Sand changing color 2 days after PC's added

[serkoch]

My sand is starting to darken in areas and some areas of LR are turning white about 48 hours after adding my PC system.

I run 12 total hours, 12 hours actinic and 10 hours 1000k, lunar lights at night.

Any suggestions as to what this is?

[Reefland]

Hi serkoch, Welcome to Reefland!

It is simply due to the change in light intensity. The liverock turning white is actually just coralline algae bleaching from the change in intensity. You could mitigate this a bit by shortening the photo period and slowly increasing it back to 12 hours.

The dark areas on teh sand are either diatoms or cyanobacteria, again from the change in intensity. I think both will rectify theirself shortly.

[serkoch]

Hi serkoch, Welcome to Reefland!

It is simply due to the change in light intensity. The liverock turning white is actually just coralline algae bleaching from the change in intensity. You could mitigate this a bit by shortening the photo period and slowly increasing it back to 12 hours.

The dark areas on teh sand are either diatoms or cyanobacteria, again from the change in intensity. I think both will rectify theirself shortly.

Thanks!!! I'm really excited about how this is all turning out!

[charlie]

Thanks!!! I'm really excited about how this is all turning out!

Hey there, how long has your tank been up?

[serkoch]

About a month...i dropped the photo period down to 8 hours..added some blue leg hermits and a few little snails to help clean up.

[charlie]

Good thinking on dropping the photo period. I'm almost gonna hazard a guess and say you might still be in the cycling stage. If the red algae is cyano, you might want to figure out a way to increase your water flow in those areas that have the cyano..
HTH

[serkoch]

Good thinking on dropping the photo period. I'm almost gonna hazard a guess and say you might still be in the cycling stage. If the red algae is cyano, you might want to figure out a way to increase your water flow in those areas that have the cyano..
HTH

Actually, upon further investigation it appears to be a diatom bloom. I have not had one yet, and the alge is not slimy, its almost like a powder and can its touched it just dusts off and dissovles.

My water flow in my 29 gallon consists of a penguin 380, two aqaclear 100 powerheads, and a seaclone 100 skimmer...i got the flow.