Mushroom

[Amy]

I recently bought a few blue mushrooms for my pick tank, if they are going brown is it to much or to little light?

 

[burtbollinger]

what light do you have on it, exactly?

 

[Amy]

Led strip those ones from exotica they have 3 lights in each strip 2 white 1 blue the second strip is 3 blues I believe they are 1 watt each I have them dialled way back this is on a 1 gallon pico 

[Clown79]

Going Brown is too low of light.

 

Too high of light is bleaching.

 

I couldn't find  the light online. 

[Amy]

They no longer have these lights anymore but I can certainly turn them up. I am just so confused I read to much light to little light they are fully open looking good now but are not showing blue anymore so you say to little light I will slowly turn them up a bit each day. These lights are not super strong ones for anything really high light demanding but for most softies they have been good guess just have to find that sweet spot

[Amy]

Here is a picture of them I just took. Top one is brown bottom showing some blue 

[seabass]

I doubt that you can make those lights too bright.   I'd probably try turning them up a bit.

[Amy]

This is wha they looked like in her tank with T5 lights and they were quite hidden under the corals

[seabass]

They are pretty.  I have a real hard time judging LED lights.  I assume that 1W LED bulbs are not running at a true 1W each.  From your picture, I can't say it looks especially bright, but sometimes pictures are deceiving.  I guess I'd try more light and see what happens.

[Amy]

The problem is the only T5 for these tiny tanks is the Coralif Mini Aqua light T5 with mixed reviews as they say they don't last very long and the price is insane as well. I guess I will just have to play around with these lights and see what happens, I killed many ricordeas with them I know that they just shrunk and were dead in no time. So won't be doing those again. I do have a carafe 50/50 10 watt that I don't know if it would be better suited for them or not?

 

[xthunt]

The sand and rock is exceptionally clean. Do you have any livestock in there? Feed anything?

 

edit: sorry, just made out the crab in the pic

[seabass]

1 hour ago, Amy said:

I do have a carafe 50/50 10 watt

That should be alright too.

 

Either way, I think they'll be fine.  But if you're sticking with the LEDs, crank them up.

[Amy]

Okay I will try th LEDs  bit more how they do and if not then the 50/50

i am feeding the crab as well but just a bit

 

[Amy]

Just found a picture of the lights I have, so using one strip all blue the other strip has 2 white one blue

i am not using the arm as it's to big fir the tank so just using the two strips on top of the clear top so it's quite close to the mushrooms

[seabass]

Being 1W LEDs, running them at full power is probably similar to typical PAR 30 running at about 30%.  I doubt that they are too bright.  Crank them up.

#morelight

[Amy]

Just a different question now but still a mushroom one. Can you have different coloured mushrooms touching each other?

[seabass]

Yep, a like species of a different color won't be a problem.  I believe that different species of mushrooms should even be alright.

[Tamberav]

+1 turn them up. Mushrooms will shrink small if getting too much light and expand big if not getting enough. Basically they control their own surface area in a way of controlling how much light they are taking in.

 

I remember those ecoexotic pico strips  

[Lula_Mae]

On 8/13/2017 at 6:49 PM, Amy said:

The problem is the only T5 for these tiny tanks is the Coralif Mini Aqua light T5 with mixed reviews as they say they don't last very long and the price is insane as well. I guess I will just have to play around with these lights and see what happens, I killed many ricordeas with them I know that they just shrunk and were dead in no time. So won't be doing those again. I do have a carafe 50/50 10 watt that I don't know if it would be better suited for them or not?

 

The Coralife T5 did not impress me when I bought it years ago, I was very disappointed in it.  Turn up the lights you have and see how the mushrooms do.  If they don't do well, try a PAR bulb like Coral Compulsion or ABI's Tuna Blue, though you will have to raise it pretty high over a little pico like that.

[Amy]

okay thanks everyone, just having issues keeping the dam mushrooms in one spot I think the crab moves them around too but 3 are at the back and one at the front they are not happy with this mr. crab right now. I don't like gluing them to rock did that is the past I would just like them to attach themselves. But dumb question, can they move on their own?

[seabass]

Yes, it's possible.

 

It might even be their way of trying to find more light.