White tank after stirring sandbed.

[Miami Reef]

I started aggressively stirring my sandbed once a week as a maintenance habit. My tank takes on a similar appearance as the people who dose the calcium carbonate as a flocculent.

I‘ve dosed the DIY CaCO3 and it looks identical IMO. Do you think it can be calcium carbonate that I’m stirring along with the detritus?

And if it is calcium carbonate, will it have the similar binding effect as me dosing new calcium carbonate?

 

[Jonify]

How old is the tank?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I started aggressively stirring my sandbed once a week as a maintenance habit. My tank takes on a similar appearance as the people who dose the calcium carbonate as a flocculent.

I‘ve dosed the DIY CaCO3 and it looks identical IMO. Do you think it can be calcium carbonate that I’m stirring along with the detritus?

And if it is calcium carbonate, will it have the similar binding effect as me dosing new calcium carbonate?

It is instantaneous on stirring? If so, it is likely detritus, not calcium carbonate, unless you started with very fine aragonite and didn’t fully wash it.

 

[Jekyl]

Rather than stirring, use a gravel vac and do a third of it per change.

 

[Miami Reef]

How old is the tank?

6 months old.

 

[Miami Reef]

It is instantaneous on stirring? If so, it is likely detritus, not calcium carbonate, unless you started with very fine aragonite and didn’t fully wash it.

Yes, it’s instantaneous.

I started with very very clean sand that I meticulously washed myself.

So in that case it’s detritus.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Yes, it’s instantaneous.

I started with very very clean sand that I meticulously washed myself.

So in that case it’s detritus.

Yes, I think so.

 

[Miami Reef]

edit.