Fiji Live Rock Lost it's color

Hey, whats up everyone. It's been awhile since my last post. I haven't had time to work on the tank, so I have just been letting it cycle, and doing the water changes.

I think I got my LR in early May, now it's late July, and it seems the rock has lost some of it's color from when I first got it. My rock is now more of a sand color, instead of the green and brown color it once was.

Does anyone know what happened? I was told not to keep the lights on during the cycling period, cuz it could cause excessive algae growth. My other questions are, Did the LR die? And, will the dark green and brown colors return back to the rock?

I just added my first fish today, a blue damsel, it seems to be doing alright, swimming around, but mostly hiding behind the LR.

Thaks for you help. 8)

 

By not having any light on it at all, your green coralline algae died or went dormant. The brown was likely dead sponges and it's good that it is gone.

After a tank matures, your coralline will come back and you'll probably get a number of other colors too.

 

Inwall, Thanks for the reponse, I'm just glad it will come back. ;D

 

Once your chemistry gets balanced, you can borrow live rock rubble from fellow reefers and scrape their coralline algae in front of a powerhead to spread the spores around the tank. That way you can obtain numerous colors.

I'm just taking a guess that you are from Pittsburgh. If so, they have a very nice Reef Club. Both Anthony Calfo and Stephen Pro are members of that club. http://www.pmas.org/

 

Inwall, I am from PGH, I'll have to check out the website more when I get a chance. Thanks for the info.

 

How long do you guys think it will take for the coralline algae to come back? Since I don't have any corals, I am using 2 18" Reef Sun 50/50 lights for my 55.

I was told these will bring the color of my LR back. Thanks.

 

That isn't much light for a 55 at all. However, I have heard that coraline doesn't require alot of light to grow well. Make sure you flow is good and also keep you calcium levels up to around 450 and it should start to grow. Some people like myself have more coraline then they can handle and some people have a hard time growing it.

good luck