Mushroom Coral Dying?

[misselle27]

I just left petco and bought their natural sea water because it got great reviews and I know I should stop using tap water since Im sure its the root of all my problems. Anywhoo, I did a 35% water change and the mushroom went from shriveled up to open now. He was under a cave so he had indirect light. So hopefully this will help. My nitrates are now 5ppm so it cut it by half. I will do a 25% water change next week using their water. Its much easier and than mixing or hauling ro/di water from my LFS only to go home with 2 buckets and mix and drain and pour lol.

 

[PSU4ME]

where is it placed in the tank?

 

[dmatt88]

First take a deep breath and relax. It will be just fine. Mushrooms sometimes take almost an act of god to kill. So assuming your tank is established and been up for awhile im left assuming it is your lighting. Mushrooms will fade out if given too much light. I would certainly move them away from the high lights and monitor the progress. Don't sweat, these little guys r very resilliant.

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[dmatt88]

Also I notice u use the word tap water. I would check for copper in your water. That could be the cause as well. Good luck

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[BigAl07]

As Matt said no need to panic. Often times we panic and have knee-jerk reactions that cause more harm than good.

Keep in the back of your mind that mushroom are some-what mobile and they can (and will) detach from the rock they are on at times. Sometimes they'll do this to reproduce in another portion of the tank. Most of the time (especially when you mention a lightening of the color) it's because a water parameter or condition is "Off". I suspect it's probably too much lighting for this particular mushroom. Usually they "lighten" in color, expand less and will often "Release n go" in an attempt to find the ideal spot that makes THEM happy. Sometimes with a mushroom that's used to low light and placed in a highly lit tank they will seek another place to anchor. I'm of the mind-set to let it alone and stay on top of your water paramters. It's very possible if you decide to try and "re-locate" the mushroom you'll not meet all of it's needs and only cause it to stress and want to move again.

I'd address the Water Source immediately. No telling what else you're adding to your tank and accumulating in there using tap water. The sooner you go RO/DI the sooner you take control of what's going into your tank and start saving your hard earned $$.

 

[jjmoneyman]

I agree what has been said by the experts thus far and it sounds like it may have too much light or water issues. I keep my shrooms in the back corner of the tank with very little lighting and they love it.

 

[misselle27]

Hi all,

I just left petco and bought their mixed water since it had great reviews. The mushroom went from balled up to back open so Im hoping he is ok. I had him on the substrate under a cave so he was getting indirect lighting. I did a 35% water change using the natural salt water from petco. I think from now on Ill just do that. I thought my water was clear before but WOW its even clearer. My nitrates are now 5ppm so it def helped. I think I will do20-25% water change next week.

 

[misselle27]

whoops, I think I edited the post instead of replying lol but to those of you who already replied, thanks so much for your help. I hope this guy makes it. I really want to venture into the reef world.

 

[BigAl07]

As mentioned earlier for the most part mushroom are very hardy and a great beginner coral.

Just sit back and do more observing. Big/Fast changes (even good ones sometimes) can do more harm than good. With reefing we need to take everything slow and deliberately. Slow and steady will win the race.

 

[dmatt88]

As mentioned earlier for the most part mushroom are very hardy and a great beginner coral.

Just sit back and do more observing. Big/Fast changes (even good ones sometimes) can do more harm than good. With reefing we need to take everything slow and deliberately. Slow and steady will win the race.

Couldn't have said it better myself, Al. Although I tried haha.

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[Smokey301]

Also what is your PH and alk? A low PH will cause the softy to shrivel up and if it goes low enough it will dissolve it. I would also look at getting a RO/DI unit yourself, it just makes everything so much easier, that way too if you have a maintained RO/DI and use HDPE (i think thats what its called) plastic to store water in and a quality salt mix, you can rule out your base water. It helps alot when trying to solve some problems with your water params.