How do you prevent your sand from 'caking' or solidifying?

As I understand it,there are two ways that clump the sand.One is that the bacteria process can 'glue' the sand together,or two an imbalance of chemicals.ie low Mg and overshooting Ca.
The way to tell the difference between the two is to take a clump and put it in clorox.If it dissolves back into sand,the cause is the bacteria.

 

Great info 3D Reef. Karma to ya!

 

how abou a jawfish or a diamond goby(got one today hopefully he doesnt jump out like the other 2)lol

 

I think the best way to prevent solidified sand is to siphon the sand bed. This way, your killing two birds with one stone. You stop the solidification and do a water change.

 

:-[ Gosh... Hmmm... Sorry! Growing crystals of insoluble Mg/Ca salts capture sand grains and form this fanny solidified patches in the substrate.

 

Hey now, that I understand! I hope you know that we're just joking with you Camilsky!!

 

Heh... ;D

 

In simplest form, the solidifying of substrate is caused by the supersaturation of precipated calcium. Basically like a hermatypic coral uses calcium and strontium to form its calcareous skeleton, too much calcium in your water column will cause sand, and even powerheads and such to freeze/harden up.
Constant testing of your calcium and strontium level will help as well as a nice population of hermatypic corals and sessile inverts like Tridacna clams and even coralline algae will deplet levels of calcium from becomming elevated to detrimental readings, which also wrecks havoc on other parameters such as alkalinity, magnesium and pH!

 

Hmm, I have actually never had this problem :X