Liverock gone white!!??

[watertight]

I have a question - My liverock was covered in white stuff when I got home from work today, it was almost like the skin you get on mily if you let hot milk sit too long. The tank is a new 40 gal, which has just been set up with around 12 lbs of liverock, 2 powerheads (1 pre-filtered, 1 not) and an old air driven skimmer. The stuff all came off the rock when I stirred up the water around it a bit, but it's now just broken up and has gone all through the water - what is this?? Apparently the liverock wasn't fully cured when I got it, but there's nothing live in there anyway, could that be the cause? I've also only got a makeshift light set-up, but will have a mh straight after Christmas
BTW, The tank is still in cycling stage, still showing about 0.25 nitrite - Any suggestions??

 

[mikeyjer]

Originally Posted by watertight
I have a question - My liverock was covered in white stuff when I got home from work today, it was almost like the skin you get on mily if you let hot milk sit too long. The tank is a new 40 gal, which has just been set up with around 12 lbs of liverock, 2 powerheads (1 pre-filtered, 1 not) and an old air driven skimmer. The stuff all came off the rock when I stirred up the water around it a bit, but it's now just broken up and has gone all through the water - what is this?? Apparently the liverock wasn't fully cured when I got it, but there's nothing live in there anyway, could that be the cause? I've also only got a makeshift light set-up, but will have a mh straight after Christmas
BTW, The tank is still in cycling stage, still showing about 0.25 nitrite - Any suggestions??
You don't know nothing is living in there. They usually show up later! Some of my critters didn't come out until months later. You should have adequate flow over the light rocks to get all that stuffs blown off. It's nothing to worry about. Just let it cycle, keep your lights on at a minimum. You don't want algae growing everywhere. :happyfish

 

[watertight]

Originally Posted by Mikeyjer
You don't know nothing is living in there. They usually show up later! Some of my critters didn't come out until months later. You should have adequate flow over the light rocks to get all that stuffs blown off. It's nothing to worry about. Just let it cycle, keep your lights on at a minimum. You don't want algae growing everywhere. :happyfish
Actually, You are right, I forgot, there is a small clam on 1 piece of L/R, it's still alive as well. So the white stuff is normal? Is it a flow related thing? I have 2 powerheads in there, turning over a total of around 1000 litres per hour (250 gph...ish). Also, my skimmer is an air driven one, going to replace it with a HOB after Christmas - should be ok for now though, right?

 

[mikeyjer]

Originally Posted by watertight
Actually, You are right, I forgot, there is a small clam on 1 piece of L/R, it's still alive as well. So the white stuff is normal? Is it a flow related thing? I have 2 powerheads in there, turning over a total of around 1000 litres per hour (250 gph...ish). Also, my skimmer is an air driven one, going to replace it with a HOB after Christmas - should be ok for now though, right?
Yea it's fine right now cause your cycling. Don't even have to turn the skimmer on. The white stuffs is normal, nothing to worry about. You can have one more powerhead blowing towards the live rock, that would keep it clean and aerated. :happyfish

 

[watertight]

Cool, thanks