Toadstool acting strange.

[MrSean]

Hi friends.
My leather toadstool is acting strange. The little guy just hasn't opened up all the way for months. Not like he did when i got him. Also, he has grown over 3 inches taller, but not wider. and instead of being round its all wobbly.

My theories are:
1 )I need to change my light bulbs. I changed them about 6 months ago, but biocube lights don't seem to last very long.
2) I need to feed it.
3) the other coral growing on it makes it uncomfortable.

I have the guys at my LFS test the water, so I don't have specific numbers to give you, but they say everything is good.

This is about as open as it gets these days. As you can see its still all crunched up and doesn't look too happy.

any advice would be great.

 

[Misled]

3) the other coral growing on it makes it uncomfortable.

^^^ That would be my guess.

 

[MrSean]

sooo.
I cut some of that coral off the base and stuck it elsewhere. its doing just fine, even growing. but My toadstool is still struggling.
The top looks like it might be getting eaten!
Has anyone heard of cleaner shrimp, or clowns, eating/destroying toadstools?

the edge appears ragged, but I cant be sure that its actually losing any of its mass since coral seems to have the magical ability to shrink and grow with its mood.

I just changed the lights on my tank, and it seems to be feeling ok. I had to take my fish out of the tank due to Ick, but that might just be what my coral needs for the moment.

My main question is, could something be eating/destroying it?
and is there something else i should consider doing for it?

 

[RyanSweatt2004]

Generally a good rule of thumb is when they have to stretch up to the light like that they probably don't have enough light. I keep all of mine under 250 halides and they grow like mad, all nice thick and ruffled. If it is just a standard bio cube than it probably doesn't have strong enough light to begin with. That pink anthelia that was on it shouldn't harm it one bit. I let that stuff grow in between all my toadstools and sinularias because it is a great gap filler and doesn't sting anything the way star polyps do. The amount of hair algae you have though would suggest a possible nutrient problem. Are you using RO or RODI water and doing regular water changes? Some more info would good, Bulb wattage, nutrient export, types of fish and general water parameters will all help. As far as the edges being ragged, I have seen a bunch of them do this when not getting enough light, the new growth around the edges actually dies back. This also can happen when Alkalinity swings too far one way or the other. Kinda like burnt tips on an SPS

 

[MarkusII]

Hello,

could be a combination of:
the anthelia growing on the stem of the leather coral, the occelaris swimming in the vicinity of the coral or in it and disturbing it to open the polyps fully; and I see a lot of green algae spots growing here and there - I doubt if all the water parameters are so good, could be a Po4 problem.

regards

Markus

 

[MrSean]

oh man, that green algae is driving me crazy.
I have tried to get rid of it so many times. and I've gotten so much conflicting advice. I am not at all convinced that my parameters are very good. I change the water weekly. but lately between school and work, it has fallen behind.

So lets see.

• I use RO water
• I do weekly water changes, though lately it has been biweekly at least.
• its a 14g biocube, so the lights are supposed to have ok wattage per gallon. (I'm a noob so i could be wrong)
• I just changed the lightbulbs again because the actinic bulb was going bad.
• 2 clowns, 1 wrasse, 2 cleaner shrimp, (gramma in picture died a week ago from ich.), hermits, snails, an emerald crab.
• UV sterilizer, but no Protien skimmer.

I have finals next week and am planning on really giving my tank some TLC.

I really truly appreciate all the help i get from people here.
Thanks Again!

 

[60G]

i have a toadstol like that and its doing great under 250w pc bulbs

 

[RyanSweatt2004]

I have never gotten very far into understanding par values with reef lighting but if you go by watts per gallon like a lot of people, the general rule of thumb is between 3 and 8 watts per gallon, 3 being the absolute minimum to maintain mushrooms and some types of polyps long term. I am guessing your 14 gallon bio cube has the stock 24 watt bulb, that works out to 1.7 watts per gallon, Not enough light for most any corals by this standard. Like I said, I have anthelia growing all around my toadstools, up the base and all in between them. They don't sting each other at all. In my last tank I had a mated pair of clownfish, an Occelaris and a true percular that hosted my largest brown toastool for about two years until one of my clowns died. The coral was always as full and open as the day i bought it. I wouldn't put money on either of those being your problem. Not having any protein skimmer is a big red flag though, you wouldn't need one if you only had corals and rock. But having any fish is going to be putting unwanted nutrients into your tank from food and waste and letting that stuff build up by not properly removing them by regular weekly water changes and a good skimmer. Without knowing your water parameters, I would guess that your phosphates and possibly nitrates are way out of whack That and the combination of insufficient lighting being the main problems.

 

[RyanSweatt2004]

Like so many other things in this hobby, I think the Bio Cubes are advertised as being reef ready but not designed for it. I will however say that they do make awesome specimen tanks for nervous fish like firefish and such. I have read though that there are lighting upgrade kits for the 14 gallon. I would suggest just buying a nice 30 gallon or something similar for cheap that will give you more space to have different fish and will also give you the choice of choosing what lighting you want to have to be successful long term keeping corals. With somthing like that you could have either T5 fluorescents or even a single 150-250 watt metal halide would be great. That would even allow you to keep an anemone That and adding a good skimmer. Eshopps makes good quality hang on back and in sump skimmers for not much money.

 

[MarkusII]

Hello MrSean,

well with 14g this fishstock and no skimmer (even with regular water changes) we have the problem....
But I doubt a skimmer will make it much better. I would not go for fish except some small gobys (like Trimma or Eviota) in a tank of such size.

regards

Markus