HELP!! Shrinking Mushrooms?

[ryguy886]

So I have another question about the mushrooms I purchased recently? Of the 7 mushrooms on this piece of live rock, 4 seem to be shrinking and not fully opening, they were all fully open yesterday. My other mushrooms and corals seem to be doing just fine and nothing has changed in my tank at all.

The day before yesterday I noticed that my Nitrates were a little off ~10 p.p.m. so I did a 30 gallon water change (tank is 150 gal.). I tested nitrates tonight and they are the same if not a little worse??? All other water parameters are perfect (Amm. = 0, Nitrites = 0, temp = 78.8, salinity = 1.025) Light cycle has remained the same also. I am going to do another 10-15 gallon water change tonight to see if that helps with the nitrates.

Is it normal for mushrooms to shrink like this for days at a time? I figured if it was a water quality thing all mushrooms, corals in the tank would be suffering, but it seems to be just these guys? Also, I have been spot feeding them with phyto-feast twice a week.

I'm just concerned that there is something wrong and I want to know how to fix it. Any thoughts are welcomed.

Thanks,
Ryan

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/93996425@N02/8553798286/" title="Shrinking Mushrooms by RyanLiese, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8252/8553798286_28ece3d768.jpg" width="373" height="500" alt="Shrinking Mushrooms"></a>
Shrinking Mushrooms

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/93996425@N02/8552695239/" title="Normal Mushrooms by RyanLiese, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8251/8552695239_f2c147ba8f.jpg" width="373" height="500" alt="Normal Mushrooms"></a>
Normal Mushrooms

 

[organism]

It's looks like they're getting blasted with light, what kelvin rating is your lighting? Those prefer lower, bluer light, I'd get them on the sandbed in the shade asap.

 

[Big Dave PDX]

It's looks like they're getting blasted with light, what kelvin rating is your lighting? Those prefer lower, bluer light, I'd get them on the sandbed in the shade asap.

+1 When I had some hairy shrooms like that they would shrink a bit, although mine moved to a spot with less light before they bleached. Your normal shrooms look a little bleached too...

 

[Reeferz412]

It's looks like they're getting blasted with light, what kelvin rating is your lighting? Those prefer lower, bluer light, I'd get them on the sandbed in the shade asap.

+1 I have the same under a blue leds most of the time and they are close to neon green. High flow could be a factor as well.

 

[ryguy886]

Thanks Everyone! I will move them to some lower light areas of the tank. I am currently using a coralife unit with (3) 150 watt MH bulbs (14,000K), but only 2 of them are ever on. Plus they are only on 5-6 hours a day and then I have (4) 96 watt true actinic power compact bulbs that are on for about 10 hours a day. The rest of the time the moon LED lights are on. The tank is in a basement so it gets zero natural light from outside. even under just the blue actinic lights these guys are shrinking. The normal mushrooms shrink when the lights go out and when the MH lights come on the expand. Just never seen this before. Thanks for the advice!

Ryan

 

[RA]

You might want to try 1 or 2 of them under a high light area. I believe they are green hairy mushrooms and mine turned a brilliant shade of green under high lighting.