"dad"...Re: White stuff

obx fish

obx fish

Member
Tried waving it off...It's not sediment. While taking a closer look it almost looks like someone spraypainted the rock white. That's the best way to describe it. The weirdest part is that it happened over night. We went to bed at 2AM (stayed up staring at our fish and inverts like usual) got up at 10 AM and there it was just on the tops of the rocks. Have you ever heard of maybe snails leaving trails??? Just a wild stab in the dark for some kind of explination. Or is there such thing as a white algae maybe???
 
byrself

byrself

Member
i don't know if this is what you have, but to answer your question about white algae, then yes, there is white coralline algae. i got a good bit on my rocks, and it looks the same as the other colors but is white. here's a pic of one of my rocks..
 
B

bt_1999_66

Guest
byrself,
Would you have any supporting documentation of this...? White Coraline...?
 
byrself

byrself

Member
well, i tried to find some info on garf specific to white coralline, but all they talk about are the different colors being different varieties. you might want to read up on it just to check it out. garf.org, under propagation, then coralline algae. i got a good friend at lfs that told me about the white coralline. my rocks also have this light green stuff that i thought was green hair algae at first, then that's when he told me about the different colors of coralline. i got the green stuff on my glass now, and it is patches just like the purples. if i can find some specific info on web about white coralline i'll post it, but if you have a lfs you can call they might be able to tell you about the white coralline and such. ;)
 
fshhub

fshhub

Active Member
coraline comes in ,many colors, even an almost white shade, also coraline as it dies and or regrows will turn whitish in color as part of the process
HTH
 
byrself

byrself

Member
do a search on this site for "white coralline", and look at the thread dated for May 22, 2001. they got some good posts on this about the white coralline. ;)
 
wrassecal

wrassecal

Active Member
I'm with fishub on this one. If your rock has been about 8 weeks you may be experiencing what I did about the same time. As the corraline in my tank spread I got lots of white stuff that over the next few weeks turned to pink corraline. So with your time in tank, I'm guessing this is what you are getting too. All of my white seems to eventually turn pink and/or purple. I did buy a piece of rock recently that had what looked like a mature white corraline but I think it was just pink that had bleached out as it too is getting kind of pink now. :)
 
dsa_mom

dsa_mom

Member
we are also seeing those white areas (not the powdery stuff, but like the pic posted) on curing live rock that we have had about two weeks. I thought it was all die-off, am relieved to learn maybe not. thanks.
 
byrself

byrself

Member
here's some supporting documentation on the white coralline algae statement. found here:<a href="http://saltaquarium.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.suite101.com%2Farticle.cfm%2Faquariums%2F34579" target="_blank">fins website</a>
There are three types of undesirable "algae" that commonly grow in reef tanks: long green strands of hair algae, short fuzzy green turf algae, and brown or red slime algae. Some people also consider fleshy macro alga, such as Caulerpa, to be a pest as they can overgrow and choke out soft corals. Desirable alga are the calcarious ones, both encrusting coralline alga in pink, purple, white, yellow, maroon and brown, and larger calcarious alga such as Halimeda. Some believe that any Macroalgae (Caulerpa, Halimeda, etc.) do not belong in Reef tanks.
 
dad

dad

Active Member
Hi OBX Fish,
I'm sorta confused at this point on what your problem is.
White coralline might be the answer as others have said.
But over night?
I'm thinking in another direction now. I think you may have a hitchicker in your tank that is doing this!
I do not want to scare you and hope I am wrong.
But this may be a possibility.
I will do some resurch and see what I can come up with.
If you can; take a small light and look in your tank after the lights have been off for a few hours.
 
obx fish

obx fish

Member
Thanks everyone for your input. This satwater stuff is so fascinating to learn about but at the same time it can make one want to pull out their hair trying to figure out what's good or bad in your tank. I guess as long as our livestock seems happy that's the important thing! What we have seems to be doing really good so far :)
As far as a hitchhiker in our tank the only thing we've noticed creature wise is a little crab that we did not put in our tank with our knowledge. I saw a picture of a porcelain crab on this site and from what we could tell our crab looks just like it. Every time we get a glimps of him only by flashlight he disappears. He's living in a little cave in a piece of LR. Are they okay for our tank?? Tahnks Again Everyone :)
 
adam & jeanne

adam & jeanne

Member
My coralline has done the same thing in a matter of 24 hours, seems to be just the pink that has done it though. I dont know if its the standard process or what. I was however, not keeping a close eye on my calcium, I wonder if I might have overdone it. OOPS!
 
dad

dad

Active Member
I'm still working on a answer.
But to be honest, I'm lost!
Time to call in the sharks, ;)
Sorry
 
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