White Dust And Algae(?) Throughout Tank

[BigEZ77]

Hi All,

My tank has been up and running for about two weeks now. I used live rock and live sand. I'm noticing the following...

-White dust has settled on much of the live rock and is causing a white line around the water level of my tank.

-White film is developing on my powerhead and return nozzles.

-When I crank my powerhead all the way up it kicks some of it off the rock and into the water column.

Its not sand, that all settled a couple days after putting it in. Could live sand have a white powder residue that is staying in the tank? Is this something I should be worried about?

Also, I'm noticing some white hair like stuff on my live rock. I'm assuming its an algae of some sort but want to be sure its not something dangerous since its not green. Unfortunately I don't have a camera that does close ups very well but will try to get some decent pics shortly.

Thanks,

Russell

 

[BigEZ77]

The first pic is the top with the white buildup around the water line, powerhead and return nozzles.

The second is the dust all over the rock, perhaps its more grey than white.

The 3rd is the Algae(?)

PS. Skimmer has not been running for over a week. LFS had me throw in a frozen food cube (a week ago) to test if the rock is cured by trying to spike ammonia, and suggested leaving the skimmer off for this process.

 

[username in use]

Looks like crap coming out of the live sand and live rock.

 

[PAXpress]

Looks like crap coming out of the live sand and live rock.

I think I agree with this. The dusting looks like very fine bits that were in the sand which will probably get sucked up in your filter/skimmer over time and in water changes. I wouldn't worry too much about that algae looking thing most likely just got coated with the white dust and will die of anyways.

 

[scelona]

Are you using some sort of man made rock like "real reef rock?" Looks like it from the photos. I had some issues with calcium carbonate precipitation on my rocks that looked very similar to yours.

 

[BigEZ77]

Thanks for all the responses

Are you using some sort of man made rock like "real reef rock?" Looks like it from the photos. I had some issues with calcium carbonate precipitation on my rocks that looked very similar to yours.

Yes, should have mentioned that. Its Realreef rock (manmade). Will the excessive calcium carbonate be an issue for CUC? I plan on adding them this weekend and possibly one fish.

 

[scelona]

This may be more info then you were looking for but here it goes.

I am also using "real reef rock" and had a pretty poor initial experience with their product but am now very happy. My alk and cal was dropping like crazy before adding any corals which was a result of the precipitation that I believe the rocks were significantly contributing to somehow. I asked a bunch of questions of the reef chemistry forum but it was hard for anyone to identify the problem. It took a few months for my system to stabilize but now all my parameters are sitting right where I want them and corals are looking great. I would highly recommend buying some quality test kits for mag, cal, and alk if you don't already have them. If you do any dosing do it painfully slow and try to keep magnesium at an elevated level, around 1350 ppm. This will help reduce the precipitation as much as possible. If you have any questions I would be happy to answer based on my experiences.

Clean up crew should be fine but I would keep it on the small side since the tank is new and there really doesn't look to be much algae at this point.

 

[BigEZ77]

This may be more info then you were looking for but here it goes.

I am also using "real reef rock" and had a pretty poor initial experience with their product but am now very happy. My alk and cal was dropping like crazy before adding any corals which was a result of the precipitation that I believe the rocks were significantly contributing to somehow. I asked a bunch of questions of the reef chemistry forum but it was hard for anyone to identify the problem. It took a few months for my system to stabilize but now all my parameters are sitting right where I want them and corals are looking great. I would highly recommend buying some quality test kits for mag, cal, and alk if you don't already have them. If you do any dosing do it painfully slow and try to keep magnesium at an elevated level, around 1350 ppm. This will help reduce the precipitation as much as possible. If you have any questions I would be happy to answer based on my experiences.

Clean up crew should be fine but I would keep it on the small side since the tank is new and there really doesn't look to be much algae at this point.

I appreciate the help and your experience with the rock. I think it will be a few months before I add coral. Do you think it should stabilize by then? What are your thoughts about the effects of this on fish? Is it safe to start adding them? I have the RedSea Reef Foundation test kit but haven't started using it yet since I'm not at the point of corals. I've been using the API Saltwater test kit thus far just to make sure my basic saltwater params are in check. I will look into options for dosing and am happy to hear any recommendations you have for good dosing products.

 

[scelona]

I am not sure how common my experience was and how much it will apply to your setup but you should be ready for corals in a few months. The fish won't care about the slow changes in those parameters so you are probably safe to add them after the normal cycling process. A lot of FOWLR setups have mag, cal, and alk set much lower then the reef systems do.

When you start using the redsea kits and trying to get your parameters to the recommended Mag ~ 1300 ppm, Alk ~ 8-9 dkh, Cal ~ 420 ppm I would do the following:
1. bump the magnesium up very slowly over the course of a few days to an elevated level of 1320-1350, just a little extra.
2. wait a day or two after getting it where you would like and then raise the alk very slowly to your desired level. Do this over the course of a day or two in small increments, each time adding just a small fraction of the total amount required
3. Do the same for calcium, raise it very slowly and incrementally.

I am no chemistry expert so this is just based off personal experience with the rock and the fact that you have the same precipitation forming that I did. This may be overkill but in general it is best to raise your parameters in this order and as slowly as possible.

 

[BigEZ77]

Great, thanks detailed info. I will do that.