White and Fluorescent Algae? What is it?

[Icey MD]

I noticed this showing up around the green algae. its much more prevalent in areas where the light isnt. its spreading. and just now I realized the sand is all lit up as well. blowing on it with a turkey baster stirs up some of the material, but the white base is really difficult to scrape off the rock. The tank is 3 months old. 2 fish. snails and hermits. What is the white stuff? i thought it might just be the rock, but then i noticed the snail shells have some of it too.
Any help would be appreciated!

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

I don’t really see the white stuff you mentioned. But the light green is the precursor to purple corraline algae.

 

[Icey MD]

Before the white stuff showed up, nothing on the rock fluoresced if you look at the red arrows in the top picture, it corresponds with the fluorescent areas in one of the blue image. also, in the other blue image, normally nothing fluoresces, but all of the specs that are glowing represent little white dots

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

I don’t know. Doesn’t look odd to me.

#reefsquad.

 

[Big G]

Is it fuzzy or slimey? Kinda hard to tell from the pictures.

 

[Icey MD]

definitely not fuzzy. it sort of flakes off when you blow it with a turkey baster, but leaves a white base on the rock that i cant get off. i havent tried to scrape it off with a blade, but nothing else could get it off the rock.

 

[Big G]

The "flakey" comment was what I was looking for. It's probably a calcium carbonate precipitation from your new rock reacting with the saltwater.
Here's a past thread that may help: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/white-dust.211463/

 

[Icey MD]

Thanks, thats a great thought. I'll see if I can do some makeshift chemical tests on it to prove that.

 

[Icey MD]

I asked about this white stuff in the water chemistry forum, but they felt that it was unlikely to be calcium carbonate precipitate. They thought maybe it was a bacteria or sponge. Any thoughts on what I should do?

Thanks

 

[Icey MD]

UPDATE:
So I think it may be glue from when I originally glued the rock together (jurassic gel). I recently glued a coral down and a tiny bit of glue came off and landed somewhere on the rock, producing a white spot like the others. I thought original white spots were growing, but then I remembered that I had taken apart the rock when i was having some bullying issues. when i put it back together, it wasnt exactly the same. For the record, using a dental pick did nothing to help scrape it. and i'm thinking that the white stuff on the underside of the rock is just the rock. Theres no way i used that much glue, so it seems that a small drop can really spread. I feel like a dope!

Thanks everyone for the suggestions!