Mushrooms shrinking

[reefkprz]

any luck on the iodine test?
well here is some info on iodine
RANDOM FACTS on iodine

[hr]
Iodine is present in natural sea water in a very low concentration (0.6 mg/L or 0.06 PPM) and this iodine occurs as several different species including iodide, iodate, molecular iodine and hypoiodite.
Use of so-called time released iodine supplements or supplements containing organically bound/complexed iodine species will give false results. with salifert test kits. I am not sure if they will with other brands but would assume so.
iodine in relation to carbon
Iodine Number
It is the most fundamental parameter used to characterize activated carbon performance. It is a measure of activity level (higher number indicates higher degree of activation). It is a measure of the micropore content of the activated carbon (0 to 20 Å, or up to 2 nm) by adsorption of iodine from solution. It is equivalent to surface area of activated carbon between 900 m²/g and 1100 m²/g. It is the standard measure for liquid phase applications.

 

[reefkprz]

just so you know, lawman, that if your Iodine test really high, run fresh carbon after a water change and you should be able to bring it down fairly quickly.

 

[lawman]

OMG! you would think living in central Jersey this wouldn't be difficult. The 4th LFS I checked with told me they had a kit. (the other 3 didn't) I drove almost an hour to get there, (10 min outside of NYC) and the Jack @?? tells me the only test they have is one that tells you if iodine is present. It doesn't measure it. This is after I called and explained what I was looking for. I blew my stack, then apoligized, had a long talk with the owner who is a really nice guy. Suggested the water change and carbon like Reefkprz did.(good thing I drove all that way lol) Then he gave (yes gave) me a nice piece of green star polyp and a frag with a couple of button polyps for my trouble and to see if water change works.

I'm in the process of water change now. He also told me to use a "Poly Pad" in the filter intake. Apparently this pad turns different colors depending on what it pulls from the water. He told me if it turns black there is something not natural in there. Anyone ever heard of or use Poly Pads? I'm gonna order the salifert test kit on line.

 

[michaeltx]

havent heard of poly pads but how much iodine did you add to the tank.
here is a rule of thumb for SW tanks DO NOT ADD anything you cant test for.
can you get a close up of the mushrooms.
here is the good thing about muchrooms though even if what you see dies off for some reason 99% of the time they come back in a few weeks from tiny bits of tissue thats left. a pic of your mushrooms will help though.
O yeah and stop dosing everything!!!! your water changes will actually add everything that you need to add to the tank other than calcium if you had calcium demanding corals.
Mike

 

[reefkprz]

A poly pad is just a polyester pad same thing as aquarium floss, same thing a 100% polyester pillow fill, the pillow fill version is cheapest. the color change thing is/is not correct, heres why, if you look at a polyester pad or wad of batting after yuou run water through it you can see the color of whatever it catches, if you see black it could be particles of carbon, or cyano bacteria, or crude oil. you cannot tell just by color, but some common sense mixed in will help a bit, if you run a bunch of water through the pad and have not added fresh carbon recently chances are its not carbon particles, if there are no signs of cyano like colorless bubbles it may not be cyano and it could be some other factor, an outside contaminant.
if the pad only collects orangish tan stuff , without any unusual or odd other effects to it, it would seem to be normal detritus
if its mostly green the pad is filtering particulate algal bloom...
if there is an oily clear film stuck to the surface of the pad it could be either oily food or outside contaminant.
this is not exact in any way, but you can make some basic observations.

 

[lawman]

O.K. I did the water change and I am running a small bag of carbon in a seperate filter. I will hope for the best and see how things go. I dont really have a close up due to crappy camera but then again theres really nothing much to take a photo of. Whatever tiny little specs are left on the rocks I will just leave alone. Who knows maybe something will try to sprout back out. I will keep those interested posted on how things go. Thanks for all the info thus far.
I have attached a photo of them from last night. At the time of this pic they had already shrivled up big time. However they went from what you see in this pic to nothing by this A.M
Tom

 

[lawman]

There is hope! First, thanks for all the advice. Especially reefkprz. He was the one who pointed to Iodine. After following his advice of water change and running carbon, the following has resulted: Although after the water change I will never know if I overdosed with Iodide, but it sure does look that way. I think I found one survivor between two rocks. I believe it is the mouth (is mouth correct?) of the greenish mushroom in the last picture. Although it is smaller than the head of a pencil eraser it does look alive. Here's a pic, what do you think? I think there is the same thing still stuck to the rock but I cant get a pic of that one. Also as I mentioned, the LFS gave me two loose small button polyps. I glued them to a rock and put them in this A.M. I was amazed. I just took this pic a few minutes ago. I'm pretty happy with the outcome and must admit I've learned a lesson about dosing without testing.
P.S. what is the name of the polyps they gave me? I would like to get more in the future.Very cool color
Tom

 

[reefkprz]

they are a protopalythoa, I call them sleepers, if you hit them with just actinic light they should glow green. you can feed them any small meaty foods to help them grow faster but you dont have to spot feed them if you dont want to.

