Somthing wrong with the tank...

My tank was perfect and everything was doing fine. I checked the water in the morning and cal/alk was fine. So we went to the fish store, picked up some mushrooms / polyps as our first corals, and now the mushrooms aren't doing very well. The polyps seem to be doing great for some strange reason.. but the mushrooms are all shriveled up
. Heres a shot of the polyps and i'll add picutres of the mushroom tomorrow.
THe problem is.. my dad, while i was in my room, added additives *seachem* without telling me, so the cal/alk is way up... I forgot the exact numbers. I use salfert calcium test and i added all of the 1 mL solution and it barley made it to clear blue, which means itw as 550+ i believe.
 
Another picture with more mixed polyps/zoos added later on (like 2 days). The question is.. What should I do to bring the cal/alk down? It seems too high and I think that's why the mushrooms aren't thriving.
 

gdamador

Member
I wouldn't worry if I was you... mushrooms are pretty tough and yours simply look as if they are still acclimating. They don't look any different to me than mine when I have put them in even for a few days... they will get over it. Have fun in the hobby!
 
Heres a picture of the mushrooms now. I was hoping to wait it out, I'll check on alk/cal levels in a few minutes. I just took these pictures aruond 2 minutes ago. As you can see, they don't seem to be doing very well, and I don't seem to know why. Also, i've been getting mad algae since I changed my lighting from 220 PC to 660 watts of VHO. Any advice on that? I'm trying to cut down the lighting to 7-8 hours a day.
 

msd2

Active Member
I also have trouble w/shrooms, my problem was due to too much light. I moved mine to a more shaded area and they have been doing much better. You might be having a similar problem. As far as ur alk/ca are both high I wouldnt worry about it. Remember the balancing table. For example if your alk is 7 then ca should be at 500. Its not uncommon for me to get a reading of 500 every once in awhile and I have had no adverse events.
Ask dad not to 'help' and just let it come down naturally, you will be suprised how quickly things will absorb the ca out of the water
 
Cal is stil a litlte high.. 500+ but my alk seemed to go down to 3.3, which means my cal probably isn't very high. I'll move the mushrooms to a shaded area. How does it look right there? It's arleady at the bottom of the tank.
 

beth

Administrator
Staff member
They're fine. With mushroom you have to find just the right spot for them as they tend to be picky about just the right light, current, or whatever. Let them acclimate for several days and if they don't start opening, then try moving them around.
 
Welll they've been in the tank for ... almost a week now. I'm just happy there okay. How do u know if there having too mcuh light/ too little?
 

clarkiiboi

Active Member
I think they will be ok also. What Beth said is what I was going to say. I always make sure I see how they are placed at the LFS and try to get it as close to that as possible. Usually low flow works best, when they get into more than that I see them shrivel, like yours. How is the flow they are in?
 
There in very low flow, but I've moved them to a more shaded area and some of the look really good and than the other half is getting very little light. I'll have to fix it tonight, and maybe i'll take pictures tomorrow.
 
Also, some of them are growing a little white under the stem, which I think means they are dying... I don't seem to know why. Some are also falling off but than some of them are acutally doing well and spreading out.
 
For some reason... the mushrooms still don't seem to be doing really well. I'll take some pictures tomorrow. I really don't think there getting much flow but they seem comfortable with the lower light. I don't know how I would get some flow all the way down to the bottom of the tank. I have a very weak turn over rate (one little giant pump with 2 crappy power sweeps) and I will be adding another pump (hopefully 3500+ gal/hour) and taking out the power heads. I'll take some more test tomorow on PH/Cal/Alk. I really doubt I have problems with amn/rite/rate/phosphate. Also, I've been getting major algea blooms infront/inback of my tank, do u think this would be the cause of the new lighting?
 

jtutton

Member
I'm glad I saw this thread as I have a mushroom question. I had 2 single mushrooms in my tank, doing well, one was huge that I got here at swf.com and I thought it would bud off any day. I bought another one at LFS and got a ricordea from swf.com also. The last 'shroom I got wasn't happy and I moved it, it started to slime and then the other 2 did the same thing. Figured out that the last one added was dying, took it out, but one of the others also seemed to get worse. Removed it as well.
My question is, do they give off some sort of chemical as they're dying that affects othes like xenia and zoos? My zoos have been kind of closed up and the xenia that were thriving and getting ready to split are now shrunken and not pulsing very much. My zoos also closed up a bit more than usual. It's hard to tell a lot since I have them on a 7 am to 7 pm lighting schedule and I go to work shortly after 7, don't get home sometimes until 6. Leaves only an hour to look at the tank.
I did a 10% water change on the weekend hoping that would help, should I repeat now that the dead 'shrooms are both gone?
Thanks,
Jane
 

jtutton

Member
Went to LFS with a water sample this afternoon. They tested, said phosphates were a bit high. Pretty hard to do since I use RO water to make salt water and I have phosban in the filter system. He said it could have been the mushrooms since that's the only thing that changed and I've had a bit more algae in the tank as well.
Changed the phosban and am hoping for the best with the xenia. Other shroom and zoos look better today. I also will do an additional 10% change this weekend.
Thought I'd share that possibility with the group.
 
interesting, my phates are usually at zero. I don't do water changes but when i top off, i do use ro/di water...
Half of the shrooms looked good today, all layed down on there rock but the other half still had some white on the bottom of there stem... I'm hoping in a few days it'll get better, otherwise, I'm just gonna leave them there.
 
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