rocks turning dark green

[slowmoclown]

Hello. Can someone tell me if this is normal? I bought a tank that has been up for 2 years from a local reefer this past February. After the purchase I upgraded the light to AI prime and ever since my rocks started to turn bright green to now forest green.
I started having GHA problems due to high co2 levels in my small apartment. I've read phosphates thrive on low ph levels. So I purchased a skimmer and added a co2 scrubber to bring my ph to 8.0-8.2 from 7.8. The rock in the picture was white when I first bought it from my LFS 2 months ago and it keeps getting darker along with my other live rocks. I am seeing GHA on parts of the rock and am worried it will start spreading.
My parameters are as follows:
Ph 8.0-8.2
Phosphate .10
ammonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate 0
mag 1400
cal 420
alk 10.2
livestocks I have are 2 clowns, 1 chromis, a watchman goby, a peppermint shrimp, and corals (LPS and soft mostly)
temperature 82-84 (can't keep it lower unless I have the a.c. running all day)
I do 15% water changes atleast once a week.
Not sure if it's my lighting but I have it pretty low at around 20% mostly blues. I cut back on my feeding to once a day and my lights are on 8hrs a day.
I used to have just r.o. water with tds of around 20 but purchased a d.i. canister so it now reads at 0.

Can someone help identify why my rocks are turning dark green or give some advice on how to fix this. The green coloration is actually darker than the picture.
It's very frustrating. Sorry for the long post. Thanks

 

[divetoday]

So if I understand your post, this is new dead rock that you purchased two months ago. If so, there is a natural process that rock goes through as it is colonized by bacteria and other good stuff that is not pretty to watch. Short term, you can use a stiff brush to clean the rock until it completes the cycle. Just remember to remove the detritus you brush off from your tank. Secondarily, the Phosphates are high, and you can lower them with GFO to help with nuisance algae. Good luck and don't give up!


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[mcgyvr]

Normal for a new tank..
Provided you keep using that 0 TDS water, keep performing water changes and keep nitrates/phosphates low it should go away in a bit..
Your phosphates are a bit high too probably from your overfeeding..
Get them down to .03 or less..

 

[slowmoclown]

So if I understand your post, this is new dead rock that you purchased two months ago. If so, there is a natural process that rock goes through as it is colonized by bacteria and other good stuff that is not pretty to watch. Short term, you can use a stiff brush to clean the rock until it completes the cycle. Just remember to remove the detritus you brush off from your tank. Secondarily, the Phosphates are high, and you can lower them with GFO to help with nuisance algae. Good luck and don't give up!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I forgot to mention that the rock was purchased live. It was doing well until the upgraded lights. I also had some cyano on it but fixed that with an extra powerhead. Question, I heard the GFO will drop my ph a bit. I'm assuming it'll help with the phosphates but will it affect my corals growth? Seen a video from brs saying corals do better with higher ph of 8.3-8.5. Thanks.

 

[slowmoclown]

Normal for a new tank..
Provided you keep using that 0 TDS water, keep performing water changes and keep nitrates/phosphates low it should go away in a bit..
Your phosphates are a bit high too probably from your overfeeding..
Get them down to .03 or less..

I see. So far I've done about 5 water changes with 0 tds. Funny thing is some days the green seems to be getting lighter and the next day it gets dark again. Not sure what's causing it... I will work on the phosphates and see what happens. Thanks

 

[static916]

Honestly green rooks don't look bad. Looks more natural than new white rock.