Whats wrong with my mushroom toadstool

fishlover9

fishlover9

New Member
When I got home from work today i noticed that my mushroom toadstool looked like it had fallen over. When I looked closer it looks like it is bent midway. You will notice that the stalk(I guess that what you call it) is darker and has some red streaks in the bottom area. This was the color it was when I got it about 9 months ago. The whiter top is where it has grown since that time. Should I try to cut the bottom section off or should I leave it alone.
thanks,
mike
Tanks Specs
temp - 80 F
Ammonia- 0
nitrate - 5
nitrite 0
phosphate - .25
SG- 1.025
ph 8.2
cal - 450
mag 1350
 
gamma

gamma

Member
Ours has bent over like that several times and has that purplish color at the base. It always pulls itself back up. Yours looks fine.
 
T

thomas712

Guest
Fishlover9
Are you using tap water?
Do you have a protien skimmer?
Why is there no test score for alkalinity?
What size tank is this?
You seem to have quite a phoshpate problem as well as nutrient problem, even thought the nitritates seem low, add to that what seems like a heavy dissolved organics problem and you have plenty of hair algae, perhpas you lighting needs to be inspected as well.
Your leather would prefer to have cleaner water, perhaps water current isn't right, maybe your lighting, maybe its the heavy DOC's. could be many things.
If you wish explain your system, filtration menthods and lighting and water source.
We will help if possible.
Thomas
 
scsinet

scsinet

Active Member
I concur with all. My mushroom occasionally looks like that and always recovers, and you need to address your algae problem. Your nitrates are okay, but it'll help your algae problem if you do changes a bit more frequently and drive them down a couple points, and a Kole tang would be perfect for getting rid of what's already there. They are okay for smaller tanks, beautiful as hell, and will mow it down.
 
fishlover9

fishlover9

New Member
Thanks for the replies. My toadstool actually is back standing up straight now.
Tank specs
90gl RR with 30gl sump/fuge
Alk- 4.0
Total flow is around 1600 gph not counting the protien skimmer.
The tank is about 8 months old and was upgraded from my 55gl that was 4yrs old.
RO water for changes and top offs. 15gl water changes every 2 weeks.
I have been fighting the hair algea for about 4 months now. It is worse on the one side of my tank, because it does get about 2-3 hours of natural light. I have also been cutting my feeding back. I have about 140pds of live rock in my display and about 15pds of rock rubble in the sump. I also have cheato growing in my sump. My sand bed in the display tank is about 1-2 inches, and I have a deep sand bed in the sump(4-5inches). I have a small yellow tang, maroon gold clown, yellow tail damsel, orange spotted shrimp goby, and a mandarin. My inverts are 2 peppermint shrimp, 2 cleaner shrimp , 60 hermits, and about 30 various snails. Lighting is 260 pc and 110 t5. I have been cutting lighting back to about 4-5 hours a day.
 
T

thomas712

Guest
Start with manual removal of the hair algae, then pull and scrub the rocks if you can, then a water change and start running a phosphate remover.
Also rinse your frozen foods before using them, they usually carry a lot of phosphates as preservatives.
Perhpas you can also block the sun from hitting the tank, its sure to make that hair algae worse.
Thomas
 
seareef

seareef

Member
The hair is your biggest problem take care of that first, taking some item to remove most of it will help you out...then grab a tang of sorts,...i would suggest either a yellow or a kole tang.....
as for the toad...thats normal...they do that from time to time...it means its top is getting to heavy...aka its growing :) ...shouldn't be like that for long... ..if anything you can frag him now :) ...cut the base where he is tipping...then glue the freshly cut frag to a new rock...and where he was bent before will turn into another toad over time :)
Best of luck
~Scott
 
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