Toadstool trouble

[1DeR9_3Hy]

My wifes favorite toadstool has had a red algae growing on it for about a year now, at first it was small and the toadstool was doing great. But the last month or two the toadstool as been shrinking gradually, and in general looking "withered" or dehydrated (wrinkly skin, polyps never fully extend, pale in color around edges, thinner than usual 'disk' area). Here a short vid of how it looks now, sorry i left my camera at work so this will have to do

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrVYmqjI0Dc

Any ideas?

 

[johnwonus]

I am probably not the best to answer this but here is my $ .02
I have seen this tpe of red growth on many of these corals. I don't think that is your problem. Have you checked your water parameters? How old is your light bulbs? When was your last water change. I am a big believer in water changes and I do them regularly. Hope that helps.

 

[Alysiak00]

I'm gonna say bulbs or leaching of some sorts. if it got this big by itself i'm guessing his params are fine. somethings feeding that pink blob on his toadstool and thats what we need to find out. Looks like a weird form of coraline, too bad its not though

 

[1DeR9_3Hy]

I am probably not the best to answer this but here is my $ .02
I have seen this tpe of red growth on many of these corals. I don't think that is your problem. Have you checked your water parameters? How old is your light bulbs? When was your last water change. I am a big believer in water changes and I do them regularly. Hope that helps.

Thanks for the idea,

Water:

pH 7.93-8.02 in the past 24 hours
No3: 50-80
Po4:.1-.2
s.g 1.025

All others are 0.

Bulbs are 6-9 months old (T5's), waterchange of 5 gallons about 2 weeks ago. The water params have not changed much in the past 6 months, its been pretty constant.

I'm gonna say bulbs or leaching of some sorts. if it got this big by itself i'm guessing his params are fine. somethings feeding that pink blob on his toadstool and thats what we need to find out. Looks like a weird form of coraline, too bad its not though

All the other corals are doing perfect, i have 2 other toadstools in there (jap green and a neon green), 2 sin's, 10-15 ric's, some P's and Z's, some shrooms, and 5 fish. The only thing in the tank that looks bad is this one coral...its bizarre. There are a few other spots in the tank with this stuff growing on it, but not on coral tissue...just on rock or glass. Its about 4X thicker than coraline, and it IS calcirous.

Any input is appreciated!

 

[T-dub]

It really looks to me like a calcerous algae. I had a similar issue on my devils hand leather. I just VERY carefully hooked one edge with my fingernail and it peeled off fairly easily. I was watching to make sure that no tissue was coming off with it. It broke into 3 pieces but it really came off pretty easy. Mine wasn't quite as dark as yours but it looked similar otherwise. The leather itself looks pretty healthy to me but if it starts to go south you can try to remove it. Good luck!

 

[aleonn]

Wow, your nitrates are quite high.

The red looks like coraline algae. Could even be cyano. I'd gently scrape it off. If it comes off like a piece of tissue, it's probably cyano.