Why mushrooms dying/disappearing?

[dankoos]

I have a 90 gallon FOWLR. I recently purchased some live rock that was from a reef tank that is being sold off. On some of those rocks was a few mushrooms. They were really cool. I obviously didn't pay anyting specifically for those (the rock was nice and cheap). The guy's tank was in really good shape and fish were still in it when I bought the rock.

I have HO T-5's w/ 6500k bulbs. My nitrates, nitrites and ammonia are all zero. I do not plan on having corals at all, but just curious as to why the mushrooms are dying..is it my light? Is it because of all the "dosing" you have to do with reef tanks? I have hermit crabs, snails and what looks to be an emerald crab (he hitched a ride on the rock). Would any of those eat the mushrooms?

Thanks!

[thegrun]

It could be a number of things:
Water Chemistry (Alk, Ph, Salinity...)
Too much light
Too much water flow

Hermits, snails and crabs are not likely to bother mushroom corals.

[dankoos]

Guess I just assumed mushrooms were more "hearty" corals.

[thegrun]

They are hardy, but they have limitations to what they can withstand. Too much light would be my first guess, although some species can withstand a lot of light.

[dankoos]

once they are shriveled and/or unnoticeable, are they pretty much dead? One of them was on the underside of a rock, so probably wasn't getting a lot of light.

This is why I shall never go reef!

[dcombs44]

If you give some water parameters it would be easier to get to the bottom of the issue.

pH
Ammonia
Nitrite
Nitrate
Calcium
Magnesium
Alkalinity
Temperature
Phosphates

Too much light or too much flow could be an issue. Maybe your water is too pristine.

[dankoos]

PH is 8.2
Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate all at zero.

Being it is just a FOWLR, I don't test for any of the other things you mention. I don't need to in a FOWLR, correct?

These mushrooms were just "hitchhikers", so I am not going to start doing anything for those that is not needed in a FOWLR..just trying to see if there is anything simple I am not doing.

thanks for the input.

[Dlhirst]

How long have they been in your tank? My shrooms would shrivel when first introduced, but then come back nicely. Unless the turbo snails crawl across them... then they shrivel again for a day or two, but always bounce back.
If "today" is really when this all started, just give them some time...

[mcoomer]

It may not be a terrible thing that mushrooms don't thrive in your tank. I had some hitchhike in on some LR way back when and now I've got to scrape them off every now and then to keep them under control. I sometimes with that my tank had the same problem as yours. Still, if you want to keep mushrooms alive just be patient and maintain your water quality through regular maintenance and testing. Once your tank matures I think you'll find that your mushrooms perk up.

BTW...I used to say the same thing as you. No corals for me! Now I've got 15 different acros and some LPS in the tank. Addiction is a terrible thing.

Mike

[dankoos]

Yeah, I got the live rock on Monday and some more on Wednesday...the ones from the rock on Monday are the ones that have shriveled/disappeared...took a couple days for that to occur. A couple from the Wednesday rock started to shrivel a bit this morning I noticed.

[Jason S]

Too little light could be an issue too. How many T-5s are you running?

Also, you said it was a FOWLR, but did not list your fish. What do you have in there?

[dankoos]

2 6,500K bulbs and 2 acintic. 4 total.

At present, just 2 Ocellaris Clowns.

[Jason S]

Hmmn, then I doubt it is either the lighting or the fish.

[dankoos]

they're back! Must be some sort of breaking in period. They were back in full "bloom" this evening after work. Can't believe how much they withdrew...couldn't even tell they were there before.