Orange coralline turning white?

[JosephM]

I got in 40lbs of live rock with lots of orange coralline and it was doing good until today and it started to turn white very quickly. Is this normal. I’ve read orange coralline could be stressed coralline from shipping (shipped damp overnight) or it can just be orange coralline. Could it be I just moved from cheap freshwater led lights to a vipar spectra today. It’s only on 5% blues and whites and only has been on for a few hrs. First photo is when I first got it and other 2 are from today. I got it last Thursday.

 

[ArtofReefing]

Do you happen to know what your tank ph is at ? Coralline algae needs certain conditions to thrive. Typically only a well established tank is able to sustain Coralline algae. How long has your tank been running prior to the addition of the rock ?

 

[CMMorgan]

Art is correct. Coralline is an algae. It requires good lighting a stable parameters. It may be that the freshwater light you had was insufficient but I doubt it. I would bet more on salinity, PH, ALK, Ca, Nitrates, temperature, etc.
It is expected that any live rock will have some die off during the shipping process. Coralline will also glow pretty brightly if it has been scrubbed, stressed, etc. White means it's gone. Never fear, get your parameters stable and be patient. So long as there is some to start with, it will eventually come back. No new tank starts out with it... it takes time. Remember, this is a marathon, not a race. It's nice rock though!

 

[JosephM]

Just to answer both of you guys. The tank was running about 1 week before adding rock. I’m using it to cycle the tank. Ph is 8.1 and salinity is 1.025 and temp is at 77. It could be unstable and stressed from daily water changes I suppose and not having scheduled lighting. The cycle is almost complete though! After 24hrs I was at about .75ppm ammonia

 

[CMMorgan]

Hang in there. If it was orange when you go it, the deed may already have been done. If I take a rock out of the tank and scrub the blazes out of it in the sink... I know (bad reefer)... then I will get a spot or two say fluoresces spectacularly. Sometimes hot pink, sometimes like a neon orange. Many times, it will regain purple... others, it goes white or disappears. Like I said, don't sweat it... build it and it will come. "Reef of Dreams"

 

[Rmckoy]

Any time I’ve taken rocks out of water .
as soon as exposed to air it turns from pink to orange when put back in water .
the orange turns white as it dies off

 

[vetteguy53081]

Check your ca level and assure light intensity is somewhat elevated.
running light at least 12hrs a day Will promote coraline but algae also. As with other forms of algae, coralline algae requires light. Exactly how much or little light is required for optimum growth varies with the types of coralline algae. Some prefer higher lighting, while others prefer low lighting.
High Mag can impact coraline growth.
Unlike brown, GhA and red slime algae, all of which frequently grow in an aquarium whether you like it or not, coralline algae must be physically brought into the aquarium for it to reproduce and populate the various surfaces.


Coralline algae can be introduced into your aquarium by adding:

-Coralline-covered live rock
- Coralline scrapings from another aquarium
- Coraline starter packages
The more species of coralline algae that you add to your aquarium, the more you will see growing on your live rock, substrate and aquarium walls. An advantage of growing coralline algae is that it out-competes the growth of nuisance algae like hair algae, green algae, diatoms, and mat algae (in a normal reef environment with proper water chemistry). Coralline algae grows on live rock where nuisance algae might otherwise grow.

• Be sure to add cleaner crew to prevent other algae’s from growing too aggressively

 

[JosephM]

Check your ca level and assure light intensity is somewhat elevated.
running light at least 12hrs a day Will promote coraline but algae also. As with other forms of algae, coralline algae requires light. Exactly how much or little light is required for optimum growth varies with the types of coralline algae. Some prefer higher lighting, while others prefer low lighting.
High Mag can impact coraline growth.
Unlike brown, GhA and red slime algae, all of which frequently grow in an aquarium whether you like it or not, coralline algae must be physically brought into the aquarium for it to reproduce and populate the various surfaces.


Coralline algae can be introduced into your aquarium by adding:

-Coralline-covered live rock
- Coralline scrapings from another aquarium
- Coraline starter packages
The more species of coralline algae that you add to your aquarium, the more you will see growing on your live rock, substrate and aquarium walls. An advantage of growing coralline algae is that it out-competes the growth of nuisance algae like hair algae, green algae, diatoms, and mat algae (in a normal reef environment with proper water chemistry). Coralline algae grows on live rock where nuisance algae might otherwise grow.

• Be sure to add cleaner crew to prevent other algae’s from growing too aggressively

I’ll test ca later when I have some free time but I’m sure it’s good because I’ve been doing so many water changes there’d be no way it’s depleted. The viparspectra is about 10-12” off the water. I just got it on a light schedule of blue channel from 9am-11pm and whites from 10am-10pm. They’re only on 5% intensity to acclimate any photosynthetic life.