Live rock turning white?

[graham82]

The live rock (from LFS) I put in my tank on Friday is starting to turn white in some places. Is this normal in a new setup?

Some info about my tank.

29g Tall
30 lbs Live Sand
10 lbs Live Rock
Tunze Reefpack 200
No livestock yet.

 

[fireman676]

Its probably just some die off, normal and will recover.

 

[bradbmbj]

It may be that the coraline algae is being "bleached". What kind of lighting do you have?

 

[graham82]

I have T5HO lighting. 1x24w Daylight and 1x24w Actinic. Its a Current USA fixture (I know its crappy). Not enough light to cause bleaching though right? Fireman is probably right about it being from die off.

 

[bradbmbj]

That would be enough to bleach it, look under the edges of the rock and see if its white there too.

 

[graham82]

Its hard to tell really but I can see some spots underneath that are white as well. Should I just turn the lights off for now to see if that helps?

 

[bradbmbj]

I really wouldnt worry to much, rather its die off or bleaching, the rock will adjust to your tank. Color will come back.

 

[WaterKeeper]

Did you mix the SW in the tank? If so it may have been exposed to low salinity and that will kill coralline. The white color is just the "skeleton" of the coralline and is left after it dies. On the up side it is unusual to kill off all the coralline on the LR even if exposed to FW. It hides in the pore structure and rebounds when salinity returns to normal levels.

Lighting has little or nothing to do with your current dieback.

 

[graham82]

Well thanks for the help. Is there a point where I should worry? Like if they turn completely white?

 

[WaterKeeper]

As I said it will usually rebound. Whoops, we posted simultaneously.