Noticed LR is starting to turn white, is this bad?

[Sogas]

Hey guys...

I got home from work this evening and noticed that the LR that I placed in my tank on Saturday night is starting to turn white. Actually, all of the rock in my tank is starting to turn white. I didn't know if this was normal or not so I thought that I'd ask. In case my rock has ich or something :lol:

The water conditions appear rather good and my only occupant, one cocktail shrimp, seems to be doing just fine :wink:

Ammonia <.25
Nirite <.25
Nirate <10

 

[TriggaFish99]

If you are referring to it changing from purple to white, that happens frequently when it's exposed to air. The coralline algae dies when it's exposed to air.

 

[Sogas]

@TriggaFish99 wrote:

There are also pieces with no coraline algae present and they are doing it too. Some have small dots others have larger patches while others are solid white. I take it that it might just be something else that is dying.

 

[Guest]

Sogas wrote

I don't know that I would qualify your water quality rather good if you are registering ammonia. I was thinking that this is normal for live rock when you are cycling a new tank because of the die off that is happening but you have livestock in it. Have you had something happen lately that would explain the ammonia spike? If that gets too high for too long then you can expect more bad things to happen.

 

[Guest]

ahhh...the shrimp, and choice of words threw me...

 

[nanoman]

I just put my tank up and cycled it and got LR from my dads tank covered with Coraline and it didnt turn white it never changed

 

[Mr.X-ray]

Hypo-salinity maybe? Along with the Ammonia killing the rock? Just guessing...

 

[bdare]

I think this is totally normal. There's always die off when you're cycling a new tank. Some people prefer not to "waste" supplements when cycling, but always try to keep my parms up to keep as much coraline as possible.

I say test for Alk, Mg, and Ca as well as run carbon and a skimmer durning cycling. Run your lights, but only minimally until the nitrites are gone. Then slowly increase lighting cycle and run phosban to get rid of the phosphates created during the cycle.

 

[kthomas]

all my coraline algae died off from the "cured" tonga that I purchased. It takes a while for it to come back.

 

[bdare]

@kthomas wrote:

The more you can do to soften your cycle the more coraline you'll keep.

 

[kthomas]

@bdare wrote:

The more you can do to soften your cycle the more coraline you'll keep."]
what do you mean soften? This was my first setup...so knowing will help in the future.

 

[bdare]

@kthomas wrote:

The more you can do to soften your cycle the more coraline you'll keep."]
what do you mean soften? This was my first setup...so knowing will help in the future."]

What I mean is when you are "curing" live rock there is a lot of stuff either on or in the rock that's dying and rotting in the tank. All that rot produces amonia. The more rot the more amonia. The more amonia, the harder the cycle and the more stuff dies because amonia is VERY toxic.

Things you can do to soften the cycle:
1) Remove as much dead / dying stuff as possible before putting it in the tank.
2) Perform lots of water changes during the cycle. During the water changes pull off additional dead stuff and remove dietrus from the tank.
3) Run carbon and a skimmer during the cycle.
4) Run Cheato during the cycle.

When I cured my last batch of LR, I did it without sand in the tank. This allowed all the dead stuff to fall on the glass bottom where it could be easily removed. Once all the dead stuff was off I put the sand in the tank for the last week fo the process so it could be seeded with bacteria.

I am NOT a believer in buying live sand. To me it's a gimic. Think about what you are supposed to be buying... Supposedly it's sand that already is stocked full of nitrofying bacteria. How is this possible? That bacteria needs oxygen to survive. How long is that sand bagged up? Eventually that bag will run out of air and the bacteria will die. That bacteria also needs something to produce waste for it to consume. Where's the fish poop and left over food?

The other thing is... Once you have bacteria growing in your tank it grows on EVERYTHING. It's in the water colum and on every surface. As soon as you put new sand in your tank it becomes seeded with bacteria.

Ok... stepping down from soap box...

Ben

 

[kthomas]

that makes sense ... unfortunately i was less informed when i set my first tank up about 8 months ago. I was the one who purchased 120lb of live sand. It looks nice and i got a good deal on it. So I was happy.

thanks for the explaination. During my cycle I didn't do very many water changes.

 

[bdare]

Before I forget... there is also a flip side to a soft cycle...

With a soft cycle you won't have as large of a population of bacteria. This means that immediately fully stocking your tank will have more dramatic effects. The amonia that's produced won't be broken down as fast and it could have a larger impact on your first inhabitants. Stock slowly and you're fine.

Also, with a hard cycle what happens is... all this bacteria is produced to eat the TONS of waste produced when the rock cured. Without a food source a lot of that bacteria then dies. This is why you get those second and third smaller cycles shortly after stocking your tank...

With a soft cycle those fluctuations are greatly reduced...

 

[bdare]

@kthomas wrote:

I got BEAUTIFUL LR the first time I cured rock for a reef tank. Unfortunately the person I bought it from told me not to do water changes either... My rock ALL turned white. I was a sad sad man...

 

[JeffJ]

Hey guys...I'm seeing some of the same white spots, so I appreciate the insight. Mine have been fairly small (biggest is the size of a 1/2 dollar). The rock was almost completely purple when I got it and it came from a member who had it in a tank for almost a year. Ive had it in my tank for about 6 weeks now. Should I be worried that I'm going to have a large die off? My water quality has been testing great and my one yellow-tailed damsel seems to be ok.

I had a PH and a ALK problem about 3 weeks ago, but with the LFS I think I have it under control. Should I do anything else to make sure we are ok?

PS--running carbon throughout the cycle...

Thanks!

 

[bdare]

@reefready wrote:

To maintain coraline I also made sure to keep up my Alk, Ca, and Mg levels. I would just test for those 3 (in addition to Amonia, Nitrite, and nitrate) and keep them at acceptable levels.

What does your water test at now?

 

[Sogas]

Well guys just a quick update.

I took a bunch of water measurements last night and

Ammonia < .25 (Might be closer to 0 I am just learning to read the results)
Nitrite ~ 0
Nirate < 5
PH 8.2
Calcium ~480
dK ~ 10
Phophate ~ 0

I do not have a Magnesium test kit so I need one of those.

I dosed with Calcium on Tuesday evening and since I have noticed that the white spots and the white color have become less and some of the color of the rocks appear to be coming back.

Should I be concerned that I am not seeing that massive Ammonia/Nitrite/Nirate spike or could it be that my bacteria is thriving and just consuming all the by products from the decaying shrimp and what died off the LR??

At what point do I consider adding something else to push the load. Should I take the water to the LFS and have them test it and see what they come up with?

If they give me 0/0/<25 can I begin considering invertbrates and if so should I limit the number or should I run out and purchase a Reef Pack online with a gazzilion snails and 4 dozen hermit crabs and a star fish :shock:

 

[Ashlar]

Until you read 0 ammonia and nitrite, I wouldn't add anything. If an LFS gives you 0 on both those, I'd start with a _small_ number of snails / crabs / cleanup. They may be small, but they do add bioload- everything poops, whether you see it or not.

 

[Firewolf4]

I dont see a salinity listed anywhere. Can you get that tested as hypo or hyper salinity can cause excessive die off as well. On Average, I believe that people aim for about 1.025~ish