if your sandbed is lacking in critters, that could be the problem.

At the time, others also suggested to me that I might be adding too much calcium to the system, causing it to precipitate and solidify the sandbed. Just another thing to look into.

Bob

 

[Boss_512]

I use a sand sifting star fish.
half the fun is trying to figur out wher he beried him self at in the sand.