Light Shock? not Sure

[Reef Recked]

ok always another problem lol, I got home yesterday to the very top of my rocks starting to turn white, i thought the algae was just some type of algae encrusting my rock now im thinking it was actually coralline and the white is light shock that killed it turning it white?
this makes sense to me cause i was running my lights (ViparSpectra 165w) through the cycle etc at only 6% intensity on both channels and now that i have corals in the tank ive raised the intensity to 13% on both channels in just a matter of a few days, while a 6% increase isnt much it is double what they were use to so is this possibly the culprit? I just did a 50% water change this weekend after blowing off all the rocks but they werent exposed very much with the water low. i also have had a small diatom bloom (i think) on top of my sand where i vacuum it the day after water changes.
my nitrate was at 16-18 ppm before i got it down over the last couple weeks.

My calcium is 460,
Nitrate =3/4 ppm
Phosphate = 0
Alkalinity 6.5/7 dkh
PH = 8.1/8.2
Ammonia = 0
Water out of RODI = 0 TDS

Does anyone have any ideas on what they think it could be? or how to remedy this problem?
ive attached pictures but it is kind of hard to tell,

The hard part is that my corals seem to like the increased light, especially the Zoa( of course) yesterday was the most open ive seen him! so do i lower intensity? just leave it? if this is the case how slowly should i increase intensity?

P.S there is much more information on my build thread or let me know if there is anything else that could help you guys?
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/29-gallon-reef-recked-build.523405/page-5#post-6185091

 

[Dom]

"Light shock"? Interesting; never heard of it. What is it?

 

[Tuan’s Reef]

Your rocks looks pretty clean to me by the looks for your photos. How long has it been running?

 

[Reef Recked]

"Light shock"? Interesting; never heard of it. What is it?

Just found it in some research stating that too strong of light can kill off coralline or corals etc. especially if out of water.

Your rocks looks pretty clean to me by the looks for your photos. How long has it been running?

I know its hard to tell in the picture, i actually just got a polyp lab lens in today to help with the blue light so ill take more pictures tonight.
the tank has been up for about 6 months, i cycled dry rock for about 3-4 months trying to be as stable as possible. have only had a CUC for a month and a half, just added fish and corals in the last couple weeks. but that whole time My light was the same intensity and never had a problem. now in 3 days i started upping intensity and this happens so it makes sense to me it would be related but with how complex these tanks can get chemically etc. im not sure.

I also did start running my carbon reactor 4 days ago as well with BRS Rox 0.8 Carbon. besides that i dont think ive really changed anything, except getting my nitrates lower.

 

[Tuan’s Reef]

Well played! Slow and steady wins. Looks like you planned this well in advanced. I lacked your patience early on and paying for it now...lol

Honestly that does like like pink coralline algae from my limited knowledge of the coralline.
Does it come off easy? Is it crusty ? Maybe the texture description can aid in identifying what it is and others can chime in

 

[Reef Recked]

Well played! Slow and steady wins. Looks like you planned this well in advanced. I lacked your patience early on and paying for it now...lol

Honestly that does like like pink coralline algae from my limited knowledge of the coralline.
Does it come off easy? Is it crusty ? Maybe the texture description can aid in identifying what it is and others can chime in

Haha i did do ALOT of research before starting anything so knew it was going to take awhile but the patience part was extremely difficult so i know exactly what you mean. But now that its finally starting its very exciting...even though i still have issues every week it seems

It does look a little pink in the picture but the algae i have in person looks more green/brown and i do also have some GHA in the tank and sump that im trying to get rid of.

I attached some more pictures that i took last night, it is still hard to tell but it doesnt seem to have gotten any worse but now it appears some GHA might be trying to grow on the bare spots.

Im still thinking it is light shock because all my water parameters are the same minus my alkalinity is starting to go down some but that should be normal, and my corals are actually doing the best since i got them the duncan is fully open and my zoa is opening more and getting brighter. The problem is i think they are actually wanting more light and i have more corals coming on sunday.

Let me know what you guys think!

 

[IslandLifeReef]

I would slowly raise your ALK to a range of 7.5 - 8.5 and also get you phosphates up to 0.03-0.1 ppm. I would not lower the light intensity for coraline algae. It will come back if that is what it was.

 

[Reef Recked]

I would slowly raise your ALK to a range of 7.5 - 8.5 and also get you phosphates up to 0.03-0.1 ppm. I would not lower the light intensity for coraline algae. It will come back if that is what it was.

Im just being safe with alkalinity and saying its around 6-7 it could be 7-8 im still confused with the base Red sea alkalinity test kit, after adding 1 drop it is barely blue and i dont start until after 3 drops when it is a darker blue which would be the difference in 6 to 7 DKH.

After testing the same way, after 1 week my Alkalinity dropped from about 7 to 6 and my phosphate is still 0, i havent heard anyone talking about raising phosphate how would you recommend i do so? feeding more or is there another way? I have GFO ready actually but havent used it because I didnt know if there was a point if phosphate is already at 0. My nitrate is at 2/3 after a week which is great, i did another 15% water change last night as i added some new corals, and im going to test parameters again tonight.

I have Kalkwasser that i plan on adding to my ATO but my Calcium is at 470, PH=8.1, and Alk = 6.0. If i add the Kalkwasser wont it increase my calcium level to high?

also the rock hasnt gotten any worse but tonight i plan on increasing intensity so will see if there is any change in the next few days.