Muchrooms - Do's and Don'ts? Why do they seem hard to me?

[1stMarineTankDude]

Hey everyone, I've place 3 mushroom frags in my tank since Corals were introduced. The first one seemed find for about 1.5-2 weeks, then I noticed it was shrinking. It eventually became a nub. The next two went in together, one was a large mushroom over two plugs. The other, about 6 or so variable in size on a shell. Two different mushroom types between the set. They've ran with low light over a week, I turned lights up progressively to where they need to be now for the other tank mates. The par in the area where they were located is between 80-120 given shimmer.

Tank is 35 ppt salinity
Alkalinity target is 9. It does have a slight drop over night. I'm currently tuning it with dosing Kawk.
Nitrate is between 5-10

Now that i've turned the lights up a bit for the other corals, I've noticed one of the two appears fine. Green Mushroom. The orange mushroom which had the polyps all over the shell, they are shrinking in size again. Given they are filter feeders, I have dosed some phytoplankton a few times to ensure they and the pods home some food.

Today, I did move the struggling Mushroom to a new area of the tank to shade it a bit. Am I wrong, and i need more light?

I'm way light cautious ever since a poorly calibrated par meter cost me a nice new multi headed hammer all in a couple of hours of sunburn!

 

[ChrisPPolys]

What type of flow is it in? I’d recommend low to moderate flow for mushrooms.

 

[betareef]

Now that i've turned the lights up a bit for the other corals, I've noticed one of the two appears fine. Green Mushroom. The orange mushroom which had the polyps all over the shell, they are shrinking in size again. Given they are filter feeders, I have dosed some phytoplankton a few times to ensure they and the pods home some food.

Today, I did move the struggling Mushroom to a new area of the tank to shade it a bit. Am I wrong, and i need more light?

I'm way light cautious ever since a poorly calibrated par meter cost me a nice new multi headed hammer all in a couple of hours of sunburn!

The biggest most expanded mushrooms I have ever seen were kept in a tank with minimal lighting and low flow. Yes, they shrink in bright light, IME. The different reaction of orange and green might be due to the colour mix of your lighting.

When I first had a (mostly fish only) tank with a few mushrooms and leathers, everyone was advsing way too much light. Part of that was a poor understanding of the new LED lights back then, but another part was recommendations that were mostly suited to sps and other mixed reefs.

 

[QuickrdenU]

It seems I can grow Discosoma and Rhodactis mushrooms pretty well in a mixed reef tank. But not Ricordea Florida. The 4 I have keep shrinking while the others have split several times. Which is odd because I would think Ricordea would prefer more light and flow than the others but it seems not.

I have turned down the light a little and also the flow. We’ll see if they can turn around in a couple weeks. I don’t know what else to try? These changes should help my torches as well.. one pair of the floridas seems to be doing better. I may move them all to that area. If they don’t turn around in a couple weeks, I’m gonna think about going back to dosing amino acids now that my nitrates are under control and see if that helps. Tidal gardens says it may help.

At LFS’s i always pay attention to flow in their tanks, and the last place I visited had essentially zero flow in their mushroom tank and dim blue lights… Take that for what it’s worth..

 

[Roatan Reef]

It seems I can grow Discosoma and Rhodactis mushrooms pretty well in a mixed reef tank. But not Ricordea Florida. The 4 I have keep shrinking while the others have split several times. Which is odd because I would think Ricordea would prefer more light and flow than the others but it seems not.

I have turned down the light a little and also the flow. We’ll see if they can turn around in a couple weeks. I don’t know what else to try? These changes should help my torches as well.. one pair of the floridas seems to be doing better. I may move them all to that area. If they don’t turn around in a couple weeks, I’m gonna think about going back to dosing amino acids now that my nitrates are under control and see if that helps. Tidal gardens says it may help.

At LFS’s i always pay attention to flow in their tanks, and the last place I visited had essentially zero flow in their mushroom tank and dim blue lights… Take that for what it’s worth..

I keep my Ricordeas on a rock in the sandbed, I've since put a few zoas around them. Not too much flow, lower light etc...and they are doing great.

Photos below are with lights almost off, they are massive during the day.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Too much light and flow and lack of feeding is mainly what will make them miserable as well as elevated phosphates.

 

[betareef]

At LFS’s i always pay attention to flow in their tanks, and the last place I visited had essentially zero flow in their mushroom tank and dim blue lights… Take that for what it’s worth..

That's one of the things that made me realise I was being advised to use too much light (some years ago). I became aware that the LFS tanks were not as brightly lit as my own. Now part of that may be that they didn't need to maintain the coral long term, but also a more expanded mushroom is going to sell better than one that has shrunk. The other part is advice on lighting can often be too generic, and different corals have very different requirements

 

[1stMarineTankDude]

What type of flow is it in? I’d recommend low to moderate flow for mushrooms.

I would say it is moderate. I say that and i have a new polyp still attached that hasn't put his foot down and he kinda turns up in the flow. I may move him to a better area. However, the one with issue, I moved from this area to a place in the tank that has both less flow and light.

 

[1stMarineTankDude]

Since they are filter feeders, I did turn down all water and dose some photo I have. I have reef roids, but wanted to avoid any water quality issues right now as I'm also working with some stressed monti's. I do believe that was straight up a light issue. I had a power surge and everything turned to 100%. I got semi lucky I caught it when i did.

 

[ChrisPPolys]

I would say it is moderate. I say that and i have a new polyp still attached that hasn't put his foot down and he kinda turns up in the flow. I may move him to a better area. However, the one with issue, I moved from this area to a place in the tank that has both less flow and light.

I gotcha, here’s a photo of my shroomies with low flow and high lighting. Contrary to others opinions in this thread.

 

[1stMarineTankDude]

For clarity, when I saw mine are receding, they are literally getting smaller. as in digesting themselves. If they continue on this path, as did my first one, they will be a naked nub on a plug. Not sure what to do to make them happy.

 

[ChrisPPolys]

For clarity, when I saw mine are receding, they are literally getting smaller. as in digesting themselves. If they continue on this path, as did my first one, they will be a naked nub on a plug. Not sure what to do to make them happy.

Personally I would lower your Alc a bit, 9 seems high to me. That being said I don’t chase numbers so it’s a bit contradictory to the way I reef to recommend you changing your parameters.
You stated you moved them and changed your light Tuesday. I would give them some time to respond to the changes and see how they look. If you go changing a lot of stuff within a short period of time it will be hard to tell what actually helped. I know it’s tough to sit back and watch but patience is key.

 

[QuickrdenU]

I gotcha, here’s a photo of my shroomies with low flow and high lighting. Contrary to others opinions in this thread.

Those are awesome. I need something blue/yellow in my tank. How much par do you think they are getting? Some of the mushrooms doing well in my tank are right up at the top in 250 range so it’s always hard to know what to do.

 

[1stMarineTankDude]

Personally I would lower your Alc a bit, 9 seems high to me. That being said I don’t chase numbers so it’s a bit contradictory to the way I reef to recommend you changing your parameters.
You stated you moved them and changed your light Tuesday. I would give them some time to respond to the changes and see how they look. If you go changing a lot of stuff within a short period of time it will be hard to tell what actually helped. I know it’s tough to sit back and watch but patience is key.

I moved them in order to reduce their light consumption. I cannot tell you if they are not getting food or too much light causing them to regress. I have dosed phyto to ensure something is there to filter. I had one that had about 8 polyps. two the size of a quarter, and the rest about like dimes. the quarter size ones are now dimes and the dimes are a nub on the shell, no actually coral left.

I'm running an icp test now. As I'm not spending more on coral until i understand any hidden dangers I may have.

ha-ha, the above and that I've found i really have a problem with the reliability of par meters.

 

[Mr_Knightley]

Mushrooms are not filter feeders. They have no sticky tentacles and only eat what lands on them, so dosing phyto is doing nothing for you.
I agree that alk at 9 is a little high, and Kalkwasser is not a good choice for raising it in a new tank due to the sheer potency of the product.
What is your phosphate? And have you measured PH?
Lastly, pictures would absolutely help. We're not sure what type of shrooms you even have, so that makes it difficult to give any helpful feedback.