Mushrooms Dying

Manic

Manic

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Hey everyone,

So for the past two weeks it seems that at least one of my mushrooms dies every 3 or 4 days. All my parameters are in check (Haven't tested iodine though). Its just confusing as I have had these mushrooms for about 3 months. They look fine when the lights turn on in the morning and then about half way through the day 1 from the colony shrivels up and in about 4 days completely disapears. Anyone have any ideas why? Haven't changed anything in the tank except add a xenia frag, but the xenia is on the opposite side of the tank...
 
i can keep the mushrooms for you un till you find out what is wrong
 
Can you see anything eating them? you may need to do a midnight vigil to see if you have any unknown predators.
 
RUAN said:
i can keep the mushrooms for you un till you find out what is wrong
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Thanks for the offer, just now it's some form of parasite and it infects your tank. I've put them in my frag tank for now and lets see what happens.

Maybe it got stung by my frogspawn but they are also on opposite sides of the tank. I've read lots on mushrooms just suddenly dissolving without any measurable change in parameters, but there isn't really any answers for the cause.
 
Mike said:
Can you see anything eating them? you may need to do a midnight vigil to see if you have any unknown predators.
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There is nothing visibly eating them. I took the rock out to look at it closely and there isn't really anything on them. The weird thing is that it is always my biggest mushrooms that die. The smaller ones are all normal.
 
What else is in the tank coral wise? it may be that the light is too low or not enough food in the water column.
 
The corals in the tank are xenia, zoa's, frogspawn, green star polyps, clove polyps and a toadstool leather. I think it may be that there isn't enough nitrates in my water. My nitrates are undetectable on the elos test kit.

As for light it is a Boyu TL-550 tank with the light upgrade. So it has 72W of compact flouresent lights. I dont think it is light as there are mushrooms below the ones that are dying that are fine (At least for now)
 
What are you feeding your mushrooms?
 
I dont feed them anything as they never close over anything. I've moved them to my frag tank now. Its a completely different system so not the same water. My mushrooms seem to do better in there anyway. I think it is because in my frag tank I'm not using a skimmer and there are so many pods that they cloud my sump sometimes (No fish to eat them). Is it possible the cause is some parameter that I'm not testing for like strontium, Iodine or something. I do 20% water changes every week. Thinking about doing a 50% water change tomorrow just to dilute some chemical warfare that might be taking place and to raise or lower the parameters that might be out of check...
 
I'm not sure but if you want to do a big water change maybe do 15% a day for 3 days in a row...
 
Jaak said:
I'm not sure but if you want to do a big water change maybe do 15% a day for 3 days in a row...
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Thats sounds like a good idea. Then the changes in parameters wont be as drastic. I just want to get this mushroom dying thing over as quick as possible. It does seem though as they started dying as soon as my nitrates hit zero. I might need to feed more because I've read that the specific type of mushrooms that are dying do not feed on solid food but rather by organics in the water. My frag tank should cure this though as I try keep some nitrates in the water to get the mushrooms to grow faster.
 
Manic said:
I've read lots on mushrooms just suddenly dissolving without any measurable change in parameters, but there isn't really any answers for the cause.
Click to expand...
I have a similar situation, all other corals in my tank are healthy and happy, yet I have one rock of mushrooms that remain very small, they don't expand at all yet they were huge in the lfs, I don't understand what is wrong with them, they've been like this for about 3 weeks now. There's something they are not happy with, I'm wondering if it isn't my phosphate remover which is aluminium based, I'm sure I can recall reading something like that somewhere, but I'm buggered if I can find it again.
 
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