Is this normal?

[clowninround]

When I got my tank the lady had some dead coral heads in there. The question is, white encrusting stuff seems to be accumlating in both my 150 and my 55 on the dead coral heads AND live rock. Only thing I have done similarly with both tanks lately is water changes using a new ro/di system. I was told that if my phosphates were at 0 that it was one way to tell if it was working properly, and they ARE 0. Just wondering if these whitening spots are normal? Maybe some type of white coraline?

 

[Atari]

White spots are usually bleached coralline.

 

[clowninround]

Why does it bleach?

 

[quarryshark]

It dies off from the lack of proper lighting. Possibly eaten by livestock like urchins, or in other words stripped.

 

[packfan2204]

could also be lack of calcium

 

[clowninround]

hmmm, well I am adding more lights next week, we'll see what that does. Though all my corals seem to be multipling at a fairly good rate with what I have. It probabally isn't the calcuim because last week it was almost 500 ppm, though it was much lower before...maybe it was that.

 

[clowninround]

You know something too, there seems to be pink corraline growing on top of it. Could it possibly be a growth process?

 

[Atari]

It tends to come and go depending on tank conditions.. especially in a new setup. If you see the colour returning then things are probably starting to settle down and before you know it, it will take over your tank.