ogtumblruser
Community Member
- Joined
- Sep 22, 2026
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- North Carolina
Hello, ladies and gentlemen. I came hear to share my experience and notes I've logged over the few last weeks in the changes I've noticed in my aquarium. I've recently started the luxury of automated-dosing on my nano reef tank. This was 'only' 2 years of having the equipment on hand just never locked in and set it up. I've always manually dosed, and I would try to dose around the same small hour window. But as many of you would know, sometimes that's not possible. Sometimes I'd forget, sometimes I would think to myself If I dosed or not and probably dosed the tank twice in a day or having to call someone to dose it for me.
But I've been doing some research based on the fact that I was noticing different looks to my corals. One in particular: my OG Bounce.
In these two pictures, this is the same mushroom but with very noticeable differences in the overall way it looks. The polyps look a bit thicker to me. Funny enough, I've always thought my OG in the beginning looked a bit off in terms of it's 'rhodactis polyps' they were very small and barely noticeable. And no, I'm not talking about the bounces or bubbles themselves but the polyps from where the bubbles form at. Sometimes I would look at the mushroom and notice that I could see through the mushroom in some spots. But it seemed happy and was always expanded and eating when spot-fed.
I will note that I only got fully encouraged to start automated-dosing because I saw that OG (about a week and a half ago) was spilling it's guts out. Not from the mouth but all over the mushroom itself. This was a taletelle sign that something in my chemistry was off and I already knew it was probably a swing in pH. I've only ever seen that due to user-error and being green in the hobby by overly dosing my reef tank with Seachem products raising dKH not knowing what i was doing.
Upon my research, I've read how mushrooms switch from exerting energy differently depending on its surrounding environment. One being shutting off it's hydrostatic 'pumps' to conserve energy to regenerate its internal damaged cells and restoring it's chemical balance. During this process the mushroom is doing something called cellular remodeling. I'm so intrigued by this because I thought the mushroom was not happy or on its way out. I never knew corallimorpharia exerted their energy differently, but I guess that's a no brainer due to them being animals haha. I think it's even more cooler that I can witness this entire process right before me. I'm not sure if its feeding habits has anything to do with its process but I can almost be certain, when spot-fed the mushroom does not react as it usually did, zero feeding response. This only concreted my belief that it's conserving all it's energy to use it all on remodeling it's cells. Staying compact (slowly collecting an edible film on its surface) and switching from Photoautotrophy (expanded & photosynthesizing) to Heterotrophy feeding (collecting small particles in the water column or searching for food). I'm only a week into the new dosing which is now once every hour for 24 hours. Not a big, but HUGE change in it's chemistry and fluctuations. I believe this change is ultimately giving the coral time to regenerate or improve itself relieving it from a spike in chemistry essentially riding a chemical rollercoaster. have a 'bit' more coral to see, how they 'remodel' themselves.
*IMPORTANT INFORMATION*
I am also seeing the process of regenerating zooxanthellae. I'm sure many of you are aware of a new study and test were proven to regenerate zooxanthellae on a bleached coral by having it in contact with a healthy 'twin' counterpart. I'm currently seeing this as well in my tank, and I will start a separate thread for that. It's very interesting and exciting. This is truly a game changer in the hobby.
I'm seeing this on a bleached Uranium Bounce mushroom by coming into contact with a healthy specimen. And surely enough, the zooxanthellae is evidently coming back. Please leave some feedback. I'm so excited to see what happens over the next two weeks.
1st Picture: You can see the polyps look almost 'clear' and different. This picture was taken back in April of this year.
2nd Picture: Today. This is later in the night so it is a bit smaller that it is earlier but it's not much bigger that was is seen. My theory is it's a bit compact due to not wasting energy by using its hydrostatic pumps to inflate itself.
I will post a better picture tomorrow afternoon.
Thanks for reading if you made it this far.
But I've been doing some research based on the fact that I was noticing different looks to my corals. One in particular: my OG Bounce.
In these two pictures, this is the same mushroom but with very noticeable differences in the overall way it looks. The polyps look a bit thicker to me. Funny enough, I've always thought my OG in the beginning looked a bit off in terms of it's 'rhodactis polyps' they were very small and barely noticeable. And no, I'm not talking about the bounces or bubbles themselves but the polyps from where the bubbles form at. Sometimes I would look at the mushroom and notice that I could see through the mushroom in some spots. But it seemed happy and was always expanded and eating when spot-fed.
I will note that I only got fully encouraged to start automated-dosing because I saw that OG (about a week and a half ago) was spilling it's guts out. Not from the mouth but all over the mushroom itself. This was a taletelle sign that something in my chemistry was off and I already knew it was probably a swing in pH. I've only ever seen that due to user-error and being green in the hobby by overly dosing my reef tank with Seachem products raising dKH not knowing what i was doing.
Upon my research, I've read how mushrooms switch from exerting energy differently depending on its surrounding environment. One being shutting off it's hydrostatic 'pumps' to conserve energy to regenerate its internal damaged cells and restoring it's chemical balance. During this process the mushroom is doing something called cellular remodeling. I'm so intrigued by this because I thought the mushroom was not happy or on its way out. I never knew corallimorpharia exerted their energy differently, but I guess that's a no brainer due to them being animals haha. I think it's even more cooler that I can witness this entire process right before me. I'm not sure if its feeding habits has anything to do with its process but I can almost be certain, when spot-fed the mushroom does not react as it usually did, zero feeding response. This only concreted my belief that it's conserving all it's energy to use it all on remodeling it's cells. Staying compact (slowly collecting an edible film on its surface) and switching from Photoautotrophy (expanded & photosynthesizing) to Heterotrophy feeding (collecting small particles in the water column or searching for food). I'm only a week into the new dosing which is now once every hour for 24 hours. Not a big, but HUGE change in it's chemistry and fluctuations. I believe this change is ultimately giving the coral time to regenerate or improve itself relieving it from a spike in chemistry essentially riding a chemical rollercoaster. have a 'bit' more coral to see, how they 'remodel' themselves.
*IMPORTANT INFORMATION*
I am also seeing the process of regenerating zooxanthellae. I'm sure many of you are aware of a new study and test were proven to regenerate zooxanthellae on a bleached coral by having it in contact with a healthy 'twin' counterpart. I'm currently seeing this as well in my tank, and I will start a separate thread for that. It's very interesting and exciting. This is truly a game changer in the hobby.
I'm seeing this on a bleached Uranium Bounce mushroom by coming into contact with a healthy specimen. And surely enough, the zooxanthellae is evidently coming back. Please leave some feedback. I'm so excited to see what happens over the next two weeks.
1st Picture: You can see the polyps look almost 'clear' and different. This picture was taken back in April of this year.
2nd Picture: Today. This is later in the night so it is a bit smaller that it is earlier but it's not much bigger that was is seen. My theory is it's a bit compact due to not wasting energy by using its hydrostatic pumps to inflate itself.
I will post a better picture tomorrow afternoon.
Thanks for reading if you made it this far.
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