Striped Mushrooms and Hairy Mushrooms

[GotZoom05]

Hi All,

Looking for some suggestions as to what may have happened to my mushrooms and devils hand. The tank has been established for 11 years and all parameters check out. Nitrates 0, Nitrites 0, pH 8.0, Alk .25 but I’m using a API kit, salinity 1.025, phosphates 0.

Noticed a few weeks ago that all of the mushrooms were shriveling up and becoming transparent. My devils hand also became slumped over. My fish also seemed very sluggish.

Started doing some additional testing and found that my heater was clearly failing and the water temp nose dived to around 63 F. Not good of course. Also discovered that my apex probe also failed and was reading the last know temp of 78. I’m not sure how I didn’t notice temp when my hand/arm was in the tank but needless to say I didn’t.

Got a new heater installed as quickly as possible but I have not idea how long the temp was that low. Temp came back with a couple of days. Fish are back to themselves but not the mushrooms or devils hand. Temp has been back to 78 for a a couple of weeks now and still not much of any change. The striped mushrooms are no longer shriveled but not much color and somewhat transparent.

The only thing I can think is that the low temp is the culprit.

Thoughts?

 

[fishguy242]

hi, No3 ,Po4 0? not good even with api tests.

 

[GotZoom05]

hi, No3 ,Po4 0? not good even with api tests.

As far as my eyes can tell they are both 0. I’ve used API for years and have had many spouts of detectable amounts of both No3 and Po4 using their kit. What do you recommend for testing?

 

[fishguy242]

possibly defective api kit ?
not going to recommend any in particular ,but would be more concerned, after 11yrs No4 & Po 3 bottomed out ??
sounds strange to me , take in a sample ,get checked before making any drastic moves...

 

[GotZoom05]

possibly defective api kit ?
not going to recommend any in particular ,but would be more concerned, after 11yrs No4 & Po 3 bottomed out ??
sounds strange to me , take in a sample ,get checked before making any drastic moves...

Possibly a bad kit I guess. Just purchased it last summer and expiration is 2025. Bottoming out is news to me, didn’t know there was such a thing. Unfortunately nobody local has the capability of testing water. Only place we had closed up a few years ago and they used API as well.

 

[Tcook]

Order Salifert test kits on Amazon if no one is close. They may be starving with zero nutrients. Bacteria populations can change but that is typical for much younger tanks

 

[fishguy242]

Exactly ,after 11 yrs ,I don't think possible ? bottoming out can lead to Dino's.
@vetteguy53081 could recommend you a good list of test kits.

 

[GotZoom05]

Po4 being 0 does surprise me a bit because I usually have cyano a couple times of year but mainly in the summer months. I haven’t had any since late last summer. Tests still showed positive results until after the temp issue. Just happened to fall in between me testing I guess.

 

[GotZoom05]

Just tested NO3 again and it looks closer to 5ppm now. Maybe? Looks darker in person compared to the picture.

 

[GotZoom05]

PO4 retest also looks to be about .25 now. My eyes are really bad.

 

[Tcook]

Ok. So probably the cold shock. I had a trachy that was shocked by zero nutrients to the point of translucency. Took a year to recover but is one of the brightest in my tank now. Give these time in stable conditions. They will hopefully recover. I would still get decent test kits. Also it's a good idea to run dual heaters and change them out yearly.

 

[GotZoom05]

Ok. So probably the cold shock. I had a trachy that was shocked by zero nutrients to the point of translucency. Took a year to recover but is one of the brightest in my tank now. Give these time in stable conditions. They will hopefully recover. I would still get decent test kits. Also it's a good idea to run dual heaters and change them out yearly.

Sounds good! Thank you. I’ll definitely be doing something different with the heaters. I already purchased a couple of extras.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Exactly ,after 11 yrs ,I don't think possible ? bottoming out can lead to Dino's.
@vetteguy53081 could recommend you a good list of test kits.

Salifert and Hanna are reliable.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hi All,

Looking for some suggestions as to what may have happened to my mushrooms and devils hand. The tank has been established for 11 years and all parameters check out. Nitrates 0, Nitrites 0, pH 8.0, Alk .25 but I’m using a API kit, salinity 1.025, phosphates 0.

Noticed a few weeks ago that all of the mushrooms were shriveling up and becoming transparent. My devils hand also became slumped over. My fish also seemed very sluggish.

Started doing some additional testing and found that my heater was clearly failing and the water temp nose dived to around 63 F. Not good of course. Also discovered that my apex probe also failed and was reading the last know temp of 78. I’m not sure how I didn’t notice temp when my hand/arm was in the tank but needless to say I didn’t.

Got a new heater installed as quickly as possible but I have not idea how long the temp was that low. Temp came back with a couple of days. Fish are back to themselves but not the mushrooms or devils hand. Temp has been back to 78 for a a couple of weeks now and still not much of any change. The striped mushrooms are no longer shriveled but not much color and somewhat transparent.

The only thing I can think is that the low temp is the culprit.

Thoughts?

Any change in lighting? Generally too bright of white intensity will bleach them as they will expel their zooxanthellae which is their energy blocks. High Phosphate can do the same. Cold water will have effect but they usually bounce back as it returns to normal (as would happen with shipping) and fish sluggish would be slow metabolism due to cold temps. Corals will take longer to recover

 

[GotZoom05]

Any change in lighting? Generally too bright of white intensity will bleach them as they will expel their zooxanthellae which is their energy blocks. High Phosphate can do the same. Cold water will have effect but they usually bounce back as it returns to normal (as would happen with shipping) and fish sluggish would be slow metabolism due to cold temps. Corals will take longer to recover

I did change lights a bit after getting temp back to normal. I think I will drop the intensity down a bit to see.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I did change lights a bit after getting temp back to normal. I think I will drop the intensity down a bit to see.

Will make a difference. Typical is subtle to moderate light and moderate water flow.