New Mushroom Corals are NOT Happy

[kittenbritches]

I have a young tank (1.5 mo) and added two clowns and a small green mushroom coral on 8/31. I drip acclimated, they're at the lowest part of the tank (short of being on the sand bed), and they are NOT PLEASED. Looking ugly, brown, a bit curled up, and the center mushroom was mad as soon as I put them in the tank. It spewed long threads of white and started detaching from the branch it came on. This morning it completely detached, so I sort of tucked it under the branch hoping that it will reattach to the rock below.

What can I do to make these corals happy? I have zooplankton, phytoplankton, marine snow (*available to feed; I'm not currently chucking all this in), and only have one powerhead going behind my rock work to try to get them to settle in. I'm also just using a cheap Amazon LED light right now, so I wouldn't think it's too much light, but maybe I'm wrong. Do I just need to give them time? Or are they heading for death?

Tank parameters:
Temp: 79.7
SG: 1.023
NH3: 0ppm
NO2: 0ppm
N03: 30ppm (doing another 25% WC tomorrow)
pH: 8.1
dKH: 10

 

[Tumey]

Any ideas or advice for kittenbritches @LRT

 

[LosReef]

What's the flow like? Looks like they might be getting too much by the way they're all facing. Might try putting a rock in front of them to block current if moving to a low flow area isn't an option. It's a temporary check without changing your flow. I wouldn't recommend changing lighting or flow for one coral if everything else is happy. Hope that's all it is. Good luck

 

[LRT]

Id get the shroom in lowest light/flow area of the tank. Thats where I start all my new shrooms. Light and Flow will be your biggest stresses for shrooms.
So will any change to major param especially when being acclimated to new tank and params.
Your salinity is most likely on low side to what it was sitting at id work on slowly getting that up to around 1.025
Phosphates being 0 out is also not helping much and will most likely lead to bigger issues in future but I don't think that's what is causing issue right now.
I'm sure it needs a nice quiet low light spot to adjust and should be fine. Will help it reattach as well.

 

[Spieg]

Agree that flow may be too much. For the shroom that has detached, I would get a small plastic container with some rubble rock in the bottom and place the shroom in there and give it time to reattach to a piece of rock (you can glue this to another rock later). Don't put a lid on the container as you need water to circulate, but place container somewhere with low flow so the shroom doesn't get blown out.

 

[kittenbritches]

What's the flow like? Looks like they might be getting too much by the way they're all facing. Might try putting a rock in front of them to block current if moving to a low flow area isn't an option. It's a temporary check without changing your flow. I wouldn't recommend changing lighting or flow for one coral if everything else is happy. Hope that's all it is. Good luck

I just have one powerhead running behind the rock work, so they're just getting rebound flow as it curves around the end of the tank and over to their side. I did put a rock in front of them to see if they'll open up a bit more with the flow blocked. I also moved my lights back a bit just to see if that will make a difference.

Id get the shroom in lowest light/flow area of the tank. Thats where I start all my new shrooms. Light and Flow will be your biggest stresses for shrooms.
So will any change to major param especially when being acclimated to new tank and params.
Your salinity is most likely on low side to what it was sitting at id work on slowly getting that up to around 1.025
Phosphates being 0 out is also not helping much and will most likely lead to bigger issues in future but I don't think that's what is causing issue right now.
I'm sure it needs a nice quiet low light spot to adjust and should be fine. Will help it reattach as well.

Aside from being in a cave, they're definitely in the lowest light/flow area. I'll bump salinity with tomorrow's WC. Hopefully they just need a little time.

Thanks for the responses, guys!

 

[LRT]

I just have one powerhead running behind the rock work, so they're just getting rebound flow as it curves around the end of the tank and over to their side. I did put a rock in front of them to see if they'll open up a bit more with the flow blocked. I also moved my lights back a bit just to see if that will make a difference.


Aside from being in a cave, they're definitely in the lowest light/flow area. I'll bump salinity with tomorrow's WC. Hopefully they just need a little time.

Thanks for the responses, guys!

I wouldnt hastily raise salinity. Raise it slowly with next cpl water changes.
Yes +1 to previous poster. Get the detach shroom in cup with rubble in low light flow area along with others and you should be ok. Shrooms can take a few weeks to adjust. Especially discos

 

[kittenbritches]

I wouldnt hastily raise salinity. Raise it slowly with next cpl water changes.
Yes +1 to previous poster. Get the detach shroom in cup with rubble in low light flow area along with others and you should be ok. Shrooms can take a few weeks to adjust. Especially discos

I think I'm mostly just having new reefer anxiety, honestly. I noticed that the tank was starting to run hot, so I dropped the temp last night before turning off the lights. I put the big rock back that was blocking flow, as they are really getting very little anyway. The mushies are looking much happier this morning and not curled up at all.

The detached one is still sitting under that coral branch, so I'm not going to bug it any more than I already have. I don't have any rubble I could put with it anyway, so I'll just have to hope it attaches to the rock.