I think my Leather mushroom coral is dying.

[melosu58]

OH OK, you are not using RO/DI water. Well it looks like you are adding it to the tank. An RO/DI unit will take care of that. I think to be honest that your lighting is the immediate concern.

 

[Wy Renegade]

As melosu58 said, lighting is the immediate issue, that and water changes; a alkalinity of 2.8 isn't going to cut it. What brand of salt are you using? Your alkalinity should be reading around 11 or higher (if you're measuring dKH) or 200ppm (if you're measuring calcium carbonate alkalinity: CaCO3). If possible, rather than using tap water, get RO water from your local supermarket or grocery store (usually in bulk water machines, not in jugs). Second, do not put anything else living into your aquarium at this point; you have not completed cycling until your ammonia and nitrite are reading zero. At that point, you need to do a major (20% or better) water change to drop nitrates. Then you are done cycling, but your tank is still not going to be stabilized, probabaly not for another 6 months to one year. Once the cycle is done, you will get a diatom bloom, then a hair algae bloom (most likely). I personally prefer to wait till after the blooms to add corals, otherwise they are going to get covered in the algaes and most likely die due to lack of light.

 

[Degonese]

My coral is dead... I came home from work today and my coral had what look like a huge blister ontop of it and and in certain parts where it ripped and you can see underneath it. You can see the corals pors which looked completly swollen. The stock was shrivled, and the whole thing was laying sideways. Thanks for the help... my tank is definitly not ready for coral yet. i hope my fish will be ok. Thanks for all the help trying to get my tank straight to keep my coral alive.

 

[Tank2379]

I would take a few steps back and Cycle your Tank before going forward with any Coral or Fish... Please view our fishless cycle in the Article section of the forum.... Saltwater tanks are not a one week thing.... it can take any were from 3 to 6 weeks to cycle. Your Toadstool my be lose this time around... I would take it slow and upgrade you lightin if you like for now But I would hold off with the lighting and worry about the cycle first....

 

[melosu58]

my tank is definitly not ready for coral yet.

It really takes a person with understanding to see this. Most people would just get another and not worry about it. I agree with just doing some PWC`s and upgrade your lighting. Give it some time and you`ll be good to go.