clumping of substrate.

[ZooKeeper1]

I have recently noticed some clumping of my aragonite substrate. I use B-ionic daily. My calcium is 400 with alkalinityat 3 meq/l. My ph is 8.4, but it's tough to be accurate with the slight color differences of my kit. Everything in the tank is more than fine. My thinking is the clumping is from the high ph. I can easily crush the clumps with my fingers, If I remember right that means something.
I was thinking of adding several pounds of aragonite into my topoff reservoir. I use distilled water that is pretty low ph. Will this be an effective way to lower the ph a bit, or should I switch to the low ph b-ionic, and is that as effective as the calcium chloride kind. Also if I attached a yeast powered co2 source into the reservoir, would it be worth the effort?
My tank is a 55 with quite a few sps corals and a rack that holds 16 frags that is full of different montiporas. I have a 15 gal refugium that has some grape caulerpa and mangroves. the fuge is lit 24/7.
I appreciate any help I can get.
Thanks Mike

 

[Travis1]

Was the substrate un-cured when you added it?? Sometimes if the substrate is not cured it will clump up.

IMO 8.4 is fine on the PH... what is the low side??

 

[mling]

Travis,

How do you cure substrate ? I didn't know you had to do that.

 

[Travis1]

Kind of like curing LR but not nearly as involved. Some old tank water mixed with the sand for a week or so... or new saltwater with food or something to kick off the cycling process. The reason for curing the sand is to get a coating of bacteria around the individual grains of sand. It will help prevent clumping.

 

[RicardoMiozzo]

Is your substrate layed over the bottom glass, without anything between it ? I say this because everytime I hear about this problem, I remember that if the denitrification process is not complete in the sand, it may start to clump. Adition of CO2 and KW at the same time can make aragonite to clump, too.