Blue hairy mushroom

[jjh302]

What is wrong with my blue hairy mushroom? It used to be real full and colorful now the center has white stuff coming out and it's kinda splotchy looking.

[fort384]

What are your water parameters (pH, NO3, NO2, NH4, Alk, Ca, Mg, temp, salinity)?

What is your lighting, and lighting schedule?

Are there other corals in the tank, and any other health issues?

Do you have these near the bottom? Mushrooms like lower flow and lower light than many other corals.

How long has the tank been setup?

[jjh302]

Originally Posted by fort384

What are your water parameters (pH, NO3, NO2, NH4, Alk, Ca, Mg, temp, salinity)?

What is your lighting, and lighting schedule?

Are there other corals in the tank, and any other health issues?

Do you have these near the bottom? Mushrooms like lower flow and lower light than many other corals.

How long has the tank been setup?

It's in the bottom half of the tank. This is a 92 gallon corner tank with other mushrooms and zoas and a colt and they all seem to be doing fine. I run 2x125 watt mh and 2xblue actinic t5's. T5's come on at 2pm and turn off at 11pm and the mh turn on at 3pm and turn off at 10pm.

Here is my tests from this morning.

[Massimo]

Nitrates are too high. I suggest you do a water change also, it could be that something fell on it which caused it to shrivel up

[jjh302]

Currently

[jjh302]

Is calcium too high? And all of the tests besides calcium were tested against a freshwater scale. I'm guessing the true factors may be a tad different?

[Massimo]

Calcium is in fact too high. Bring it down to around 450. To me it looks like it's splitting. Mine do that from time to time.

[jjh302]

How do I lower the calcium without lowering specific gravity?

[Massimo]

Don't add calcium to the tank next time you do a water change. The calcium slowly depletes because it's being used up by algae, corals and inverts. What kind of salt do you use?

[jjh302]

I use reef crystals. What do you mean don't add calcium? I just mix saltwater to 1.023 and that's all I have ever put in my tank. I have never added any extra chemicals or anything

[Massimo]

Oh okay. I thought you were supplementing calcium. In that case, your salt has a high calcium content. I've never used reef crystals but I don't think reef crystals have that much calcium inside. Anyways, 600ppm is not going to negatively effect your mushrooms. If anything you'd see a white buildup of calcium on your equipment (filters, heaters). A water change is your best bet, mushrooms are pretty hardy.

[jjh302]

I'm going to test the calcium again right now and see if I get a different result. Standby. Lol

[jjh302]

Still getting about 560ppm

[Massimo]

How's the mushroom doing?

[Sniperhank]

Whatever issue is going on, it appears that water changes will solve all of these issues. Are you doing them weekly? Hopefully things are doing better.

[jjh302]

It's still not opening up. I change 10-15 gallons a week on my 92 gallon. He is still spewing. He was fine for the past few weeks until the other day. All my other corals are doing fine

[jjh302]

Today

[jjh302]

I did last night change my two blue t5's to new bulbs. I don't know when they were last changed. I've only had this setup about a month. I went to the new Red Sea 440 or 460nm bulbs. Maybe that will help. I need to replace the MH bulbs now. It has 20,000 in there now. Someone suggested I use the 14000. Any opinions?

[Sniperhank]

I doubt this is a lighting issue. How are the parameters now? Things look much better than the last picture you posted.

[jjh302]

I will check Params this evening. Right now I'm steady dumping my skimmer cuz my dumb butt thought it would be a good idea to put some stress coat in it. Now I have my skimmer on the lowest setting and it's constantly bubbling over.