Two questions re: water quality

[littlelacho]

Hey, this is a two part question I am hoping some of you guys can help me answer. I put it in this forum as water quality is ultimately what I am questioning...

 

Part one...for about a week and a half now, two mushrooms that were previously huge and healthy have been scrunched up. One is smaller than usual but still has it's shape and color, the other is now the size of a nickel (was huge) and looks mishapen, almost swollen, darker in color and now has started stretching his foot to the side and is leaving off babies. Is this because it is super stressed or is this how they look when they split off? Tested water during this time and params are perfect but I do not test for everything. Any ideas on what I should test for above and beyond what is listed below? Mg? I do weekly 20% water changes with RO/DI from LFS and Reef Crystals salt. I do dose Brightwell's 2 part once a week or by the end of the week before my WC, my CA drops a bit more than I would like. Feed every other day. Results from last tests:

 

SG 1.025

NH3 0

NO2 0

NO3 0...strange as it is usually closer to 5 - 10 color (API colors are too close for me to determine which)

CA 420

dKH 10

Temp 79-80.5

PH 8.2 (does fluctuate a bit...if I test in morning after lights have been off all night or at night when they've been on all day but this has never caused a problem before)

 

Part two...I have two tank bred Ocellaris Clownfish that I bought as juveniles and they have now bred twice, last night was the second time. Some are obviously becoming food or getting sucked into the filter but assume some just die and get into the rock and such My question is, will they cause an ammonia spike that I may not be catching that could be affecting the mushrooms?

 

Only other thing I can think of is that I sprayed lysol all over the house as my son was sick including the rooms around the tank (not thinking) and I've got an azoo fan for evaporative cooling...could chemicals have gotten into the tank? Everything else looks okay but I am trying to think of everything here?

 

Sorry for the long post and thanks in advance for any feedback!

[littlelacho]

Anyone have any ideas? Thanks a bunch

[Austin]

HELLO HELLO

 

Here's my thoughts:

 

Mushroom corals are a little stranger than they are made out to be. Sometimes, even though lighting and params are perfecto - they will bleach or scrunch up and never recover. Sometimes, they will goo along the rocks and leave lil baby shrooms. And sometimes, they'll get everywhere in your tank and become annoying weeds like GSP or xenia.

 

When they move - it's because they don't like where they are at. The baby shrooms are more of a byproduct of the unhappiness (and subsequent movement) than anything else. A splitting shroom will scrunch up, then stretch out horizontally - and you will see its mouth stretch and then become two before the rest of the shroom totally splits off into two totally separate ones.

 

So basically mushroom corals' behavior shouldn't necessarily be your tank-health barometer. They're too quirky.

 

I wouldn't worry about Mg - but it might be worth checking your phosphates every so often.

 

I don't think the juvenile clowns would cause an appreciable ammonia spike in an established tank.

 

How's the health of your other corals? Call me crazy - but I think palys are the most reliable "tank health" corals.

[littlelacho]

Hey Austin, thanks for the thoughts! Hmmm...definitely doesn't sound like healthy, happy, mouth stretching splitting...more along the lines of not liking it's location, stretching to the side and the foot leaving babies splitting. It has been there, happy for a couple months but like you said...quirky. Do you think I should try to move it to a little lower in the tank? Not as close to my MH? Or just leave it be and let it do it's thing?

 

I have been meaning to pick up a phosphate test, so I will grab one this week.

 

Good to know about the fry...I was worried about that because there are so many...but even worse is it makes me feel sad that they keep making babies and I see them all swimming and getting batterd in the flow...and then they all die I have a hard time with that but have no time to set up and raise them in a grow out tank. Maybe I am just too sensitive lol!

 

Everything else looks good...I only have 4 frags of zoanthids and some yellow polyps with some run of the mill brown palys, and beside there being fairly slow growth, they all look healthy.

 

Thank you so much for your feedback!