Why is my live rock turning white?? NEED HELP!!!!

[Bifferwine]

There's a lot of live stuff in it, you just can't see it yet. Turn out all the lights for a few hours then come back and look at it with a flashlight. And wait a few weeks, you'll have stuff coming out of the woodwork. You never know what you'll find on live rock. It just takes a while for the critters to come out.

 

[bobby]

Ya I go into my room after the lights have been out for a while and look in the tank with a led light and see all kinds of worms roaming around the rocks. Its neat to see what you find next.

 

[adrchan]

Yeah im starting to see little feather dusters sprouting out and there's also a little crab in one of the deep crevices. I'll keep you guys posted on my results. Thanks for all of your responses, I appreciated. :)

 

[JellyMan]

thats just the tip of the iceberg some of your rock could very well contain coral organisms as well I got a piece of rock that had a glass coral in it. congrats on your finds keep us updated.

 

[adrchan]

Well, so far so good...my rocks have not gotten any worse. The only thing im worried about is my puffers now keep picking on the live rocks. I know they are probably trying to wear down their teeth but I hope they will not damage the rocks.

 

[JellyMan]

its a very good possibility though not as good as with a dogface.

 

[jhnrb]

I guess what I was trying to say is that I believe if the rock is not new, your difficulty is most likely water parameters, or if your bulbs are a year old might be time for new bulbs. hope something here helps. (Tip - never add an additive unless you have determined that the system is in need of the additive and you believe the additive will provide the results needed.)

 

[adrchan]

Wow...now I need to leave the lights on for only a few hours because the green algae has exploded in my tank. But the good news is the live rock is starting to get its color back. Yeah I should of measured the calcium level before adding the additives (good tip).

 

[bobby]

What is your calcium at? Also have you checked your phosphates they will fuel algae.

 

[Sxybeemr325]

Talking about algae, I am starting to have green algae in my tank.... My rocks turned white as well... I still have some purple in some spots, but lots of my rocks went from purple to white.. Here you go!! We are 2 with the same problem!!! lol.... Can you do anything for the green algae to stop growing??? It even started growing on my gladd.. looks almost like grass... I scraped it today from the front glass, but it s starting to grow on my rocks as well and cover up everything.. it's kind of a brownish-greenish color....

 

[adrchan]

How long do you leave your lights on? What type of lighting do you have? i'm going to start to keep my lights on for 4 hrs instead of 8 hrs.

Oh by the way I finally posted a few pics of my tank.....If you can give me some ideas of what I need to do to improve it it would be helpful. Or tell me what I'm doing wrong that would be helpful too. Thanks

 

[bobby]

What do you have in the tank? I have two corals and 192watt pcs that I run about 10 to 12 hours a day.

 

[bobby]

How many tanks you got? The first one did'nt have enough live rock but the later pics looked nice. BTW thats a nice looking puffer.

 

[adrchan]

I only have 1 tank...all the pictures are from the 120 gal. I have a stars n stripes puffer, dogface puffer, panther grouper, and a picasso trigger. You can see the grouper & dogface behind the fat stars n stripes.

 

[BriOnH]

120g sure is a big tank compared to my little 46g lol. Amazing how much bigger the fish get too. Cool tank.

 

[bobby]

Well if you dont have any coral or light needy inverts, I dont think it would matter to cut the light period down.

 

[JellyMan]

What kind of lights do you have? How many watts? 8 hours a day is fine. I leave mine on for 12. Most people leave theirs on for 8 to 12.

And she wonders how she can give her rock a six inch part jeez :)

 

[adrchan]

Well the live rock is starting to look better. I've cut my lights to only 4 hours a day now and the algae is under control. I'm planning on adding more live rock (about 30 lbs more) maybe in the next 2 weeks.

I've read somewhere that Canister Filters are not good for reef tanks. Should I take this to heart and upgrade to a different filter? I was planning on getting another Fluval 405 filter.

 

[bobby]

Canister filter make nitrates a prob so do bio wheels. You can clean it every week or so to help.

 

[Bifferwine]

Sounds good. I'm glad your algae is starting to die off. Canister filters work okay, but you have to keep them clean. I used to have one on my tank and I was having nitrate problems, I took it off and my nitrates dropped by 10 just from making that change.