What's Going on with My Softies?

[Harrison Gordon]

I've had a GSP for around 3 months, and a Ric mushroom colony for about a month, but recently they have been looking a little down...firstly, the GSP just hasn't really been opening and when it does it doesn't look strong; not to mention is is getting some red slime on it too. Second, 3 of my mushrooms one day just closed up and spit out their guts, but I have no idea why! This happened around the time (not sure if before or after) that I put in some more GFO (going from 1/5 recommended dose to 2/5)
but is that really enough, that little amount, to kill a bunch of them? My test kit shows the same reading anyways, although it's API so not very reliable.

 

[TUSI]

what are your parameters at.

 

[Harrison Gordon]

Nitrate 10
Phosphate less than 0.25
Alk around 8
Temp 80
Photoperiod 5 hours with two ATI bulbs two hours with 6 bulbs
Don't feed any coral food
6 LPS corals appear happy

 

[andrewkw]

Any reason why your photoperoid is so short? I would try to slowly increase the lighting schedule.

 

[TUSI]

Nitrate 10
Phosphate less than 0.25
Alk around 8
Temp 80
Photoperiod 5 hours with two ATI bulbs two hours with 6 bulbs
Don't feed any coral food
6 LPS corals appear happy

my GSP sometimes do that out of no where and two days later they are back. I would give them couple of days and see what happens. Unless there could be something biting them, file fish tend to do that, also some crabs. They are not easy to kill. How old is the tank?

 

[TUSI]

Any reason why your photoperoid is so short? I would try to slowly increase the lighting schedule.

+1

 

[Harrison Gordon]

Yeah because longer and the algae grows too fast. Right now I'm having this red algae come up that is merely a blotch of red on the rocks--you can't scrape it off--and I don't want my rocks to be covered in the stuff. I want to give the coralline time to grow. That's why I'm running GFO but I worry I added too much too fast, even tho it's only 1/5 BRS recommended dosage. Head scratcher!

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

I've had a GSP for around 3 months, and a Ric mushroom colony for about a month, but recently they have been looking a little down...firstly, the GSP just hasn't really been opening and when it does it doesn't look strong; not to mention is is getting some red slime on it too. Second, 3 of my mushrooms one day just closed up and spit out their guts, but I have no idea why! This happened around the time (not sure if before or after) that I put in some more GFO (going from 1/5 recommended dose to 2/5)
but is that really enough, that little amount, to kill a bunch of them? My test kit shows the same reading anyways, although it's API so not very reliable.

Have you checked free ammonia? NH3

 

[Harrison Gordon]

Yeah my ammonia is 0. This is getting really bad two more have just done the same thing since my last post--started with probably almost 20, now down to less than 15.

Might it be something they do like later corals? Where they close up for a few days and shed their skin and open up again???
Or.....are they just dying?
Honestly can't figure it out, they were doing fine, the only things that changed were I added more GFO, shifted the flow so they got a little more, and replaced a couple T5 bulbs which are only on a couple hours a day. After I noticed this happening, I moved them back to a low flow area, shut off the lights for a day, turned off the GFO reactor. And the same thing is still happening. Ugh!

 

[Harrison Gordon]

Also, the mushrooms have had this issue for about a week and the GSP for about two weeks

Tank is about 7 mo old.

 

[Sea MunnKey]

New tank syndrome ...

 

[Harrison Gordon]

Wouldn't this imply that I have ammonia and not enough bacteria established for the nitrogen cycle?

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

Wouldn't this imply that I have ammonia and not enough bacteria established for the nitrogen cycle?

What brand ammonia test kit

 

[Harrison Gordon]

API

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

API

You need ammonia kit that only does NH3, free ammonia. That ammonia is bad one for all creatures in tank. I use seachem ammonia test kit. Just saying. Have you done wc, and when

 

[Harrison Gordon]

Last water change was a little over a week ago, 15%.

 

[Harrison Gordon]

Alright so another water change later and I have increased photo period to 8 hrs.
GSP is looking slightly better
Mushrooms are dying and dying and dying. It was an expensive colony and I want to do something if I can!

They are closing up, letting out a goo, and turning neon green. I know leathers molt, is this the same thing or are they dying?

Params are all similar and still good. Increased GFO to bring phosphate doen more. Nitrate increased to 15 tho.

Getting new salifert kits tomorrow hopefully more accurate but if everything seems fine what are the possibilities? Could it be sick?

Thanks !