help with white coating on LR

[huffy]

hi guys

I have recently converted to salt going for FOWLR.Tank is a Aqua One 580, dimensions 50cmX33cmx42cm. It has only been setup for 3 days everything seemed fine, until today when i woke up this morning with white coating on the LR . I have 5kg LR, Salinity 1.022 , temp 26c. Can anyone help please.

 

[fibrechunk]

I don't know that much about LR. But what I have read looks like it must be cured before putting in system. The white film is to be brushed off. Anyway I would look up how to cure LR. Did you buy it mail-order or at your lps in a live system?

 

[OCCFan023]

yea as fibre said live rock needs to be cured, did you purchase cured live rock, or uncured. I have a peice of tonga branch that has had that coating of white film on it and has not grown any coraline (the rest of my live rock has, this one just doesnt). Does it seem to be spreading?

 

[huffy]

thanks for the quick reply, yes it was supposed to be already cured and i did buy from the LFS. There were 3 of us who bought the LR from the same LFS.One has an already established 5ft tank he has no white coating,myself and the other person, have a newly set-up 15gallon tanks ,we have similar problem the white coating and it does not appear to be is spreading in my tank.

the 3 tanks are here
jeffs tank
jamins tank arons tank

cheers

 

[1979camaro]

so you are one of dials buddies eh? good to have you aboard

as far as the white stuff, its kind of tough to tell what it might be from the picture. have you tried using a toothbrush to scrub it off? what is its texture? is it flaky? squishy? hairy? etc

honestly, i wouldn't be too worried about it. LR does all sorts of crazy stuff and this is probably just one of those things

kevin

 

[huffy]

yeah caught the bug off dial and glad to be aboard

scrubbed the white stuff off as suggested and it was squishy and stringy.
when i arrived home from work it hadn't spread ,so probably is just one of those things.

thanks again for the help

jeff

 

[1979camaro]

yah...probably is just one of those things...don't be warry about scrubbing on the LR a little to clean weird stuff off. it won't hurt it

again, welcome aboard

 

[huffy]

still having issues with this white stuff

every day since it started i keep scrubbing this off, it has effected 2 of the 3 pieces of LR i have in the tank, the other piece shows no sign of it. This obviously isn't normal.

I have been testing every day and the ammonia level is still up around 6, ph 7.9 (have added ph-up 2 days ago as per directions with no success), and salinity is 1.022.

Life on the affected LR are still alive , scratching my head as what to do next.
i am using filter media (wool and noodles) in the filter that sits in the hood of the tank, could using this filter media be causing the problem instead of just relying on the LR to cycle the tank?

 

[1979camaro]

well, i don't know that the media will create the white stuff but i wouldn't reccomend using it either way. you really need to get the pH up

 

[huffy]

hey camaro

did what you suggested, ph up to 8.2, not using filter or media, just using powerheads ,white stuff is not as prolific.salinity 1.023 and temp 26c

i have read some of the threads in the nano section (recurring theme e.g)trying to find out if i am doing something wrong.

how long is the ammonia level suppose to be high for, as it has been high for week and half now and doesn't even look like coming down(am i jumping the gun). water has gone all cloudy and the worms and brittle stars have all but died and the life on the LR has died (squirts as an example)

thanks

 

[1979camaro]

well, its tough to judge how long it will take for the ammonia to go down, it depends on how much die off you have. it sounds like there was a lot of life on your LR (was it uncured?) so there is a lot more stuff which can/may/will die. it only been about a week so i dont think your cycle is moving slowly or anything