Nano maintains itself

[queenangel920]

Can someone please tell me how my 12 gallon nano maintains itself. By that I mean I rarely do water changes (maybe every 3-4 months just to replenish trace elements and such) and the water conditions are mint. There is even ZERO nitrates. The set up is a nano cube dx with live rock and one clown fish. Years back we threw in ONE stray mushroom from my 95 gallon that over time turned into a now mushroom tank that covers pretty much every square inch of the tank. Probably about 1000 mushrooms. I will have to post a picture. So what is eating up the nitrates? The mushrooms? I even had another small fish die in there and never found or removed it. My son has also sprinkled fish food in there before that was consumed in the tank. Something has to be controlling the nitrates, any ideas? BTW, the clownfish loves the mushrooms and uses them as its 'anemone'.

 

[queenangel920]

Here is a picture of the the tank. Mushrooms usually expand more but lights recently went on.

 

[bender77]

I have no answer for you, but that's a cool looking tank

 

[mma-guy]

omg looks super cool! i dont have an answer either sorry

 

[krista921]

I had the same i guess ill say issue but it wasnt one at all in my five gal... things did ok but nothing ever flurished really mushrooms are hardy and mine did fine. reefs are meant to be self sustaining. i guess id just embrace it

 

[yerboy]

i had a tank that always had 0 nitrates and i never did water changes and it was very heavily stocked... turns out my test kit was bad and my nitrates where over 40ppm.

 

[newbfish]

that is a really interesting tank. I wish I can get some mushrooms.... willing to ship some?

 

[socalnano24]

so it is possible for mushrooms to over-run a tank. LOL, ever since I got some I've noticed them popping up in random locations. So far its nowhere near what you've got.
Looks cool though

 

[gharner]

My 12 gallon tank has a clown, diadem pseudochromis, and several lps and soft corals. it practically ran this way for about a year with zero problems(I was having trouble finding time to do water changes, sad, i know haha) ....then about 2 months ago it went downhill when I transfered the tank to another room. ever since theres all kinds of slime algea. im trying to fix the problem now...it looks terrible. I knew it would happen eventually. oh well. your tank looks very nice. i like all the shrooms

 

[btldreef]

My 14G was pretty self sustaining. But as one person noted above, are you sure your parameters are correct? The testing chemicals do go bad over time. I'd have a LFS test the water just to be certain. If they're correct, than well, LUCKY YOU!
I wish my mushrooms would grow like that! I envy people like you.

 

[soviettaco]

Sell those rocks!!! You'd make a ton of money.
So why exactly have you let the tank get overrun with just purple mushrooms?

 

[salami trigger]

VERY COOL!

 

[nissan577]

lots of money maybe but the tank is super cool! i want some shrooms!

 

[soviettaco]

cool but too many for my likings, now if you had an entire mountain of crabs I'D GO NUTS lol!!

shroom queen!!

 

[queenangel920]

Thanks everyone for the comments. As for the water parameters, I'm sure the test kits are the correct reading because #1, they are brand new tests, and #2 because I have a 95 gallon tank with plenty of nitrates showing
up.

And as for why I let the tank get so overgrown? Well first of all they reproduce like crazy and very quickly. We actualy took a rock out and put it in our 95 gallon so we had a big bare spot and within 1-2 months, the bare spot was completely covered. Plus this whole tank started from 1 mushroom. And lastly because it is different. It's not everyday you see a nano tank completely covered like this.

 

[phil47952]

Plus this whole tank started from 1 mushroom. And lastly because it is different. It's not everyday you see a nano tank completely covered like this.
Queen,
I love the look and think I may just do the same, thank you for posting the pic.
Phil

 

[fretfreak13]

What kind of lights are you running? I want my stuff to grow like that, lol

 

[aquapod 24]

why did you stop doing frequent waterchanges in the first place?

 

[peasofme]

those mushrooms are scary

 

[barbaramanny]

I have had a lot of luck with mushrooms in my 14g nano tank also. Wonder if you might know this one though. I do not have a large starfish, but suddenly I have about 8 tiny starfish looking things crawling around on the glass. Any ideas?