Rock was an Oyster??

[Paendora]

http://picasaweb.google.com/SMMaese/...ey=TXD2OyKVI_w


Opinions Wanted!!

My frilly mushrooms were doing so well. (I think there's pictures in the photo gallery). Just before Christmas I lost the hang on filter and converted to a sump. The conversion process created a bit of a cycle, and we lost some corals. The mushrooms seemed to make it through, but then started shrinking.

Today, the "rock" they were on OPENED! What in the heck?!?!?! Is this normal? Should I have been able to see this problem?

Was my rock actually an oyster? There's no chance an oyster's been living in there, is there?? Could this have been causing the demise of my shrooms??

So sad in Texas

[aquaman3680]

Yeah there used to be an oyster in that "rock" I dont think that you killed it, it was probably dead before you got it

Matt

[Paendora]

hmmm. guess it was due to open in its own time. was hoping to find a reason for the decline in the shrooms....everything else in the tank looks good.

[PhilOlsen]

Originally Posted by Paendora

http://picasaweb.google.com/SMMaese/...ey=TXD2OyKVI_w
The conversion process created a bit of a cycle, and we lost some corals.

How much is a bit? What did the parameters get to?

[Paendora]

my nitrates went off the chart...into the 100s. my ph dropped and the nitrites were high. There were trace amounts of ammonia for a few days.

The long story on the cycle: When the hang on filter died, seemed timely to switch to a sump. I consulted everything I could find (in a crash course of investigation), and built my own out of plastic totes, hose and pumps. The only part I bought premade was the overflow box. Where I went wrong? None of my research and neither of the LFS told me to save my biomedia from my hang on. By the time I realized the error, it'd dried out for a couple of days. So, I had to be patient while the new bio balls and the system in general developed new nitrate disolving "stuff."

The benefits? There's another 25-30 gal of water in the system, water is turning over at an even higher rate in the tank. The overall filtering seems more effective now.

It took two weeks for my nitrates to drop. This weekend's test had them at zero, and my ph has climbed back to 8.3 naturally. My fish are content and look healthy. The corals that did survive the cycle are now doing well with the exception of the mushroom. My sponge seems to have weathered the whole ordeal even better than the fish. Tank events seem back to normal - a very slight cyno outbreak, algae growing again, foxface being tempermental when anyone else gets close to the seaweed clip, damsels darting and my maroon clown is back to rearranging sand and moving rocks to suit his needs.

And there's a new annenome in my tank. Looks like a very young bubble tip. If the clown doesn't stress it out, it may have a chance.

After all this, the demise of my mushrooms may be a delayed reaction, but it's still making me very sad - they'd been my most favorite and best growing thing in the tank.
end of long winded reply!

[lcstorc]

Glad to hear things are looking up for you and your tank. Mushrooms can be quite interresting and you may see them pop back up over time perhaps in an entirely different place. One can hope anyway.
Best of luck with your new sump. They are great to have.