HELP! Mushroom on death's door ...

[LJC6780]

Hi! I'm brand new here but have been on other sw forums for the past few months. (Under the same name)

Anyway, I've had my BC29 up and running since the middle of December. I bought a 75 gallon that came with some damsels, coral and live rock, so I put it all in the 29 until I get the 75 up and running. Anyway.

Current stock:
1 blue fin damsel (I'm actually not exactly sure what kind he is ... I rehomed the others)
1 conch (about an inch or so)
1 nassarius (maybe? Haven't seen him since I put him in)
1 nerite
2 ceriths
1 astraea
1 spiny star astraea
1 cat's eye turbo
1 Mexican turbo
Possibly a banded trochus or two, but I haven't seen them lately and do have a couple empty shells (but I also have random shells for my hermits so ... )
And 2 hermits. 1 blue leg and 1 red something.

Corals:
Mushroom rock and 3 frags
Several zoa frags
Trumpet frag
3 acan frags
Large purple tip hammer frag
Duncan frag
And a recovering sun coral (I'm an idiot and apparently tried to kill it!)

Tank info:

Bio cube 29 gallon
Stock fluorescent lighting with night blue led
Jebao wavemaker
Sunsun JVP 110 powerhead
ATO
Upgraded return pump but I'm not sure what it is (came with tank)
Mini canister filter with purigen and phosguard
Nitrate removing pad that gets rinsed daily.
Chaeto in lighted sump
Other macro algae in tank
Reef crystals
Filtered water (eco Smarte whole home water filter. No additives from filter. Don't have an RODI system yet)

Parameters as of yesterday (before 20ish % WC)
pH 8.1
Am 0.1 (API test so probably zero)
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 20? (If I held it out it looked like 10, pressed against card looked like 30)
Alk 9
Salinity 1.025
Phos 0.233
Calc 440
Mag 1170

(I've been working to get alk, calc and mag in synch. Reef crystals have helped but mag still too low. Started dosing fluval sea mag yesterday.)

So there is the background. My question is:

Is there anything I can do for this mushroom?! It was on a rock by itself and another rock had 2 of the same kind (I think!) when I got the tank. They seemed to be doing well and one was even splitting (maybe?) then all of the sudden they seemed to start dying. The ones from the other rock have completely released and I think one is floating around the tank but I can't find it. This one is still hanging on but doesn't even really look like a mushroom anymore. It's definitely not the same color. They were a vibrant green color rather than this bleached fluorescent lime color. I moved it into a somewhat shady area hoping that might help but it's continued to decline. Other than the sun coral I tried to kill, everything seems to be doing well. I do have 1 zoa frag that I'm not sure will make it but it has not done well since I got it.

Anyway ... what can I do, if anything?

This is when I got them ...

And this is now ...

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[mr_tap_water]

Hi there
IMO you need to get the mushrooms back into some good light to help get its colour back that's of course if it's still alive if it's still stuck to the rock I would say that's a good sign just needs a good exposure to the light and could take a number of weeks before you see any change fingers crossed.

The Sun coral Can be a very hard one to look after as they need to be spot Fed A number of times a day.

Also I see you use NO3 remover pads and you say you rinse them daily which surprises me as most of these types so they shouldn't be rinsed so I would double check on that just to be on the safe side.

With your mag if I was you I would try to aim for around the 1350 Mark this will help towards stabling your Kh and Cal as well.


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[LJC6780]

Hi there
IMO you need to get the mushrooms back into some good light to help get its colour back that's of course if it's still alive if it's still stuck to the rock I would say that's a good sign just needs a good exposure to the light and could take a number of weeks before you see any change fingers crossed.

The Sun coral Can be a very hard one to look after as they need to be spot Fed A number of times a day.

Also I see you use NO3 remover pads and you say you rinse them daily which surprises me as most of these types so they shouldn't be rinsed so I would double check on that just to be on the safe side.

With your mag if I was you I would try to aim for around the 1350 Mark this will help towards stabling your Kh and Cal as well.


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Ok I'll move it back out into the light. It was in the light when it melted away though ...

I know about feeding the sun coral. Unfortunately I was an idiot and tried to dip it and much of it died ... [emoji53] it's recovering now though and I do spot feed it and am seeing more tissue growth.

As for the mag, I was using plain instant ocean and calc and mag were both very low ... after switching to reef crystals the levels have come up and I was just trying to give it time to level out before doing anything drastic but now that my alk and calc are in line and it's just the mag that is low I have started dosing to raise it. I'm not sure how often I should dose to reach the target or in what amount of time. The bottle says to dose weekly. I don't want to raise it too quickly and cause other issues though.

Also alk had been consistently around 12 and all of the sudden leveled itself off around 9. So I'm wanting to fix the mag before the levels get out of whack.

