Is my Lavender shroom dying ?

[Zstoysh]

Is my laveder mushroom coral dying , its been looking like this for about a week and its had a bunch of brown nasty stuff coming off it , anyone know whats up? any help much appeciated! the bottom pics of are the smaller ones which seem to be doin normal..

[rayme07]

Hi Zack Welcome to TR. What are your perimeters?

[Zstoysh]

From my reef test kit ..
Salinity 1.024

Calcium 280

Carbonate hardness 179 ppm

Phosphate 0

Nitrate 20

From my quick test kit I have..

Nitrite 0
Total hardness 300 -- kinda hard to decipher
Alkalinity 300 -- samething
Ph 7.8 -8.4 --samething

I was planning on doing a water change this past Tuesday but I got behind and Im getting on that tomorrow..
I also have some red slime issues I bought some Chemiclean for red slime but Im kinda iffy on using it, any knowledge on that?.. I have been picking it out by hand in the mean time..

[lReef lKeeper]

what test kits are you using ??

the calcium is WAAAY low if thats right. some may say the KH is high, but i try to keep mine around where yours is.

nitrates are really pretty high for a reef, what is your source water ??

[Zstoysh]

RO water from the fish store... Reef master reef test kit and a quick drip stick.. So what about my shroom , whatcha think? also whats the best way to raise my calcium ,I have been using some purple up which says it increases calcium , good?

[lReef lKeeper]

the shroom looks like it is just moving to me, i have had them (specificly ricordea) move from one end of a tank to the other before.
purple up is a gimmick, imo, it is a calcium additive ... thats it, nothing more. i would try a product specificly for raising calcium, such as Brightwell's calcium, and alk additives or oceans blend additives.

[Zstoysh]

Cool thx , my only thing is that it's been like that for a week and what about the brown stuff coming off it any ideas? WHat happend was I was goin out of town for a week and I fed it some scallop b4 i left and when I came back its was all shriveled and funky colors and I was expecting a change back but like i said its been like this for over a week...Also I just talk to my buddy at the LFS and he said to move it down a little bit and get it away from heavy flow..

[rayme07]

The brown stuff is more than likely poop from the coral. It may of liked the stronger flow of current. I would defiantly do a little more research on him and see what its special requirements are just in case you missed something.

[lReef lKeeper]

the brown stuff to me looks like expelled waste, id put it a moderate to high (but indirect flow area.

[CarmieJo]

Hi Zack and

As you have seen, those quick dip test strips are really not very accurate. Ca and alk are inversely proportional so if your alk is really 300 you will not be able to raise the Ca. There is a balance between Ca, alk, pH and Mg. This A Simplified Guide to the Relationship Between Calcium, Alkalinity, Magnesium and pH by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com is really helpful.

While Ca is low that won't affect softies. Nitrates of 20 are high but shrooms are pretty forgiving. Is the brown stuff stringy or in clumps? Is it coming from the middle of the shroom?

The cyano is probably coming from the same place as the nitrates. Can you tell us a little more about your tank? Size, how much sand and rock, skimmer, powerheads, etc? Are you using a canister, hang on back or wet/dry filter, anything with bio-balls, wheels, etc?

[Zstoysh]

Carbonate hardness and alkalinity are close to the same?? I ask b/c I checked my Carbonate Hardness w/ my master reef test kit and I got DKH 10* .. does that mean my alk is at 10DKH too?
anyways to answer ur question CarmieJo .. I Have a 29 biocube #1 korilla blower about guessing 15lbs-20lbs sand 30lbs-40lbs LR I just removed the bioballs yesterday and droped in a couple pounds LR.. I got the Biocube made protein skimmer .. everything else pretty stock.. Also Im only using instant ocean sea salt , (not the one for reefs so thats prob why my calcium is so low.. Shroom is lookin a lil up today after i moved it away from the power head but not even close to what it was.. The poop coming off it is kinda stingy w/ lil clumps ,lol ..I pulled some off it and it was stinky , duh..

[Zstoysh]

In that bottom pick u cant kinda see some poops in there that brown clump of crap..

[CarmieJo]

Carbonate hardness (KH) and alkalinity are the same thing. General hardness (GH) though is different.

IO is a fine salt, but you need to supplement Ca if you have any stony corals. Check out TR sponsor The Cultured Reef for Ocean's Blend which also contains Mg. The owner, Dick (Amphibious), is an active member of our community, a great guy and his prices can't be beat.

Looks like poop to me. I think it over ate.

[rayme07]

I agree with Carmie Oceans Blend is a great additive and I use it myself and it brings my Ca up.

[Zstoysh]

I checked it out and the closest store that sells in FL is about 4 hours away..I gotta talk to my LFS and see if he can get it for me..

[CarmieJo]

Sorry, I didn't pay attention that you were in FL. Ask your LFS to get in touch with Russell Whitney, the owner of Ocean's Blend. He is another super nice guy and a big supporter of the hobby.

[Zstoysh]

Today I brushed a bunch of built up poop off it and the mouth was all messed up and gnarly lookin . Checked it out let me know what u think , thanks..

[Zstoysh]

I also bought some reef complete to raise my calcium..

[CarmieJo]

I would keep it cleaned off and see what happens.

Reef Complete should be fine.

[lReef lKeeper]

it could be splitting ... reproducing

[Captinsmooth]

it could be splitting ... reproducing

I would agree with this, it's splitting right now. I have allot of varieties of hairy shrooms in my tank, that is exactly what they look like while they are splitting. This can take up to a few months to complete, it will look as if it's not happy during this whole time, but try not to move it because the reason it decieded to split is because it was doing so well where it was.

These are very very hardy corals in my experience. You can't kill them even if you try, I have sliced an diced them for frags, had them caught in powerheads, crushed by live rock while moving it, all to recover without issue an to thrive even more afterwards.