Mushrooms Falling Off

[no1bubba]

I have had 2 rocks covered with green mushrooms for 5 years and two weeks ago the one rock started loosing rooms daily.
I tried to re-attach them to other small rocks with crazy glue and then covered them with fine nylon tulle. They all rotted.
The stone only has three left and I can see that the flow is lifting them so that I can see the entire bottom un-attached surface. I can see rooms in every corner and in every cave. They do no seem to be rotting but they are not re-attaching themselves to anything and I do not think sand will do the trick. Please help. The second rock, same age same type green rooms seems to be fine. I want to save them. Thanks, Bubba

[BigAl07]

It could be some type of pest/parasite on that rock or it could be flow or lighting has changed. All are just guesses though.

[cbrownfish]

A significant increase in flow could piss off mushrooms but I would think it would be obvious if that was happening. I have to think that there is some biological event happening.....allelopathy as the most likely issue. Have you added any new corals lately? Is there any coral near the shrooms that has recently looked exceptionally robust/happy (Leather, large LPS, etc)?

[no1bubba]

Put new red tree sponge real near and when it started looking sick, I increased the flow. IT IS DEAD !! Nothing looking real good, lost a new bubble anem. and my old one is looking real bad. Is there anything I can do with all of the shrooms in the corners of the tank? They look just fine.
Thanks, Bubba

[BigAl07]

It sounds like you have either a "Toxin" happening or a water quality problem. You need to test and while you're testing start preparing a significant water change.

[cbrownfish]

Sponges can definitely release some nasty stuff into the tank when they die.....especially is that happens quickly. I think you may have your culprit. Are you running GAC (carbon)? If not, start running it ASAP. I would also start doing 10-15% water changes every couple days until things start to look happier or at least until they stop getting worse.

[no1bubba]

Did a 20% water change last night and did not like my perams. this morning so I did another 5% today. Will this kill anything or just mess things up for a while? I assume that I should not try to save any of the fallen shrooms? Bubba

[cbrownfish]

You should try to match the parameters in your new water to your tank params. In other words, boost Ca/Alk/Mg as needed in the new water before the water change and you won't experience skewed params because elements/compounds are getting diluted by a salt mix with lower levels.

With that said, your priority is diluting the contaminant so you should definitely focus on that. Don't be too agressive with the changes, maintain small but frequent water changes. I would stick to 10-15% every other day. That way the impact is modest to the system but within a week and a half you can swap out 50-60% of the water volume.

Do what you want with the shrooms, they will reattach and recover most likely......shrooms are pretty hardy corals.

[jkburton1s]

ive had a similar incident but they just jumped from one side to the other and found a better place, they left little ones behind

[reefsmoker]

you said "red sponge" i know the " red ball sponges" will nuke a tank with toxins kinda like a cucumber or something that bad, I'd get rid of the sponge and run some Rox carbon and a huge WC. good luck!

[no1bubba]

Thank you all for the great information. Got rid of the red tree sponge. Did 6 gal water changes (75 gal tank) every other day for a week and purchased new Salifert KH/ALK Calcium and Magnesium tests. My perams are great . The rock still has three shrooms left, but the color is bad. The other rock is back to 100%. Thanks for all your help. Bubba

[cbrownfish]

Good to hear!