please help: mushroom problems

[rica5tully]

My mushrooms have not been doing well. They are shriveled, pale, etc.

Here's the setup:

- 72 gallon bowfront
- 250 watts of PC light
- mushroom corals are all on/near the bottom, in the shadows, etc. (they were doing worse when they were higher up)

- all my other corals are doing fine. (SPS monti-cap; xenia; pipe-organ; frogspawn, etc.)

Any ideas? I thought mushrooms were supposed to be the easy ones! Are there diseases that affect mushrooms? I've never had trouble with them in the past...it's weird.

any suggestions would be really helpful.

Thanks,
ET

 

[smketyr]

How long have the mushrooms been shriveled?
Are they in a shaded area or in direct light?

I have mushrooms that shrivel sometimes and a few days later they perk up. Most of the time that they shrivel is when I am a day or two late on my water changes.

Any pics?

Tom

 

[rica5tully]

Hmmm,

I could try to take some photos.

They are in direct light, but I put them as low in the tank as possible. and I only have PC lighting.

I haven't done any water changes for awhile because all four of my fish are in a quarantine tank getting healed from Ich. So the tank only has corals. Today was the first time I'd put any food in the tank (some adult frozen brine shrimp) for about 1 week and a half

 

[mistermikev]

water quality would be guess number one... skimmer ok? #2 would be flow. too much flow will make em shrivel up. Based on your light per gall... (approx 3watts?) I would still think not enough light would be a part of the prob too. At the bottom of the tank you probably aren't getting but 1 1/2 watts per gal.
just guesses, but maybee moving em up put them in too high of flow. hope this helps.

 

[prugs]

Have you checked your salinity?
Without water changes or additions of trace elements, you maybe lacking.

 

[rica5tully]

Do you all add anything to your tank for your mushrooms? Like iodine or something?

My SG is 1.025
Nitrates = 0
Nitrites = 0
Ph = 8.4
Temp = 78-80

 

[prugs]

I use potassium iodide & strontium chloride less than recommended on the bottles.

I also use Reef Crystals for salt when doing 15-20% water changes every other week.

Otherwise I have a kalk top off, along with a calcium reactor that breaks down coral skeletons.

Fish or not, you still need to do water changes. Unless you can replace what the corals remove.

 

[rica5tully]

OK, I'm going to do some water changes.

I'm really discouraged because I love my mushrooms and they look even worse today. They're pale, shriveled and some aren't even opening. They look like they're at death's door.

But all my other corals (frogspawn, xenia, ricordia, pipe-organ) look great! It is so weird.

 

[rica5tully]

Guys, I'm so discouraged. I have been fragging my mushrooms and putting them all over the tank, and now they're dying.

1) I don't think it can be lighting, my other corals (including SPS) are happy

2) water quality seems o.k. I did do a 10% water change today; will do more probably tomorrow

3) I've started feeding Borneman's recipe a little each night.

4) can't be flow, mushrooms all over tank are affected, even ones in caves

Do you have any other thoughts of what I can do? What else could I try? Is it too late for them if they're pale and shriveled?

 

[yaitisme]

Is this the first time you've fragged mushrooms?

What is Borneman's recipe?

 

[rica5tully]

Well, I've fragged the mushrooms (some of them) about 4 times and it's worked pretty well.

"Borneman's recipe" is the recipe he gives in his book on Aquarium Corals (that green book by Eric Borneman). It's in his chapter on nutrition.

 

[smketyr]

Did you frag them inside the tank?

 

[rica5tully]

Yes, I did frag them in the tank.

Or, I should say, I took them out, cut them with a razor blade on a wooden cutting board, and then put the pieces on rubble in a dish in the tank. So I didn't actually cut them in there but the pieces were immediately put in.

Why? Is that harmful? It seems to work pretty well. But I wondered if that was really demanding on the water and the "baby" mushrooms are taking all the good stuff so the larger ones aren't getting the nutrients and elements that they need. Is that possible?

 

[smketyr]

I fragged some mushrooms inside the tank, caused the rest to shrivel. They all came back with aggressive use of carbon and water changes.

Do you have pics of these?

 

[rica5tully]

Wow that's really interesting. I have been fragging pretty aggressively and constantly. Hmmm....

I'm embarassed to say this, but I don't know how to post pictures on here. I could take some pictures...but how do I post them into a thread? Do I have to put them first on a photo site like Shutterfly or something?

 

[Illuminati]

I setup a photobucket account for pictures, once they are uploaded there you can copy the IMG tag into a thread and they will show up here.