As for the nitrate removing pad, it really didn't come with any instructions. It was the generic one petco carries.

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[mr_tap_water]

You're right in saying to bring the levels up slowly and with the KH can drop a fair amount daily and a lot quicker than the other two. And is more of a concern if you have SPSs


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[LJC6780]

You're right in saying to bring the levels up slowly and with the KH can drop a fair amount daily and a lot quicker than the other two. And is more of a concern if you have SPSs


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How slowly should I raise it? Should I be doing water changes more often than 7-9 days? I usually change about 5 gallons, but I've done 10 a couple times. I also vac out the sump area and blow everything off the rocks and then rinse the filter pad once it has run for a bit to catch any debris that was floating around.

I should edit that. I say 7-9 days but what I really mean is more like 5-9, usually 7. I try to do a change on Mondays but sometimes it's a couple days later for whatever reason, then I'll pick back up next Monday so it is less days in between.

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[mr_tap_water]

How slowly should I raise it? Should I be doing water changes more often than 7-9 days? I usually change about 5 gallons, but I've done 10 a couple times. I also vac out the sump area and blow everything off the rocks and then rinse the filter pad once it has run for a bit to catch any debris that was floating around.

I should edit that. I say 7-9 days but what I really mean is more like 5-9, usually 7. I try to do a change on Mondays but sometimes it's a couple days later for whatever reason, then I'll pick back up next Monday so it is less days in between.

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With bringing up levels mag 50. Cal 20. Kh 1.
Max per day I would say as a guideline,

Water charges those of us that do water changes can vary from person to person and different circumstances but on average I would say 10% once a week should be sufficient once things are in line if you're not using any individual elements then you probably need to do this on a daily basis and maybe go for 20% A day but keep testing daily until you achieve where you wanna get to then you can go back down to once a week at 10% that all said it's very unlikely you will be able to make maintain these three levels on water changes alone this is where people have to dose certain elements with a doser or manually/calcium reactor, again saying all this really depends on what Live stock you're going to have or have, if it's just fish or a few softies you don't have to worry so much about these levels and water changes would be enough IMO.

With the pads you say you clean daily if there filter pads then that's fine if there nitrate remover pads I will doublecheck about cleaning them.


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[Florida Sunshine]

I suspect your source water as the culprit. I would buy RO/DI from your LFS until you get your own system up and running.
I agree with moving it into the light. My shrooms seem to do best lower in the tank but not in shade.

 

[LJC6780]

Thanks. And I just tested my source water for phosphates and it came out 0.19. Yea. So I now know that is my phosphate problem. And after dosing the mag Wednesday after a water change, it is now reading 1230. So Wednesday before change was 1170, after change was 1185 and now 2 days later after 1 dose it's 1230. So should I wait another day or so before dosing again?

After seeing the amount of phosphates in my water source it's really making me want to go get some RODI water right now! I am trying to talk my wife into letting me buy my system in March. I'm watching the BRS sale!

And I'm betting the water is the cause for the mushroom decline. It was out in the open, same place since I put it in the tank when it shriveled up. It has detached from the rock completely now. [emoji53] I thought I had read that you can grow a new mushroom from leftover tissue after scraping them off rocks, so do you think it could still survive? Or it's dead because it detached? And it just seems like this particular kind is having troubles. Do you think it's a Yuma? I had bought another Yuma frag and it declined and died over a couple weeks after adding it while all of my other mushrooms are doing well.


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[mr_tap_water]

I wouldn't buy any more livestock until you've stats are back in line and at least your other mushrooms are doing well, hope things work out for you.


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[LJC6780]

I wouldn't buy any more livestock until you've stats are back in line and at least your other mushrooms are doing well, hope things work out for you.


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I agree. I won't be adding anything else. Hopefully switching to RODI will solve the issues and allow everything to balance out.

And just to clarify if I hadn't already, these were some of the original mushrooms that came with the tank purchase. The one I bought that died was a while back ...

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[mr_tap_water]

With the RODI water it won't help boost your stats or stabilise them it will just give you a clean sheet to build up your status The plus side you shouldn't get any Phos or No3 readings. Where tapwater can boost your stats but usually comes with the Phos/No3 and what ever else is in the water.


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[LJC6780]

With the RODI water it won't help boost your stats or stabilise them it will just give you a clean sheet to build up your status The plus side you shouldn't get any Phos or No3 readings. Where tapwater can boost your stats but usually comes with the Phos/No3 and what ever else is in the water.


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I guess my thoughts on stabilization were that I'd know exactly what was going in now and not have to guess if my source water was the issue, fighting an uphill battle ... at least the phosphates would lower significantly. And hopefully it will remove whatever has been irritating my mushrooms!


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