White Stuff On Rocks

Bayinaung

Bayinaung

Member
Joined
Jan 29, 2014
Location
Tory Town (in more ways then one eh!)
I just don't know what this is. It was on one of my live rocks for a very very long time. recently I've had an explosion of this covering all of my rocks. I didn't notice it at first because it is the color of rock. It has made rocks look a bit whiter. then I noticed some of my sps frags starting to bleach around the same time this occured. anyone have any idea what this is?

when I rub the rocks white powdery stuff comes off it, and floats in the water.

MT9HtHC.jpg
 
Kman

Kman

Super Active Member
Joined
Apr 15, 2014
Location
KW
I have seen white bacteria that look like that. Have you had anything large die off? It is normally on uncured liverock and is caused by decomposing material like something dead and decaying inside the rock it could be either a sponge or a rock-boring bivalve. I have also seen the calcareous algae dying off leaving the white calcium deposits behind.

What are your calcium and PH levels at? High calcium levels can cause precipitation out of solution or if you dump kalkwasser in to quickly in a low flow area calcium can precipitate out of solution due to the quick rise in PH in the local area and saturation of calcium ions.
 
Bayinaung

Bayinaung

Member
Joined
Jan 29, 2014
Location
Tory Town (in more ways then one eh!)
Kman said:
I have seen white bacteria that look like that. Have you had anything large die off? It is normally on uncured liverock and is caused by decomposing material like something dead and decaying inside the rock it could be either a sponge or a rock-boring bivalve. I have also seen the calcareous algae dying off leaving the white calcium deposits behind.

What are your calcium and PH levels at? High calcium levels can cause precipitation out of solution or if you dump kalkwasser in to quickly in a low flow area calcium can precipitate out of solution due to the quick rise in PH in the local area and saturation of calcium ions.
Click to expand...

it is on undersides too. could be precipitation as my calcium was high for some reason and I wasn't even dosing (got very few calcium eating stuff in my tank and water changes was enough). but my alkalinity dropped recently when I saw this white stuff grow - what would have triggered that precipitation? some SPS frags have bleached at the same time.
 
Kman

Kman

Super Active Member
Joined
Apr 15, 2014
Location
KW
If I mix new salt water and not use RO water I have seen the white form as well because of the really high hardness. A sudden change in PH or really high Carbonate hardness can cause this. If you had a big drop in ALK you have to figure out what caused a quick rise or fall in PH. If you have a large sudden drop in ALK it was probably because it buffered against a PH swing.

What did you add product wise that day or do to the tank? What was going on in the area of the tank like any cleaning with chemicals? Did you change your GFO media? (If you use any)

I would suction up as much as you can of it just in case.
 
Bayinaung

Bayinaung

Member
Joined
Jan 29, 2014
Location
Tory Town (in more ways then one eh!)
yeah thanks I"ll have to re-read that page by RHF. I took out a huge volume of macroalgae from the tank. A week later I noticed diatom bloom in the tank, mostly on macroalgae. So I took out some more macroalgae and added a tiny amount of hydrogen peroxide for diatoms. A few days later I started noticing some frags were bleaching. then I went to rub the rock and realized white stuff was kinda coming off. I thought it was some sort calcium-consuming white algae. I was sooooooo friggin good in chemistry in high school. now I have forgotten EVERYTHING. EVERYTHING. geez. that's what you get for too much booze.
 
Kman

Kman

Super Active Member
Joined
Apr 15, 2014
Location
KW
With so many natural controls around nowadays, Hydrogen peroxide in my opinion for diatom control is not needed. As you can see even a little off with your calculations has dire consequences. I have seen people kill their tank by messing around with unneeded chemicals. A reef tank is very complex chemical wise and is easily bumped off course. I recommend natural options for long term maintenance vs treat the symptoms not the cause approach.
 
Bayinaung

Bayinaung

Member
Joined
Jan 29, 2014
Location
Tory Town (in more ways then one eh!)
so yeah alk was definitely low. 6.3. raised it to 7.3.
Calcium is still high at 640. Mag in this tank's always been high, beyond 1500.
PH 8.3
Salinity is about 1.027.

This was my rock holding tank last year, after my main crashed. I had lots of mangroves in there and lots of algae and macro algae. I took out the mangroves since they were consuming too much mag. algae got better after that.

I don't know what got the alk so low. can't be a few drops of peroxide which I had done before for this tank. going to raise alk to about 7.7-8 range today.
 
EricTMah

EricTMah

Aquariums by Design
Joined
Mar 2, 2014
Location
Kitchener, Ontario
Website
www.aquariumsbydesign.ca
Bayinaung said:
so yeah alk was definitely low. 6.3. raised it to 7.3.
Calcium is still high at 640. Mag in this tank's always been high, beyond 1500.
PH 8.3
Salinity is about 1.027.

This was my rock holding tank last year, after my main crashed. I had lots of mangroves in there and lots of algae and macro algae. I took out the mangroves since they were consuming too much mag. algae got better after that.

I don't know what got the alk so low. can't be a few drops of peroxide which I had done before for this tank. going to raise alk to about 7.7-8 range today.
Click to expand...
Don't raise your alk more than 1.0 in a 24 hour time. Way too stressful on any tank inhabitants

Sony Xperia Z3
 
Kman

Kman

Super Active Member
Joined
Apr 15, 2014
Location
KW
Did you loose any more sps? Or are things looking more stable? Slow to bring up is good advice to follow.
Fast and saltwater don't mix. lol
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top