Normal? live rock turning chalky white in large areas

[2008pollyanna]

Hi, I am new, and have noticed today on 3 of my live rock pcs, I have really large areas of my live rock turning very white...and chalky.
Is this what they call cycling?
Help...

[RyanG]

How long has the tank been set up is a month correct? Do you still have ammonia or nitrite readings? It sounds like typical live rock die off during the cycle I dont think its anything to worry about too much.

[Bifferwine]

Cycling is the rise and fall of your parameters as your bacterial population grows. Ammonia rises, then falls. Nitrites rise, then fall. Then nitrates rise.

If your live rock is turning white, I agree with what Ryan says, that the coralline algae that was on your live rock is dying off. If that's the case, it's no big deal.

[2008pollyanna]

Hi, I reset up the tank a month and half ago for myself. It had been running for a year for someone else. All my levels have been really good actually. I brought back about half the water, all live rock and live sand. I have to go in and research what cycling means. Perhaps thats whats going on. But, yeh, I have been real lucky, all levels have been good. I just did a check and my nitrate is up just abit to 20 and my ph is more like 8.4. I will have to keep watching, eh?
Thankyou and any info is so appreciated.

[RyanG]

Polly check out the articles section it has tons of very good information.

[Bifferwine]

A pH of 8.4 is fine, that's normal. Nitrates at 20 are okay too, but on the high end of what you want to see. You may want to do a water change (10 to 20% to bring the nitrates down a bit, and after that start doing water changes once a week (if you don't already).

[fatman]

Any time you change the orientation or depth of placement of Coraline covered live rock you will experience some die off of Coraline. The white powder you see is calcium carbonate. Usually the new Coraline that grows will grow right over the old Coraline just fine. Even having the same lights water and live sand will not prevent the problem with live rocks that have heavy Coraline growth on them. You will probably notice after a while the Coraline will be heaviest in the same areas of the tank as it was before it was moved, but the Coraline will be on the rock now in those positions, meaning that some rocks that had heavy Coraline growth before probably will not have it now (if the rocks that were in that position before did not have heavy growths).

[2008pollyanna]

Excellant help...thankyou all...

[Piggy]

When I do water changes the coraline on the overflows will turn white. So you can tell how much water I take out for water changes.