Mushrooms dying as well as palys

[pico1966]

I came home from work today and my big mushrooms have all dried up it looks like and my palys are all closed up,i just started getting red slime algae.im doing water changes every week and i bought a ro/di system and have been using it for a month.My ph has jumped in 2 days from 8.01 to 8.90.it was 7.90 this am and when i got home it was 8.80.i had a few problems with my skimmer but all is working well now.I got candy canes and leathers and there doing fine???Does anyone have any input?????

[danielsreef]

I believe the red slime you are refering to is known as cyano. I was having initial issues with algae and then purchased a phosban reactor. Algae problems no more! You can get these with a pump and phosban media for fairly cheap. Might be one possible solution.

[Aquarist007]

I came home from work today and my big mushrooms have all dried up it looks like and my palys are all closed up,i just started getting red slime algae.im doing water changes every week and i bought a ro/di system and have been using it for a month.My ph has jumped in 2 days from 8.01 to 8.90.it was 7.90 this am and when i got home it was 8.80.i had a few problems with my skimmer but all is working well now.I got candy canes and leathers and there doing fine???Does anyone have any input?????

How are you testing your pH--and are you adding any additives such as buffers---if not I suspect a testing error with that big a jump.
Have you measured your other parameters---calcium, magnesium, alkalinity and salinity?
Cyano is indicative of low flow, increased nitrates or a combination of both.

Your pH will fluctuate slightly with the low being at night when photosynthesis is not occuring.

[Sk8r]

The red slime is ignorable, just a part of a water problem, imho: check your ph (s/b 7.9-8.3) and your alkalinity (8.3-9.3), do a 20% water change, and run carbon. Softies are good about spitting at each other, and carbon can take that out. ALso check your ammonia/nitrate levels. Carbon can also take care of ammonia, ditto so can water change. And check your thermometer: temperature s/b abt 78-80.