Algae???

Question
I have a 125 salt with skimmer,1200 pump, sump, with live rock, live sand. No stock I started about two weeks ago. Everything was going fine until I added the rock, the algae bloom was doing nice but now I have grey/white flowing algae growing all over the rock and expanding. It looks like cotton candy with tendrils that wave in the current

Answer
Hi Paul. As far as I know there is no such thing as white algae in a saltwater tank. Occasionally hair algae will turn white when it is not getting enough lighting. It won't always kill it to turn the lights off and it can still grow and spread but just lack the green pigment. Most likely this is what you are seeing. There are also different sponge-like organisms that can form on your live rock that may be white in color however these do not spread very quickly. Live rock that has been mishandled will sometimes have so much decay on it that a fungal/bacterial mat may grow on it. This will often look like a spiderweb looking mat growing on the rock in areas where something is decaying.

http://www.chucksaddiction.com/conditions.html


Go to this site and see if any of the algae or other conditions are similar to what you are seeing in your tank.