Sick Shrooms

[Thumper]

What does everyone feed their shrooms. Mine look like there starting to die, and I'm concerned with the stuff the lfs gave me to feed them which is plankton. My water is dead on so I'm confused here,

 

[steve-s]

What brand/type of "stuff" did the LFS give you and what do you mean by "your water is dead"?

Shrooms are primarily photosynthetic and don't really require food supplimentaion although they can benefit from it. Those that do feed, primarily prey capture small zooplankton. IME it's really pointless adding dissolved foods but increasing the potential of natural foods through the addition of live phytoplankton will help.

What lighting do you have on the 150 gal (?), what other corals are nearby, how much flow around them, how high are they in the tank and can you post the water parameters (actual numbers please)?

Cheers
Steve

 

[Thumper]

Well for some strange reason within the last hour they all seem to be healthy looking again and doing 100% better. I have had these for a little over a month and never seen them do this but all seems to be ok now.
The food was Liquid Life Marine Plankton
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 15
amonia 0
ph 8.2
temp 78
SG 1.022
The lighting is questionable at this point with only a little over 200 watts but the lfs told me that the shrooms didnt need much light. New lights have been ordered last week to help that end with 3 250 watt 12,000k MH.

 

[steve-s]

Nitrates are a little high for inverts, I would suggest a few water changes. The salinity is also a tad low for inverts. 1.024-25 SG (35 ppt) is best for most species. That won't necessarily fix the shrooms problems though but it will improve the overall health of the tank.

Liquid life is actually a great product, I use it myself. Just be careful not to go overboard, a few squirts a week would be plenty for a young tank. As I said though, these types of additives rarely do anything to directly feed corals but will greatly boost the fauna populations that do.

The lighting is questionable at this point with only a little over 200 watts but the lfs told me that the shrooms didnt need much light. New lights have been ordered last week to help that end with 3 250 watt 12,000k MH.

That would be your primary reason for the shrooms not doing so well. Until you get the MH, place the shrooms as high on the rock as possible but not in any heavy water flow. Once the MH is in place be sure all the corals are placed close to or on the substrate and "light acclimate" the tank to the new intensity.

Cheers
Steve