Mushroom Polyps/ Sick need some help?

[gina&scott]

Hi,

After a water change our newly boughten blue mushroom polyps decided to shrink, shrivel and no longer open up. We have no idea why we don't know what to do. Does anyone know exactly why they are doing this? And if it means they are dying, dead, sick? What can we do to save them?

Thank you,
Gina&Scott

 

[HoCkEyGmC]

that probly shows that the salinity wasnt the same or temp or something and i shocked them. they can recover but its not a 100% thing.

 

[Fluff]

How are your water parameters? What type of lighting? How did you acclimate the new corals to the tank? As mentioned already, did you make sure your replacement water was the same salinity and temp? Any way you can upload a picture of the coral?
Also, I'm moving this to the sick fish/coral area, hopefully you'll get more assistance there. Welcome to AA!

 

[gina&scott]

Water Parameters are 1.022
Lighting is 2 flourescent compacts 24 watts each=48 watts
When we bought it we acclimatized it for around 30 ti 40 minutes.
The Mushroom Polyps were fine when we put them in the tank. It was about three weeks later if that when I did a water change in the tank for everything, so it would of been its first water change in our tank.Then it began to shrivel. I had to use the water bottles we had stacked up outside to change the water and the water bottles were colder than we expected so I tried to my best to wait for it to be around 72 degrees but I am pretty sure the water was alot colder. So I thinkit could of shocked it. I dunno.... THe ph balance was normal, and the alka. was probably slittly high at the time. so ......

 

[OniTweak]

Any pictures?

 

[melosu58]

Probably was the temp swing. When you do a PWC make sure everything is as close to what`s in the tank as possible.

 

[Fluff]

It could be the cold water, hard to say. Sometimes they shrink up also when they are expelling waste. If possible, post pics. I would give them some time though and see what happens. If they aren't sliming or loosing color, they just may need some time.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

...I had to use the water bottles we had stacked up outside to change the water and the water bottles were colder than we expected so I tried to my best to wait for it to be around 72 degrees ...

So am I reading between the lines correctly... you mixed the source water with your salt mix, and then added it to your tank within a couple hours or so?

It's normally a good thing to premix the salt with the water and let it aerate for at least 24 hours. Measuring salinity is tough right after mixing the salt, and the pH is also quite high. Letting it sit for 24 hours lets things dissolve completely and evens the water parameters out. It also give you time to bring the water up to temperature with a heater. Adding freshly mixed saltwater to the tank could've caused the mushrooms to be a little unhappy.

How much of a water change did you do, percentage wise?

 

[gina&scott]

Hi, Yes I mixed the water with the salt mix and then added it to the tank probably about 3 hours later. I did about 50% water change. I think I went a little over board. The tank was so disgusting before hand though. THere has been a little bit of an outbreak of algea and hair algea. The sides of the tank and the sand was turning brown I assume brown algea and some craps were dead in thei also along with just dirty water. I think it shocked the mushrooms. We ended up throwing them out. I did a 20% water change tow nights ago and the tank looks great but the mushroom was kind of oozing some stuff out so we didn't want it to contaminate the water so we decided to just throw it out sadly. We actually just thought the mushroom was so neat looking and that was a hard thing to do. But the mushrrom just look so bad.

 

[gina&scott]

It could be the cold water, hard to say. Sometimes they shrink up also when they are expelling waste. If possible, post pics. I would give them some time though and see what happens. If they aren't sliming or loosing color, they just may need some time.

Hi, unfortunatley we ended up throwing them out. They were oozing stuff out of them and also looked very slimy. The color was turning brown on the ends and we just didn't want it to contaminate everything else. Sadly we thought it was best and have learned a lesson not to add cold water but to wait till it becomes room temp. The water was turning so brown ever since this happened and we just didn't know what else to do.

 

[gina&scott]

What is PWCs?

 

[Fluff]

Sorry for your loss.

 

[Fluff]

PWC= partial water change

 

[melosu58]

Partial Water Change

 

[gina&scott]

Wow, I looked at your site, is that your actual websitd that you created? Very Nice!

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

A 50% water change, even with correct temp water, is still a pretty big shock to the system. If the temp was off, as well as the pH and salinity, then that was probably enough to cause some serious "issues". They probably would've recovered (indestructible little buggers), but I can understand why you pulled them out. I probably would've done the same thing.

If I might, I'd suggest doing water changes at least every 2 weeks. In fact, if you're starting to have an algae issue, I'd go for every 1 week and only do 10-20% of the water. Three weeks is a long time that lets things get a little out of control. I'd also see if you could find a place to put a Rubbermaid storage tub that could be used to store pre-made saltwater. Mix up the water and salt, throw it in the tub with a heater and powerhead, and it'll be waaaaay easier to get your "new" saltwater to match your tank water.

 

[Ziggy953]

Hmmm....

I agree with everyone else it was probably the newly mixed SW and in such a large quantity that caused the issue.

A good idea for you guys is to visit the article section of this site and read through some of the great information that we have available.

Give us a little more information about your tank.

Size? What kind of filtration you have? How much Live Rock? How many fish? How long has this tank been set up? What are your parameters, PH, Ammonia, NitrIte, NitrAte SG (salinity)?

 

[Fluff]

Great advice from Kurt and Ziggy that will hopefully help you in the future.

Wow, I looked at your site, is that your actual websitd that you created? Very Nice!

What website is that?