mushrooms.

[ricksconnected]

i have a mushroom thats looking kinda wilted. my zoa's looking ok, getting better as the days go by. worried about my mushrooms.

SG 1.025
ammonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate 0-20 (nothing new for them as they have been that high for months)
PH 8.0
alkalinity 2
phos 0.1

for a while ive had a fowlr tank, but wanting to slowly move over to beginers corals. what are some brightly colored corals to start off with?
what kind of additives should i be using as well?
i know there several questions in this post and should have probably
made two posts. please answer what you can.

 

[hn1]

Pics would help. I haven't seen mushrooms "wilt", if they are unhappy they close up. As long as you don't have coral nippers, you could try easy LPS (Calaustrea, Euphyllias, etc.) in addition to the softies.

As far as dosing goes, it probably isn't needed if you're doing good PWCs. What size tank?

 

[ricksconnected]

dawgdude;394553 wrote: Are you using RODI? Whats your WC schedule and what kind of salt?

dude, im begining to thing your following me around. lol
every time i post up you show up. this is a great thing
in my opinion. being new one gets cold feet about
maybe posting a "stupid question".
this site is pretty cool. everybody seems to be willing to help.
i belong to another very popular forum about
reef aquariums. you dont get service on there like ya do here.
maybe i should find out what i have to do to become a member
of this site. worth every penny from what i can tell.

ok on with the answers.
i buy my water from LFS. i change 5gal out of 30 everyweek, every two
at the very latest. had some ammonia and nitrate issues 2 weeks ago if you remember, and possibly a toxin. so W/C's were done almost daily. same amount, 5gal. im not sure what salt they use. i know they use the same water they sell in their own aquariums.

 

[ricksconnected]

2xLoser;394554 wrote: Pics would help. I haven't seen mushrooms "wilt", if they are unhappy they close up. As long as you don't have coral nippers, you could try easy LPS (Calaustrea, Euphyllias, etc.) in addition to the softies.

As far as dosing goes, it probably isn't needed if you're doing good PWCs. What size tank?

loser

its a 30gal with T5 HO lights. 55plus lbs of rock.
maybe "wilting" is to harsh of a word. they are 1/2 open and slumped over. ive tried taking pics with my lame camera of this aquarium, lol
not so good.

 

[hn1]

ricksconnected;394567 wrote: loser

its a 30gal with T5 HO lights. 55plus lbs of rock.
maybe "wilting" is to harsh of a word. they are 1/2 open and slumped over. ive tried taking pics with my lame camera of this aquarium, lol
not so good.

Ok, now I really need to request another name change. lol

What type of flow and lighting are they in? What area of the tank? Shrooms seem to do best low in my tank and away from most of the flow.

 

[ricksconnected]

2xLoser;394572 wrote: Ok, now I really need to request another name change. lol

What type of flow and lighting are they in? What area of the tank? Shrooms seem to do best low in my tank and away from most of the flow.

ok ive moved them to the sand just after all this started about a week ago. ive tried all kinds of flow changes. my flow is pretty good for this tank to be honest. they were closer to the light and in trying to fix this w/o questions to you guys, i read they like lower lighting, so i moved them. no luck still. they use to open really big. some flowers were easy as big as coke can. now they look really unhappy for some reason.

 

[ls1boost]

for me seems to be trial and error i have shrooms all over my tank and one small rock that has them is the only one i can move the other rocks are have to stay put but anyway i have moved them many times and where they are now seems to be great which is midway up the tank in direct line of t5 lamp and with medium flow go figure the rest of the shrooms only get to a quarter size and not as much color but the ones on that rock will get huge like you said with the coke can size and briliant color i would just keep moving them and wait a week or so it took a good week for them to pop when i moved them

 

[smoothie]

Hope the lower lighting works for you. How old or new the bulbs are could have an effect on them. So....how old are the bulbs?

 

[ricksconnected]

Smoothie;394639 wrote: Hope the lower lighting works for you. How old or new the bulbs are could have an effect on them. So....how old are the bulbs?

lower lighting? the bulbs are at least 8months old. they are due to be changed i know.

 

[smoothie]

Sorry I read wrong. Thought you were moving them down from the light.
Are they being overdriven? 8mo could be the case, but I doubt it since we are talking about shrooms here. Maybe too much water was changed and you are having a
re-cycling problem. Have another lfs or member check your water. Also check for stray voltage.

 

[ricksconnected]

i have been getting my water checked for a month now by LFS weekly.
nobody has found a problem as of yet.
its my thinking that if voltage was an issue more than the mushrooms would be having problems. am i correct?

 

[tgray3]

I've never dealt with stray voltage so i can't comment on that but have you started using anything to lower your phosphates? My 'shrooms seem to like higher phosphates and if i run GFO in any amount at all they shrink up and lose color. Just my 2 cents.

 

[smoothie]

That's true. Same with xenia

 

[ricksconnected]

what is GFO ?

 

[jennm]

GFO = granular ferrous oxide. Sold as Phosban, and there are other brands too.

Your alkalinity is low. That could be the problem.

Jenn

 

[ricksconnected]

ok jenn, so how do i bring it up?

 

[jennm]

Seachem Reef Builder. That'll fix it.

Jenn

 

[ricksconnected]

was just reading up on that very product jenn. didnt say how to use it though. i just cleaned my lights real good. they had a very light film of creep over them. watched that skimmer for about 20 minutes as i just cleaned my HOB filter as well. suddenly, my zoa's and my mushrooms
showed signs of life again. :doh:
jenn, i'll be sending you a PM shortly.