I have a clump of mushroom corals that have been healthy and spreading for almost a year now. Suddenly several started shriveling and falling off the rock. Others look fine so far. The usual chems and salinity seem ok and the temp is a steady 82F. Any idea what I can do, or is this normal?
Any idea what type of mushrooms? Genus would be great, but if not if you could find a picture of a similar one or even better take a picture.
Any change in lighting? What type of lighting and how old are the bulbs?
What do you use to measure salinity? Do you own a refractometer yet?
Take things slow and we’ll try to help figure it out. Hope we can help.
Thanks for the reply. We have a 55gal tank with T5 two bulb (1 blueish, 1 white) about a year old.
I think the mushrooms are Actinodiscus sp. We use a floating lever type salinometer and it is running at 29 ppt. It seems to work, it shows a little higher when tank level drops and follows when I am making up more saltwater during tank water exchanges. Fish and other inverts (yellow tang, mandarin, clown condi and curly q anenome, blue and green mushroons and others) seem fine til now.
We use a floating lever type salinometer
that may or may not be part of the problem, but get a replacement, either a floating bulb typoe of a refractometer. my floating lever was way off. cheap sh*t.
Hydrometers mess up all the time, refractometers are the way to go. It may be time to replace your bulbs especially if they were running with a High Output(HO) ballast. Though sometimes even in a healthy colony will come lose if things are crowded. Is it just a couple or does it seem to be a major issue.
how often do u top off ur tank?
what kind of filtration do u use?
do u do nitrate tests?
are they placed in an area of “higher flow”?
did u add a powerhead or move the output of one?
i have had mushrooms fall off and move to other spots.
where are they located in the tank?
usually whne they fall off its insearch of greener pastures, whether lighting, flow, salinity. it may be time for new lighting or new bulbs. if they are at the bottom of a 55 with 2 bulbs, id say its the lighting
So I hadn’t noticed a huge dimming of the lights, but took your advice and changed the bulbs, replacing the HO 10KK and actinic bulbs with same. Again the lighting wasn’t much brighter but colors showed up better. The mushrooms are all re-expanded, anemones are open and picking up in color and our GSP colony, which was staying short and closed, is now blooming again! The lights were just over a year old and if I did the math right they had been on for more than the 4500 hour useful lifespan. As to the chems and salinity, thanks for the input! I will have access to a scope refractometer and will at least double check my lever type til I can get one of my own.
ur eyes wont notice the difference, but ur corals def can. glad to here everything is good.
also i noticed u said about something when the tank gets “low”
if u dont have a ato, top off everyday, dont go more than 3 days! i used to get lazy, and killed a few things after topping off after 3 days