Live Rock turning white

jwill275

jwill275

Member
Over the last 6-8 weeks I've added approx 90 lbs of Live Rock from two well established reef tanks. In both cases the rock was out of the water for less than one half hour. The rock is full of corraline algae and any number of invertibartes. Slowly over time the rock seems to turning white. My tank:
125 gal
2 - Coralife 36" 96w w 10K acitonic light fixtures
Protien Skimmer
Wet dry filter
Water flow from i Korilla 2 and 1 Korilla 3 as well as a rotating powerhead @ 280gph. My intake is a Quietone 4000 - 600+gph.
water change 15-20 gal per weekusing RO/DI
My water parameters are all excellent
salt 1.025 / 34ppm
ph 8.3 amonia 0 nitrite 0 nitrate 0 calcium 320, magnisium 1200 - phosphates recently tested came in at 0.
Can anyone explain why the rock would turn white.
 
jwill275

jwill275

Member
alk 10.9
if anything I think my lights are not as strong as previous, the other owners were using halid
 
zman1

zman1

Active Member
Your a little out of balance between Alk (elevated) and Ca (lower). Coraline Algae is consumer of Ca.
Try raising Ca a little or a water change, Here are a few good reads.
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/t/45812/calcium-alkalinity-ph
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/t/175205/calcium-alkalinity-chart
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/t/48111/another-way-to-look-at-calcium-alk-and-ph
 
shawnhardy

shawnhardy

Member
You might need to raise your magnesium level slightly in order to get your calcium in the 400-450ppm range. I have head several people say that this range is ideal for coralline.
In this case though, I would say most of it has to do with the change in lighting.
 
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