Hello,
I have a tank that I was intending to populate with "easy" corals - mushrooms and leathers - for the first year, then perhaps be more adventurous. I had a take about a decade ago w/ some gorgeous mushrooms that were very happy.
I have four mushroom rocks at this point:
One has been doing great since day one. Frilly purple w/ a green fringe, low light.
Another (pretty rust red mushrooms) were originally shriveled and looked upset. I moved them to a lower flow area, but more direct light. They look very nice and full now.
A third rock I've had for about 3 weeks. I bought it at a LFS, and it hasn't opened up very much. They don't look like they're dying, but they aren't opening all the way - not by a long shot. It is in a low current, medium light area.
Finally, the sad rock - was covered with blue/purple mushrooms with tiny purple dots (part of the mushroom, not flat worms!). Over the past two months, Many of the mushrooms have started to look mottled and loose color. They've been low in the tank and away from strong currents. One of these even broke off, attached itself to another rock and reproduced in a pretty dim area of the tank.
So... I'm not sure if what I've seeing is bleaching, but it's like the mushrooms are shrunk up on one or two sides (like if you hold a thin piece of plastic towards a flame) and have a mottled appearance rather than being solid blue/purple.
Any suggestions for helping these creatures? I tried s minor repositioning of the rock, but I'm not sure if that's enough.
Full disclosure -
I had been using a Pinpoint salinity probe to check salinity in the tank and the make-up water. It turns out that my CALIBRATED salinity probe was telling me that my salinity was low, when it was really ~1.032. After calibrating and triple-checking my refractometer with water from several other reef keepers, I have dropped my salinity and am confident that my water is at ~1.025.
My lighting is a Solaris LED system. It appears to be pretty darn bright compared to many LFS tanks, so I'm hoping this isn't an issue of not enough light.
My leathers are very happy. Waaay larger than when I originally saw them.
Anyway, sorry for rambling, but if anyone can tell me what might be causing my mushrooms to look crappy, that would be great! They are not shriveled/melting like a really sick/dying mushroom, but they don't look very good either.
Thanks!
John
I have a tank that I was intending to populate with "easy" corals - mushrooms and leathers - for the first year, then perhaps be more adventurous. I had a take about a decade ago w/ some gorgeous mushrooms that were very happy.
I have four mushroom rocks at this point:
One has been doing great since day one. Frilly purple w/ a green fringe, low light.
Another (pretty rust red mushrooms) were originally shriveled and looked upset. I moved them to a lower flow area, but more direct light. They look very nice and full now.
A third rock I've had for about 3 weeks. I bought it at a LFS, and it hasn't opened up very much. They don't look like they're dying, but they aren't opening all the way - not by a long shot. It is in a low current, medium light area.
Finally, the sad rock - was covered with blue/purple mushrooms with tiny purple dots (part of the mushroom, not flat worms!). Over the past two months, Many of the mushrooms have started to look mottled and loose color. They've been low in the tank and away from strong currents. One of these even broke off, attached itself to another rock and reproduced in a pretty dim area of the tank.
So... I'm not sure if what I've seeing is bleaching, but it's like the mushrooms are shrunk up on one or two sides (like if you hold a thin piece of plastic towards a flame) and have a mottled appearance rather than being solid blue/purple.
Any suggestions for helping these creatures? I tried s minor repositioning of the rock, but I'm not sure if that's enough.
Full disclosure -
I had been using a Pinpoint salinity probe to check salinity in the tank and the make-up water. It turns out that my CALIBRATED salinity probe was telling me that my salinity was low, when it was really ~1.032. After calibrating and triple-checking my refractometer with water from several other reef keepers, I have dropped my salinity and am confident that my water is at ~1.025.
My lighting is a Solaris LED system. It appears to be pretty darn bright compared to many LFS tanks, so I'm hoping this isn't an issue of not enough light.
My leathers are very happy. Waaay larger than when I originally saw them.
Anyway, sorry for rambling, but if anyone can tell me what might be causing my mushrooms to look crappy, that would be great! They are not shriveled/melting like a really sick/dying mushroom, but they don't look very good either.
Thanks!
John
