mushroom turned white

[yankit3@hotmail]

Dear Everybody,

Got 7 pieces of striped mushroom on a rock. One of them turned white, is it called "bleaching?" Should I remove it or will it do any harm to the water if I don't? Please give me some advices.

Best wishes,

Jimmy

 

[steve-s]

Welcome to Reef Frontiers

With a coral like this, white does not immediately mean dead but it will take some time to recover if it can be saved. More commonly this will be from too much light or a neighbouring coral/animal that has stress it to no end.

Can you post some detail about your tank set up, water chemistry, lighting system, water quality and how the coral is positioned in the tank. Also include what else is located nearest the shrooms and some general stock list including fish/mobile inverts.

Best place for this type of coral (light depending) is usually near the substrate. They do not need much light and prefer lower water flow.

Cheers
Steve

 

[yankit3@hotmail]

Thanks Steve. My tank is 48"x24"x24" bare bottom, with I think 60 lbs of rock. Corals are: 1 Green Star Polyp;1 button & that mushroom. They are all placed at the lower part of the tank,say 2' away from the MH light that I think couldn't cause much strong light to them. They got 6" away from each other.
Got 3 powerheads placed at the bottom of the tank blowing up the "Waste" from the fish. An xternal pump taking up water from a 36" x 20" x 16" sump to and from the main tank. Water tested with nothing wrong. The buttons & stars open beautifully. I'm now having a 3" Yelleow Tang, 1 4" Blue Hippo, 1 Royal Gamma, 2 clowns, 1 Banggai cardinal, 10 snails & 2 cleaner shrimp.
Just don't know why one of the mushroom became white. It didn't open this afternoon while others were opening widely. Anyway, thanks for your attention.


Best regards,

Jimmy

 

[steve-s]

Corals are: 1 Green Star Polyp;1 button & that mushroom. They are all placed at the lower part of the tank,say 2' away from the MH light that I think couldn't cause much strong light to them.

Actually with corals like this it can depending on the wattage of your bulbs? A 2' distance with light sensitive corals when using MH can have detrimental effects.

They got 6" away from each other.

GPS and coralimorphs will compete quite intensely via chemical toxins, since you have the space, I would seperate them even more than that. I would also ensure you use carbon to help remove toxin accumulation from the water. Do you have a skimmer and how often are water changes performed?

Water tested with nothing wrong.

Can you post the actual numbers for the chemistry and nitrogens?

Cheers
Steve

 

[loohunter]

i agree with steve. i had some hairy mushrooms in my halide tank on the bottom and over the course of several months they started bleaching. i put them in my pc tank and they are making a recover after just a couple weeks

 

[yankit3@hotmail]

Thanks again Steve. I only tested the NO3=0, PH is something around 8.0-8.2. Calcium is 360-380. I top up with Kalkwasser weekly (most on week-end) say 16 litres. I have skimmer in my sump and am running carbon in my cannister filter. BTW what is a pc tank that SHANNON mentioned? Steve, how would you recommend about the distance my MH to the corals? I think 2 feet is quite a distance the MH shed on them (actually when measure the distance again, it is exactly 2 feet and 4 inches). I do the water change on every WED & SUN of the week by taking away 1 inch of the tank water.
Thanks for your time!

Regards,


Jimmy

 

[steve-s]

Thanks again Steve. I only tested the NO3=0, PH is something around 8.0-8.2. Calcium is 360-380.

pH is a bit low for my liking but stability is just as important. I would suggest you get your alkalinity tested to see if there are any issues there. The Ca is a tad low but no real concern considering the corals kept but could be a clue to the chemistry overall. What do you keep your salinity at?
See below on the stability issue.

I top up with Kalkwasser weekly (most on week-end) say 16 litres.

I would suggest you alter this so you can add the kalk daily or even every other day. You will have far better stability in your chemistry and less concern for stressing the inhabitants allowing the chem to bottom before rising again at the end of each week. Break up the 16lt needed over the course of a week so your adding 2-3lt/day instead. The water changes 2x weekly help with stability but that's only if it is being adjusted for chemistry before using on the tank. If the saltmix is "off" from your targeted maintenance goal, it will actually skew your numbers rather than maintaining them.

BTW what is a pc tank that SHANNON mentioned?

A tank lit by power compact lighting. It is a high output fluorescent light tube.

Steve, how would you recommend about the distance my MH to the corals? I think 2 feet is quite a distance the MH shed on them (actually when measure the distance again, it is exactly 2 feet and 4 inches).

That would be impossible to answer without knowing the wattage/number of bulbs over the tank? Please post that info.

I still think lighting is the main issue.

Cheers
Steve

 

[yankit3@hotmail]

Dear Steve,

My MH is 150w with one bulb. Since I only kept 3 corals, I'm reluctantly to replace it after using for nearly 12 months. Might be I'll change it next week. Thanks again for your advice regarding the top-up. I've really learned a lot from you guys. Once again, thanks very much!.

Best Regards,

Jimmy

 

[steve-s]

I wasn't trying to suggest replacing the light, no worries there. If anything you need to add. I would have thought with a 120 gal tank, the lighting would have had more punch which was my concern. A single 150 w MH is not going to to much in the way of light damage with the coral being at 24" depth. The UV shield still on the light hood?

The only thing that really come to mind is acclimation or it was already like that when you got it, just unnoticed at the time. Assuming these are new by your posts. As I said earlier, it should recover given time and the right environment. Keep the water quality high, get the chem in line and keep the corals a good distance apart.

If your going to be adding more corals in the future, I would look at adding another light. MH is only good at a surface area of 2'x2'. On a 48" tank you need another bulb or you will end up condesing the corals into one main area which will lead to problems. A 150 w HQI at that depth will be rather restrictive on coral types but if that was your goal, it's all good.

Cheers
Steve