I have a problem and I’d really appreciate it if you had any advice for me:
72-gallon bowfront
220 watts of PC light (1/2 is 50-50) + 40 watts of actinic
Moderate flow
Temp = 80 SG = 1.025 Nitrates = 0 Nitrites = 0 Ph = 8.4
Calcium = low, and I’ve had trouble getting it up
Alkalinity = 10 dkh
No fish in the tank. I took two out because of Ich and put them in a quarantine tank. Since then I haven’t fed the tank much.
I have Monti-cap SPS, Pipe-organ, frogspawn, brown start polyps, huge green mushroom (ricordia?) and pulsing xenia. All are DOING FINE.
I also have a tank full of regular mushrooms (blue, red, green, green striped. These were big and beautiful when I put them in, but have since steadily declined. They are now pale and shriveled. Some are in more flow, some are in none. Some are right under the lights, some are in the shade (even in a cave). I’ve been cutting a lot of them and growing them in a dish of rubble. This works fine, they attach and form four healthy looking little mushrooms. But once in place they seem to decline.
At this point, I’m afraid I’m going to lose the mushrooms. I changed the front two bulbs in case they were old. I did a 10% water change today (the first in a long time since there were no fish). I’ve also started feeding regularly with a coral food I made from Borneman’s recipe.
Can you think of anything else? I’m really discouraged about this because I love those mushrooms and they’re dying before my eyes. And all the rest of the corals look healthy and are growing and spreading!
This could be an example of allelopathy which is the release of chemicals from one coral to protect it's territory and win itself some new "land". Nothing has to be touching. Two corals could be "fighting" which could affect other corals in the tank and not just the ones directly involved.
Don't put chemically aggressive corals upstream from others and use carbon and change it regularily. Make smaller more frequent water changes to dilute the chemicals as much as possible.
OK, I have some carbon. It's in the packs that came with filters for a Whisper HOB filter. It's also pretty old (like, several years old). Do you think it's still o.k.?
that carbon NEEDS to be replaced if it is the filter pads that came with the filter OR if it is over ( i say 2 weeks some say longer and some say less ). most reefers that run carbon say to change it every week or two.
__________________ Bobby
"I FORMERLY glued animals to rocks" NO TANK RIGHT NOW, but you never know when I might throw one together !! I have everything I need but the time!!
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I understand that carbon needs to be changed. But this carbon is brand new and never opened in a sealed pack. It's just that it's about two years old. Do you think it's still any good?
I guess if you're fragging the mushrooms and placing them back in the tank, it could definitely be a toxin problem. The carbon is super important, especially when fragging soft corals...
Hmmm, I've never heard of that before. When I frag soft corals, what kind of damage do the toxins cause? Do they just damage other mushrooms? Or do they damage all corals and even fish?
Should I not frag the mushrooms? Or should I just run carbon?
My tank is fighting right now. There's a tube anenome stinging a toadstool in the sump. The water is then entering the tank right above a colt coral. The colt coral is NOT happy.
well...I should have phrased it better...I'm not sure whether mushrooms release toxins when they're cut, but most soft corals certainly do. It's a good idea either way to run carbon...
I don't like to put fresh fragged corals in my display. Side note: You are suppose to be careful when handling freshly cut/cheezed corals, like palys because they can release toxins that are harmful to humans. I tried it out after cutting a bunch of palys to feed the sundial snail and I just about sucked on my fingers and felt nothing. Not to say you should try that.... I'm just odd that way. You could have a reaction.
I frag them by removing one or two large mushrooms. I cut them each into quarters on a wooden cutting board and then I place the pieces on small pieces of rubble in a plastic dish and I cover it with fine netting. I place the dish on the sand.
In about two weeks each of the quarters has attached to a piece of rubble and is forming a new small mushroom. Then I distribute these throughout the tank. It seems to be working great. I guess I hadn't considered that it would be stressing the other mushrooms in the tank.
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