LR turning White

[Dayna]

just starting up our marine tank. no fish yet just live rock. and i'm noticing in spots on the live rock its turning white.

am i doing sumthin wrong or am i missing sumthing. we got out water tested this weekend and we're going thru the nitrate or nitrite spike right now.

one peice of live rock is almost completely white.

is it dieing?

we bought about 4 peiced that werent fully cured. theres about 50lbs of LR in the tank.
the skimmer is running good and takeing yukky stuff out....


anyone know whats causing this?


Thanks in advance

 

[jackdp]

The rock isn't dying. What you are seeing is the coralline bleaching white. This will happen at first, its due to the stress of high ammonia and nitrite caused by the curing process. The colors will come back over time. Coralline algae will also bleach with changes in lighting. Once the tank is cycled test to make sure your tank is maintaining good calcium and carbonate alkalinity levels and before you know it you'll be scraping coralline off the glass every week. HTH