coralline growth problems

Hi all. Im new here as you can see. I recently had a brown algae outbreak, but after cutting back my lights, it subscided substantially. Now, my green coralline algea on my live rock is about 90% white. I was wondering if the color would come back, and if there is anything i can do to bring it back. i know my ph is a little low at 7.8, does that directly affect coralline? Also, my seaclone 100 skimer (peice of s***) went after a healthy month of putting next to nothing in a cup. Any good recomendations. im new at this, only having my tank up about 3 mos.
Thanks

 

I am pretty sure, Mg levels are more important for good coralline growth. If it is white, it is dead... usually. There is a possibility it will recover, but if not, new growth will soon cover it up.

 

Calcium is important to coralline growth. It usually turns white during a cycle, then takes a while to come back. We're coming up on full month 5 and it's taking off in our tank now (after we started dosing calcium). Not all of it turned white, just a LOT of it LOL. Start dosing calcium (or check your calcium levels, should be over 400), and use a toothbrush to scrub the areas that the coralline is still alive (or scrape some) to get it to start spreading again. That was what we did.

 

Yep you need to add calcium, I use Purple Tech with great results. You also need to monitor your levels as well.

Good Read for the novice hobbyist:

Reef Aquarium Water Parameters by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

 

My calcium level is always 500-520ppm. I got a bottle of Kent liquid calcium when i ordered my lights, knowing calcium is key for coralline growth. I havent even used it yet. I do weekly water changes of about 8 gallons with oceanic salt, which im pretty sure helps with calcium as well. Is there such thing as too much calcium? I just started the toothbrush thing (heard from a fellow reefer i work with). I do it when im doing my water changes. Should i be doing this everyday? and thanks for the url's. Being fairly new in this hobby, any little bit helps!

 

I always hear calcium should be between 400 and 450, but being higher isn't going to cause problems from what I understand. If it's over 500 I wouldn't bother dosing.

 

ok. well ill keep scrubbing and monitoring my levels and just hope for the best. Thanks for the help

 

No problem. I only scrubbed the coralline a couple of times several months ago, so you don't have to do it all the time.

 

If calcium and MG looks ok, try raising the Alk. My level were ok but once I started keeping my alk from 7 to about 10, it exploded.

 

My guess is that cutting back your lights made it go white also you need a better skimmer but you already know that

it will come back in time.. mine turns white on my power heads after a cleaning but comes back in a few weeks