New Mushroom Folding Over

[Firefish15]

Hey all,

I got my first ever batch of corals a few weeks ago, a sinularia frag, a zoa colony, and a single mushroom polyp. I spot feed Reef Roids twice a week. The mushroom is on a rock in the sandbed in a lower flow area of the tank. In the past week though, the edges of the oral disc have curled outward until they're touching the stalk. I suspect that the lights are too intense for it. I recently turned up the intensity on my Hipargero AquaKnight to 40% power on blue, 30% power on white. Can anyone offer any input?

Thanks in advance!

[mcarroll]

Need the basic set of info on the tank.....all tests, including nitrates and phosphates, what your setup is like, maybe a brief tank history.   You can measure the lights with a lux meter (free app or cheap handheld....I use the LX-1010B) or PAR meter.

 

Messing with the lights after corals are in is generally a no-no....what was your reason for turning them up?

 

Try to get us as much of this info as possible before making any more changes.  :-)

[Firefish15]

Right, yeah. So it's a 10g tank, started almost 5 months ago. Got 15lbs of live sand, probably around 10 lbs of rock. Light is a Hipargero. Filtration is an AC70 with filter floss and chaeto. Heater is a 50W Cobalt NeoTherm. I use Instant Ocean salt. All water changes and top-up are RODI water. I generally do several light feedings throughout the day of Marine Cuisine and Omega One Reef Flakes. 12-hour photoperiod in the tank, 14-hour reverse photoperiod in the AC70.

 

Parameters are:

 

Salinity: 1.025

Temp: 78.6F

Ammonia: 0ppm

Nitrite: 0ppm

Nitrate: 2ppm

 

Haven't tested anything else. I have been curious about my phosphate levels, but I don't think they're too high. Chaeto grows alright, and I don't get much algal growth. Little bit of diatoms, little bit of cyano. Plus a few sprigs of a weird un-IDd one.

 

I turned up the intensity by 10% because when I first got the corals, I had turned the lights farther down than normal. The zoas and sinularia are both fine, they look normal. Getting new zoa heads popping up. Sinularia just attached to the rockwork by itself.

[FlytheWMark]

Check your flow.  I have several mushrooms in my tank and some would do that because they didn't like the flow (either too much or too little).  Moving them around just a little sometimes did the trick.  Once you get them in a place they like leave em alone if you can.

[mcarroll]

16 minutes ago, Firefish15 said:

Chaeto grows alright, and I don't get much algal growth.

...So algae is happy but corals aren't happy.   Throttle back on the algae and watch the corals be happier.  Can you cut down on the light in the fuge?

 

2ppm Nitrates might is really close to zero considering the accuracy of our test kits.

 

I would get the PO4 tested at the store or pick up a cheap test kit.....we don't really care what your level are if they are in the positive, but you/we need to know if it's zero'ish.

 

If both NO3 and PO4 are zero (or very close) then your corals won't be too happy....not for long anyway.

 

I'd consider shutting down the light on the algae filter, see what happens to nutrient levels.....if they actually go too high, then you can restart it....but it seems like you may have little or no need for it.

[Coinee]

8 hours ago, Mark L. said:

Check your flow.  I have several mushrooms in my tank and some would do that because they didn't like the flow (either too much or too little).  Moving them around just a little sometimes did the trick.  Once you get them in a place they like leave em alone if you can.

To add to this: sometimes some coral are just fussy with flow and lighting. Most people move them around the tank over a period of time until the coral is "happy". 

[Firefish15]

It's been two days since I reduced the flow a bit. It looks a little better. It's definitely gotten larger since I got it though. It has a pretty strong feeding response.

[Firefish15]

It's looking better with reduced flow and lighting.

[Coinee]

36 minutes ago, Firefish15 said:

It's looking better with reduced flow and lighting.

Any idea what the name(s) of the mushroom's morph is? It looks kind of neat. 

 

Nice to see it is happier btw. My rhodactis is like 4 times the size it was when i first got it, it's crazy how much it puffed up.

[Firefish15]

54 minutes ago, Coinee said:

Any idea what the name(s) of the mushroom's morph is? It looks kind of neat. 

I think it's a blue polka dot mushroom. Under daylight, it's light brown with blue dots. I got the one head for $10.

[NuisanceAlgaeCultivator]

10.00! I need to find these steals...

[Firefish15]

22 hours ago, NuisanceAlgaeCultivator said:

10.00! I need to find these steals...

Haha, small place close to me called "Corals4Cheap". I got my leather and zoas for $10 too. I'm going back on Monday to get more stuff.