Live rock die off

[terrance]

I have a 40 gallon tank with about 60 pounds live rock. When i bought the rocks, they were fully cured and had nice coloration. Now, however, almost all of them have lost their color and are white as well. My tank has been up for about 4 months. My paramaeters are all normal. Do i have to supplement with anything to sustain growth and coloration? I have regular flourescent lights. Any ideas?

 

[goldmar00n]

my LR did the same thing..and you know what really worked for me was to use B-Ionic calcium buffer..works reall good...got all my color back..
and another thing that is awsome that i use is"reef vital DNA" by Marc Weiss..
i dose it everyother day..and it seems like everything has more color to it..
Marc Weiss products are awsome..

 

[terrance]

DOes that help corraline growth as well?

 

[goldmar00n]

to get coraline to grow you need stable parts of calcium and alk.to be the least...and the B-ionic is a two part system which is alk and calcium..and when added right then you will have a good alk level along with calcium which should lead to coraline growth..
what you do it add the alk in the morning and the calcium at night..
and the "Reef Vital DNA" really helps with it too..
what is your PH and calcium right now?

 

[terrance]

My pH is 7.8, i dont have a test kit for calcium. I suppose i will get one tomorrow. I didnt know that you needed to add anything for growth on rocks.

 

[elfdoctors]

Your pH is low. This may be a sign that your alkalinity level is low. Alkalinity is a measurement of the buffering ability of your water. This should be tested.
I also think your rock died off because of a lack of light. To get good growth, more then regular flourescents would be recommended. Some growth may come back but the growth that was on there was used to higher amounts of light. Sometimes you just have to be patient.
Usually there is no need to add calcium supplements to encourage coraline growth on rocks. The calcium and trace minerals the coraline algae needs will be replaced with simple water changes.

 

[beaslbob]

As stated the color (puples and blues) on the life rock probably faded because of low calcium.
you ph being low also may be a function of the lack of growth on the LR. Plant life consumes carbon dioxide. And carbon dioxide lowers ph.
So if you get you coraline growing the ph will rise. Or you could add other plant life to help stabilize the ph.

 

[1journeyman]

Originally posted by beaslbob
you ph being low also may be a function of the lack of growth on the LR. Plant life consumes carbon dioxide. And carbon dioxide lowers ph.

Actually Bob that can be a bit deceptive. At night plants breath O2 and exhale CO2 like everything else. Only during photosynthesis would plants "consume" CO2. If his pH is already low then I would guess adding a bunch of plants would make it plummet at night...
As far as lights and calc go, I'd think any kind of coralline algae would need a decent amount of both.
Good luck!
John

 

[beaslbob]

Originally posted by 1journeyman
Actually Bob that can be a bit deceptive. At night plants breath O2 and exhale CO2 like everything else. Only during photosynthesis would plants "consume" CO2. If his pH is already low then I would guess adding a bunch of plants would make it plummet at night...
...
John
You are absolutely correct. the ph does drop at night. It is better to drop from 8.4 to say 8.3 than to be 7.4 all the time.

 

[goldmar00n]

yea i think the lights also have a big part in the color loss on the rocks...
once i added my lights my coraline started to grow...along with lots of hair algae..
but yea if i were you i would first try and change my PH..but i am always scared to use a buffer..so i would just do regular water changes and im sure after a while your PH will rise a little..the reason why i said im scared to use a PH buffer is because it might rise to much..i would just rather have the PH rise naturally..
at first i didnt add any calcium because i didnt want to add any chemicals...but my calc would not rise above 350...so thats why i started to add the B-ionic..which i recomend to everyone just as long as you have a calc tester...because you dont want your calc to go any higher than about 480..

 

[terrance]

So to my understanding i should add pH buffer, as well as calcium and alkalinity to my tank?

 

[beaslbob]

Originally posted by terrance
So to my understanding i should add pH buffer, as well as calcium and alkalinity to my tank?
Before adding anything I would test first. There is a two part calcium additive system where you test for calcium, add some and then test for alk and add buffers. By blindly adding calcium you may reduce alk and have a ph drop. By blindly adding ph buffer you may drop your cal.

 

[goldmar00n]

yes the B-Ionic is a two part calcium system...one part alk and one part calcium

 

[bang guy]

Originally posted by beaslbob
You are absolutely correct. the ph does drop at night. It is better to drop from 8.4 to say 8.3 than to be 7.4 all the time.
But it is probably better to be a constant 7.4 than to range from 8.4 in the day to 7.0 at night.

 

[beaslbob]

Originally posted by Bang Guy
But it is probably better to be a constant 7.4 than to range from 8.4 in the day to 7.0 at night.
Absolutely bang. With no plants 24 hours a day the ph is only 7.4. So I don't think it would drop to 7.0 with plants. more like 8.4 down to 8.3.
And even with that drop adding a fish in the day that is in 8.4 ph water would be much less stressful.
Does your lagoon vary that much?

 

[terrance]

I was thinking about adding plants to my tank to help with the nitrates. Does anyone sugguest any good micro or macro algae that doenst require good lighting ( all i have are flourescent)? Thanks

 

[tagg]

I have some Feather Caulerpa thats holding its own, but not thriving with only flourescent. I have to trim it in other tanks with more lighting.
Tagg

 

[bang guy]

Originally posted by beaslbob
more like 8.4 down to 8.3.
Does your lagoon vary that much?
I disagree because the plants will be ADDING CO2 during the lights out period. As a result the PH swing will be greater. Probably not down to 7.0, granted I exaggerated, but it will increase the fluctuation.
My lagoon is lit Reverse to the display tank so this counteracts the PH fluctuation. If you have plants in a refugium lit 24/7 or opposite the display tank then it will most likely reduce the fluctuation.

 

[bang guy]

For what it's worth, the real reefs have BIG PH fluctuations. 7.8 - 8.6 is the norm. This is nearly 100% caused by "Plant life" aka Marine Algae.

 

[beaslbob]

Originally posted by terrance
I was thinking about adding plants to my tank to help with the nitrates. Does anyone sugguest any good micro or macro algae that doenst require good lighting ( all i have are flourescent)? Thanks
Almost all of the macros and marine plants only require normal output flourescent lighting.