My rocks are turning... white?

[gemini9]

So at first I thought it was just something that has already been there, but gone unnoticed... but now it's pretty much confirmed... my rocks are turning white. My dry rock AND couple pieces of Live rock, are beginning to turn white. A few areas are pretty bad too. A few areas have developed a haaaard white coating that won't rub off either. Seems to be getting wrse throughout teh tank. , especialy on the Fiji. Not so much on the tonga shelf or reef saver... or even the pukani, but the fiji is getting to be highly noticeable. It's a new tank and I don't even have fish yet. Only thing in my tank is diatoms. Currently working on getting my nitrates down so I can introduce a small cuc. Just added a hob protein skimmer a few days ago... But with all this whiteness spreading around... should I be concerned? What should I do here? :neutral:

 

[TJ's Reef]

Can you / would you post a pic so as to better assess the issue.

Cheers, Todd

 

[jrbates08]

Bleaching out from light, iodine or calcium issues. Hope this helps

http://saltaquarium.about.com/od/liverockberlinsetups/a/aalrturningwhit.htm

 

[gemini9]

 

[gemini9]

It looks like the sugar frosting on frosted flakes or frosted mini wheats

 

[gemini9]

Bleaching out from light, iodine or calcium issues. Hope this helps

FAQ - Why is My Live Rock Turning White?

I don't think it's bleaching from light because most of it seems to be on the under side of the rocks where the night isn't so bad. I only have a standard floursent bulb that is on for maybe 5 hours out of the day. I read the article and It mentioned about nitrates, and mine have been 80-160ppm for several weeks. I'm in the process of trying to get them down so I can start adding some snails, crabs, etc. The skimmer has only been running for 2 days and the problem started before the skimmer came into play. So could this be a result of my high nitrate problem?

 

[preston469]

What is your calcium, magnesium, and alkalinity levels?

 

[Pete polyp]

It looks like old coralline algae that was alive in the ocean. It dies off when the rock is shipped.and eventually turns white. It could have still had some color when you got it being red, pink, purple, green, yellow. When its exposed to air for that long it will die and can take several weeks for it to completely lose its color.

 

[gemini9]

I dont have a test kit for alk cal and mag yet. Its on the dry rock as well as live rock. So I duno

 

[Reefing Madness]

The white on the LR is the dead Coralline Algae.

 

[gemini9]

Thanks guys (ladies). So im assuming its nothing to worry about? Its on the dry rock as well. I was a little concerned.

 

[skinz78]

Looks like a new setup to me and the diatoms are disappearing off the rocks, soon you should be seeing other algaes start to take hold.

 

[bond300]

Looking good! I would add some good live rock with coralline algae.......take your time and it will be good to go!

 

[gemini9]

I bought a pound of lr from lfs yesterday and 2 crabs. Tje lr already had white stuff on it so I guess its nothing to worry about