Shrooms Shrinking
- Thread starter Jason4
- Start date
pheasant29
Reefing newb
Has the water flow changed on them at all?
No, I thought that too because i did add a powerhead, so i unplugged it for a day and no change.
little_fish
Moderator
I have read and heard that shrooms like a little bit of nitrates and getting rid of your mechanical filtration probably removed a lot of the nitrates you had in your tank. Mechanical filtration is notorious for putting out lots of nitrates if they aren't meticulously maintained. So they are probably adjusting to the drop in nitrates.
OhNoNemo
i love triggers
Yep,i read this also,from many sites....your trates are 10 now,just curious if you knew what they were before?...i read between 10 and 15 ,maybe up to 20 is fine for shrooms and even good for them.....i think they will be fine though
eclipse_001
Reefing newb
I have the same problem with my purple shrooms, but the odd thing is that only some of them are shrinking up, and the green striped ones i have are big and beautiful,
I have know idea what they used to be. i can only imagine they were pretty high, i only changed the water once a month (if that)and had only mechanical filtration.
4 years ago when i first set up the tank everything a bought died except for the mushrooms and clowns, so i got discouraged and gave up on adding anything else and keeping up with it. During this time the mushrooms flourished. Last month i decided to give it another shot and have since replaced my mechanical filtration with a Refugium/protein skimmer and upgraded to T5 lighting along with weekly water changes.
bjohanson1234
.........
I bet the upgraded lighting might have made an impact. An increase in lighting means that the mushroom doesn't need to expand as much to collect the same amount of light.
I thought that too, so i put some of them in the refugium that has the old lighting over it and they are behaving like the the shrooms in the main tank. Maybe i need to feed them?
OhNoNemo
i love triggers
I agree with Bj on this one,as far as the ones you moved ,they may be adjusting and re-adjusting to being moved
Ulta
REEFER
how long have they been shrunken for? Shrooms will not inflate to their regular size if there was a change in water quality/lights, but they should quickly rebound (1-3 days) as long as conditions are within acceptable ranges, and current is not keeping them small.
If it has been a while(3+ days) I would start looking at other possible reasons. Start with Alk, Ph, and Phosphates.
If it has been a while(3+ days) I would start looking at other possible reasons. Start with Alk, Ph, and Phosphates.
From my experience I believe that Xenia, zooanthids and mushrooms really benefit from elevated Iodine levels in the aquariums (arround .06ppm) although some may disagree. I have found that elevated Iodine causes greater polyp extension and better colour. These observations are also noted in Reef Aquarium Vol2. If you add Iodine be sure to test for it on a regular basis.
