Mushrooms Melting

[bobioden]

I have a good size piece of rock covered with Red Mushrooms. They have multiplied and spread EVERYWHERE. I have had them for over 2 years and they are nearly indestructable. Or so I thought. The last 3 days they have started to fall off the rock and melt. I am down to just a few left. A few of my hairy mushrooms started to do the same.

 

All my tests are good, and no other corals seem to be affected. The only change to the tank is I went from Distilled water to RO/DI which I am making from a unit I installed 4 days ago. My TDS meter shows the water going in at 143 and 0 coming out.

 

Could it be the water?? That is the only change to the system. I am stumped.

 

???

 

Bob

[tinyreef]

what does the distilled read on the tds?

 

could be something coming thru the ro/di still. it ain't truly -0-, it's just what that meter can detect down to. remember 0.0000001 (or lower) of something can still bugger corals.

 

switch back to distilled and see if there's improvement.

 

is it a bacterial buildup or just a slow withering away of the shrooms?

 

any recent flow changes, e.g. powerhead movement or rock shifting/rearrangement?

[bobioden]

The distilled water reads 1.

 

The mushrooms are literly just falling off the rock then melting to nothing. Nothing else has changed in the tank except the water. It was just my red mushrooms at first, now my green hairy are doing it too.

 

My green Blasto and my green Open Brain are down to just white skeleton. Also my RBTA is in hiding.

 

I can't believe the water can be doing this.

 

I hope I am not on the verge of a crash.

 

Bob

[Tigahboy]

man..sorry to hear, bob. it seems weird that the water would be doing that, but now I'm scared to hook up mine. =/

[chrissreef]

I say throw on some carbon and chemipure just in case, do a water cahnge and go back to distilled. maybe it's a bacteria?

[vyger]

Also sorry to hear that...If the only thing changed has been the water that may be the culprit. I've had the same mushrooms for over four years and they have spread all over too , the only thing that melted one of them is when I switched to a MH in my 6 gal and had it too close to the water.. It melted one of mushrooms down to nothing , a purple blob,so I took the rock it was on out and put it in my 2.5 gal and about a month later it actually came back to life.Hope you find out what it is before you loose your tank!!

[tinyreef]

imo it definitely can be the water. that doesn't necessarily make it so tho. i'm not comparing the purity of distilled versus ro/di either.

 

i'm just postulating that something is getting thru the ro/di that's affecting your corals but doesn't exist in the distilled. different water sources, right? switch back for a couple of weeks and see if there's improvement.

 

the fact that it's affecting everything leans toward the water rather than fungus, bacteria, lighting, or flow. usually those parameters will affect part(s) of the system. bacteria or fungus that preys on one coral may not prey on another ime, e.g. RTN. the only thing that could be universal is the water.

 

i'd think about a series of waterchanges (with your distilled source) until you change out 100%, 10%/time. radical problems sometimes require radical solutions.

 

again, i'm not debating the distilled vs. ro/di. it just appears presently that your distilled source is ok and the ro/di may not be. later on you can check ro, ro/di, distilled, whatever. hth

[speakerguy]

Did you toss the first few gallons of water it made before using the RO water in your tank?

[tinyreef]

bingo. i think we may have a winner. X)

 

 

 

sorry, bob. radical solution time.

[bobioden]

Originally posted by speakerguy

Did you toss the first few gallons of water it made before using the RO water in your tank?

 

Yes, I threw out the first 10 gallons. I am starting the series of water changes, and just added carbon. Just ran all my tests and they came back fine

 

Ammonia 0

PH 8.2

CA 390

Alk 3.09

Salinity 1.025

Mg 1350

 

I posed this problem to Randy in the Chemistry Forum at Reef Central and he thinks it might be some kind of poison.

 

I guess I will just keep a watchful eye in it.

 

Thanks guys,

 

Bob

[redneckvampire]

It could be chemical. I lost several mushrooms from having sprayed too much Lysol in another room. The tank would develope this thick scum on the surface water and clog up my filter media even if I just used a little bit in the bottom of the trash can (also in another room). I had several other corals that made it fine (they weren't happy, however they lived), but the mushrooms just melted away in a matter of a day or two. Took awhile to get back to normal. I just kept doing small changes every day until I seen results. Changed out the Seagel everyday too for the first week then dropped back to once a week for awhile.

 

I'm pretty sure most any other anti-bacterial spray would do this too.

[BKtomodachi]

Do you think the dyeing shrooms released an overload of organic compounds into the water, or do you feel that the other cnidarian sickness/dyeing is all related?

 

Are nitrates up?

[fungia]

How about copper? Can you test for that?

 

I'd suggest a polyfilter- it can pull out metals and volatile organic compounds. I know someone who lost a tank because of a failed powerhead that dumped a bunch of copper in the tank. He put a polyfilter on it and it turned BLUE (yikes)

[bobioden]

redneck vampire- I think it is chemical also. The fact that the zoos, sps, clam, and other LPS are not affected is why I think that.

 

About a week ago I pulled what was left of my cheato out of the refugium as it had turned white and was falling apart. I think this is when the problem started. I have not replaced the Cheato yet, but am planning on getting some tomorrow. I will continue with the small water changes and running the carbon.

 

BKtomodachi - Tested for Nitrates <2 using a Salifert test kit

 

fungia - I will also get a Copper test kit and test for that, as copper has been suggested by a few others as well. I will also try the Poly filter as I have heard nothing but good about them.

 

One thing though, the water in the tank has never looked this crystal clear, and the sand has never been this white.

 

There are still a few of each of the mushrooms, so it was not a complete lose.

 

I just don't think it could be the water. Especially since it tests 0 with the TDS meter.

 

Bob

[tinyreef]

Originally posted by bobioden

One thing though, the water in the tank has never looked this crystal clear, and the sand has never been this white.

that's an interesting statement. could it be the increase in clarity, i.e. increased light intensity?

 

i've had adverse shroom reactions when i changed bulbs in the past. sometimes it's just blistering, movement, slow deterioration, or just temporary shrinkage (a la Seinfeld).

 

also, i thought the other corals and livestock were affected.

 

Originally posted by bobioden

My green Blasto and my green Open Brain are down to just white skeleton. Also my RBTA is in hiding.

 

btw, i've also had poor reactions from my gob and rob on light changes. don't know the exact reason yet tho but i'm just thinking that increased light could also be a factor here.

 

the chaeto you just mentioned could also be involved but i would've thought that to be a more immediate reaction (lag time of a week?).

[bobioden]

Originally posted by tinyreef

that's an interesting statement.  could it be the increase in clarity, i.e. increased light intensity?

 

i've had adverse shroom reactions when i changed bulbs in the past.  sometimes it's just blistering, movement, slow deterioration, or just temporary shrinkage (a la Seinfeld).

 

 

The bulb seems brighter then it ever has. I too was wondering if it was a light shift in intensity. When I look at it, it seems twice as bright as before. The bulb is a 250 10k XM and when I upgraded from the 175w, 5 months back I didn't really see that much of a change in brightness. Until now. I think the GOB and Blasto had a major bleaching, and the mushoooms un-attached from the rocks looking for a new place. After running the carbon and doing a small water change the tank looks back to nornal. I added some Cheato to the fuge, so hopefully whatever chemical

battles were going on have receded.

 

 

great Seinfeld episode.

 

Bob