Dying Mushroom Garden

nczipp · 10/11/2017, 04:51 PM

My mom's and my once prolific mushroom garden has been dying in the past few weeks. My best guess? The stress from Hurricane Irma.
I'm still really confused about this though. In the days following Irma, they were fine. The first picture was actually taken at that point.
The water parameters are "perfect" according to the tank store. I don't know the exact numbers since I am away at college and my mom takes care of it at home.
Here's a timeline of events during and following Irma:
-fish and rock transported from a 10 gal to a cooler, holding about 7 gallons, with a different internal slightly weaker filter (made for a 5-gal)
-at my uncle's house (we stayed there because he was in a safer location) lost power for about 3 days, "tank" sustained with battery operated bubblers and only indirect natural light (I know that can lead to coral bleaching, but that does not appear to be what happened here)
-my mom's and my house still didn't have power so we went to a friend's place who did. At this point, my mom and I made the decision to take apart my 5-gallon freshwater tank and use it for our saltwater tank (the 5-gal was made for both fresh and salt). We did this because we couldn't set up our full 10-gal at the friend's house and because we had been thinking about it for a while.
-at this point we had our water tested and we were slightly low on pH, alkalinity, and calcium (we were unable to transport and use the supplements), but overall, the guy at the store said we had some of the best water he'd seen following the hurricane.
-after about a week, our house had power and we transported it back where is has stayed since.

So that's where we're at. My guesses what's wrong would be stress, change in flow, or the smaller mushrooms falling off and getting under a rock or rooting somewhere we can't find.

Does anyone have any input? Our mushroom garden is the main thing that my mom loves about our tank and with all the stress we've have with it, we are considering getting rid of it if we can't bring them back.

It should also be noted that the tank has some orange algae (or Cyanobacteria, I haven't seen it in person or seen many pictures) and the mushroom rock has quite a bit of hair algae as well.

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Whiterabbitrage · 10/13/2017, 03:57 PM

That was a beautiful tank. I'm so sorry for your loss. I have no insights into what you can do. If it were me, I would add lots of bacteria. Maybe your tank is going through a mini cycle? Best of luck.

norfolkgarden · 11/07/2017, 06:51 PM

Sorry for your loss.

Any updates?

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blasterman789 · 11/08/2017, 01:16 PM

That's not hair algae or cyano. Looks more like a dino outbreak, which is the likely scenario after a long period of poor water circulation (pH will drop along with healthy populations of 'good' bacteria to out compete them).

nczipp · 11/08/2017, 01:31 PM

Unfortunately, nearly all of our mushrooms shrunk to nothing. A few weeks ago, our yasha goby jumped out of the tank in the middle of the night and since our mushrooms and our goby were the main reasons we continued the hobby through all the stress, we made the hard decision to break down the tank and give up for the time being.

Naturally, my mom and I are kicking ourselves for not keeping a lid on the tank, but with the light we had, the lid did not fit and we did not have any indications that something like this would happen since our goby had not displayed such behavior previously.

Hopefully, we will be able to continue the hobby again in the future and do so with fewer losses and less stress.

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10/11/2017, 04:51 PM	#1
nczipp Registered Member Join Date: May 2017 Posts: 61	Dying Mushroom Garden My mom's and my once prolific mushroom garden has been dying in the past few weeks. My best guess? The stress from Hurricane Irma. I'm still really confused about this though. In the days following Irma, they were fine. The first picture was actually taken at that point. The water parameters are "perfect" according to the tank store. I don't know the exact numbers since I am away at college and my mom takes care of it at home. Here's a timeline of events during and following Irma: -fish and rock transported from a 10 gal to a cooler, holding about 7 gallons, with a different internal slightly weaker filter (made for a 5-gal) -at my uncle's house (we stayed there because he was in a safer location) lost power for about 3 days, "tank" sustained with battery operated bubblers and only indirect natural light (I know that can lead to coral bleaching, but that does not appear to be what happened here) -my mom's and my house still didn't have power so we went to a friend's place who did. At this point, my mom and I made the decision to take apart my 5-gallon freshwater tank and use it for our saltwater tank (the 5-gal was made for both fresh and salt). We did this because we couldn't set up our full 10-gal at the friend's house and because we had been thinking about it for a while. -at this point we had our water tested and we were slightly low on pH, alkalinity, and calcium (we were unable to transport and use the supplements), but overall, the guy at the store said we had some of the best water he'd seen following the hurricane. -after about a week, our house had power and we transported it back where is has stayed since. So that's where we're at. My guesses what's wrong would be stress, change in flow, or the smaller mushrooms falling off and getting under a rock or rooting somewhere we can't find. Does anyone have any input? Our mushroom garden is the main thing that my mom loves about our tank and with all the stress we've have with it, we are considering getting rid of it if we can't bring them back. It should also be noted that the tank has some orange algae (or Cyanobacteria, I haven't seen it in person or seen many pictures) and the mushroom rock has quite a bit of hair algae as well. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

10/13/2017, 03:57 PM	#2
Whiterabbitrage Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2013 Location: Seattle, WA Posts: 1,338 Blog Entries: 1	That was a beautiful tank. I'm so sorry for your loss. I have no insights into what you can do. If it were me, I would add lots of bacteria. Maybe your tank is going through a mini cycle? Best of luck. __________________ ~Morgan Current Tank Info: 150 gall, 30 gall sump; 30 gall refugium

11/07/2017, 06:51 PM	#3
norfolkgarden Registered Member Join Date: Jun 2012 Location: Norfolk, Virginia, USA Posts: 258	Sorry for your loss. Any updates? Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

11/08/2017, 01:16 PM	#4
blasterman789 Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2010 Posts: 365	That's not hair algae or cyano. Looks more like a dino outbreak, which is the likely scenario after a long period of poor water circulation (pH will drop along with healthy populations of 'good' bacteria to out compete them).

11/08/2017, 01:31 PM	#5
nczipp Registered Member Join Date: May 2017 Posts: 61	Unfortunately, nearly all of our mushrooms shrunk to nothing. A few weeks ago, our yasha goby jumped out of the tank in the middle of the night and since our mushrooms and our goby were the main reasons we continued the hobby through all the stress, we made the hard decision to break down the tank and give up for the time being. Naturally, my mom and I are kicking ourselves for not keeping a lid on the tank, but with the light we had, the lid did not fit and we did not have any indications that something like this would happen since our goby had not displayed such behavior previously. Hopefully, we will be able to continue the hobby again in the future and do so with fewer losses and less stress. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk