Dissolving mushrooms

[Cheeselady]

I had two mushroom corals recently disintegrate on me and I'm not sure I know why.

I'm in a 46 gallon (+20gallon sump) that is ~2 months old. This is an upgrade from my 10 gallon. One of the mushrooms moved from the old tank. My Goniopora is also not opening like it did in the old tank. Also note that there are no fish in this tank - everyone is in QT due to ich.

My parameters are NOT perfect

Salinity 1.025
Ph 8
Mag 1050 (I CANNOT get this up - using kent's)
Kh (this may be the problem) was somewhere in the 6.5 range about 2 weeks ago but now closer to 9 - am using B-ionic
Ca ~450
Temp 78
Ammonia 0
Nitrates 0
Phosphate <0.1
Lighting (also possibly the problem) Chinese LED box. it's hanging fairly high over the tank and shines through glass BUT I've got it up to ~70%. I have no idea if I have too little or too much light. Everyone was happy with the light in my old tank.
There is a very small chance I got some water (in the tsp range) with cupramine in it in the tank but all inverts are in good shape.

Any thoughts?

 

[Sk8r]

Your kh OR the cupramine could be the problem. Maybe a double whammy

 

[Tripod1404]

Mag is very low and nitrates at 0 is too low for soft corals (and Goniopora).

What do you mean you can not get Mg up?

 

[Cheeselady]

Your kh OR the cupramine could be the problem. Maybe a double whammy

Perhaps - I know corals are sensitive to cupramine but I'm hard pressed to believe that a tsp of water at 250ppb Cu diluted in 55 gallons is high enough (as a one time accident) to be a problem.


It's also ONLY the mushroom (and maybe goni) all other coral (chalice, GSP, xenia, zoanthids) look fine.

Is Kh 6.5 so far off? Is Kh a log scale like Ph?

 

[Cheeselady]

Mag is very low and nitrates at 0 is too low for soft corals (and Goniopora).

What do you mean you can not get Mg up?

I've been dosing Kent's Tech magnesium per directions on bottle and Mg will not go up. I dose/test almost every day.

 

[Cheeselady]

Mag is very low and nitrates at 0 is too low for soft corals (and Goniopora).

What do you mean you can not get Mg up?

Oh and nitrates may not be exactly at 0. I'm still on API for nitrate test kit. I also see 1 remaining patch of GHA that came over from the other tank but there has been less and less.

 

[Tripod1404]

I've been dosing Kent's Tech magnesium per directions on bottle and Mg will not go up. I dose/test almost every day.

If Mg is not raising there might be something wrong with your carbonate buffering system so it might be precipitating. It is not something that you would need to constantly dose. Corals use little amount of Mg and caroline algae uses a bit more. But it should not be depleted that fast that you need to dose everyday. I maybe dose Mg every other month or so and even than the drop is very low. You should normally be able to replenish it just by the water changes and by occasional small supplementations. What brand of salt are you using and what is the expected Mg concentration for your mix?

But what I cannot understand is your calcium is fine, which is hard to achieve with Mg that low. When Mg is that low, calcium would normally precipitate.

I would try to slowly raise KH to 9dKH and than try to increase Mg. Maybe your carbonate hardness is low and that is why Mg is not raising (but still I would expect Calcium to precipitate before that since Mg can out compete Ca from the solution).

Also make sure your Mg test isn't faulty.


Edit; I use brightwell aquatics liquid magnesium supplement. And for calcium; Seachem reef calcium which also has biologically relevant ratio of Mg in it.

 

[Cheeselady]

Well the B-ionic is a Kh and and calcium supplement so perhaps that is masking Ca depletion?

I just tested again my Ca came up at 420 (api kit)
and Mg came up as 1140 (Salifert)

I use reef crystals and just to be clear - i'm not getting Mg to spec and then seeing it fall - it's always come up low. I dose as the bottle says which, per on-line parameter calculators, is far below what I would need to add bring the Mg up to the proper level. I just don't want to be dumping a ton of stuff in the tank on a single day.

Also my Goni it looking much perkier today - not fully extended but more open than I've seen in a little while.

 

[Tripod1404]

Well the B-ionic is a Kh and and calcium supplement so perhaps that is masking Ca depletion?

I just tested again my Ca came up at 420 (api kit)
and Mg came up as 1140 (Salifert)

I use reef crystals and just to be clear - i'm not getting Mg to spec and then seeing it fall - it's always come up low. I dose as the bottle says which, per on-line parameter calculators, is far below what I would need to add bring the Mg up to the proper level. I just don't want to be dumping a ton of stuff in the tank on a single day.

Also my Goni it looking much perkier today - not fully extended but more open than I've seen in a little while.

I think with Mg you can go up to 100ppm a day. But If you want to be extra careful, you can increase it 50ppm a day. That would put you in the correct range in a week.

And if you are losing more than 50ppm of magnesium a day, there is a problem. Do you see any white sediment around the tank; like in sump, top of power heads or low flow areas. If so that mean there is precipitation.