 

[digitydash]

Originally Posted by lawman
O.K. I did the water change and I am running a small bag of carbon in a seperate filter. I will hope for the best and see how things go. I dont really have a close up due to crappy camera but then again theres really nothing much to take a photo of. Whatever tiny little specs are left on the rocks I will just leave alone. Who knows maybe something will try to sprout back out. I will keep those interested posted on how things go. Thanks for all the info thus far.
I have attached a photo of them from last night. At the time of this pic they had already shrivled up big time. However they went from what you see in this pic to nothing by this A.
Tom
move the rock mine does this if it doesnt like the flow or light it geting.I have very strong current in my tank and they get crazy big.Mine fall off all the time and reattach in other places even are climbing the back of my tank.Tehy will get bigger mine will get small once in a while then get huge again.One of the green mushrooms are bigger then my hand.

 

[pohtr]

digitydash, are you saying that mushrooms like a lot of flow?
(my green striped mushrooms have all but disappeared as well,
the one piece that is left is hiding between the rocks)

 

[digitydash]

I have strong current in my tank and I have not problem with them.Mushroom grow where ever they drop at.I also have green striped and they are at the top of the tank where the most flow is and are also multiply daily.It has gotten so bad I am selling 2 of my rocks to coraljunkie to get rid of some.I already have 10 that have fallen off of my rocks and have reattached to other rocks.

 

[mushroomss]

The reason you are losing so much coral is probably becuase you have such a small tank.If you look at all the guys tanks with 100 gallons plus they are all beautiful.Simply because with a larger volume of water it is MUCH easier to care for and maintain a system.This might sound stupid but upgrade to a bigger tank with a protein skimmer and your luck will change

 

[reefernana]

Originally Posted by mushroomss
The reason you are losing so much coral is probably becuase you have such a small tank.If you look at all the guys tanks with 100 gallons plus they are all beautiful.Simply because with a larger volume of water it is MUCH easier to care for and maintain a system.This might sound stupid but upgrade to a bigger tank with a protein skimmer and your luck will change

I don't think this has anything to do with it, have you seen pictures of DeMartini's 8, 12, or 14g cubes? Her corals are awesome and in much smaller tanks. Not to mention all of the others on here with 29g and under cubes with beautiful tanks.

 

[mikersof]

Greetings all,
About 15 months ago, I started an 80 gal reef with 280 pounds of live rock and a 29 gal with about 75 pounds of live rock. Nothing I did seemed to work. I couldn't even keep fish alive. Frustration was overwhelming to the point that I just let the water and live rock go adding Reef Builder and Marine Buffer to my top off water. Left my lights OFF most of this time. That is the way it went for months while trying to decide to sell or try again. We tried again. Started bringing water back into proper shape about the first of August and I was surprised how close I was. And with the daily cycle of my lights, things started to grow again. Algae of course. I added on 8-23 some Blue Leg Crabs and 4 Stripe Damsels. THEY LIVED! I have been slowly adding since and things are just thriving! But, now to my point.
On 9-8, I bought from LFS a rock with 7 Frilly Mushrooms. LFS has HO lighting and the mushrooms were doing very well. As they were being packaged, the mushrooms were coaxed to expel water and shrunk from 2" down to about 1/2" When I got them home, I noticed that one mushroom was way over on the edge of the rock away from the others. He was going in the 29! So I got out my tin snips and tried to cut the rock. OH BOY! The cut in the rock went just right.... almost. The rock broke making a 90 degree angle from my cut and went RIGHT THROUGH the middle of the mushroom tearing it in half. I thought I had killed it for sure but I went ahead and acclimated both parts... the 6 1/2 mushrooms in the 80 and the 1/2 mushroom in the 29. ALL are doing wonderfully!!! The halves are growing into circles. I had no idea this could happen.
Also, each night, the mushrooms shrink down to pretty small size. When my lights come on, they are already beginning to expand again but about half way into the light cycle (on) they are fully open and just going great! You can see photos at www.jandt-online.com/a
I still have a LONG way to go but I am on the way! FINALLY!
Any comments would be gladly received!
Just wanted to post this and say that there are successes! Even after real frustration!
Best wishes all,
james =)

 

[mushroomss]

To keep a tank in that condition is Very time consuming.And requires multiple water changes a week.Most people simply dont have time for this.A skimmer would definately help though

 

[lawman]

Originally Posted by mushroomss
The reason you are losing so much coral is probably becuase you have such a small tank.If you look at all the guys tanks with 100 gallons plus they are all beautiful.Simply because with a larger volume of water it is MUCH easier to care for and maintain a system.This might sound stupid but upgrade to a bigger tank with a protein skimmer and your luck will change

While I do certainly appreciate every opinion and bit of advice given, I started this thread because I had a particular problem. Some of the advice I received helped me to correct a mistake I had made. "get a bigger tank" wasn't advice that that would of or could of helped in any way shape or form. In fact, it was taken as a bit of a backhand to one who is very proud to be able to keep a Nano tank.

 

[demartini]

Originally Posted by mushroomss
To keep a tank in that condition is Very time consuming.And requires multiple water changes a week.Most people simply dont have time for this.A skimmer would definately help though
that isn't true and many people as well as myself have no problem keeping healthy beautiful corals in a nano.

 

[lawman]

Originally Posted by mushroomss
The reason you are losing so much coral is probably becuase you have such a small tank.If you look at all the guys tanks with 100 gallons plus they are all beautiful.Simply because with a larger volume of water it is MUCH easier to care for and maintain a system.This might sound stupid but upgrade to a bigger tank with a protein skimmer and your luck will change

Things are much better. 3 of the mushrooms that obviously didn't die are bouncing back quite well. I have also put in a few frags that I was given. Zoas, palys, yellow star and blue Xenia. I will try to post pictures of them in my "small Tank" later.
Tom