Basic Coral Issues/Questions

[LappyD]

I have a 36 gallon bowfront that I started in December with about 25lbs of live rock, HOB filter, HOB refugium, and a orbit marine LED lighting (23 watts). I have checked my water parameters myself and at a local aquarium store and everything seems to be in check, and I conduct regular 15-20% water changes every 2 weeks.Tank runs consistently at 78 degrees The inhabitants include 5-10 hermits, 100+ tiny snails, decorator crab, emerald crab, cleaner shrimp, blue chromis, and a pair of firefish. The coral includes several assorted mushrooms, zoas, kenya tree coral, xenia, toadstool, and green tree leather.

My two main issues focus are:

1. Certain green mushrooms I have, fuzzy and striped, are beginning to turn white and slowly die off. I see them during the day with their mouth open and something coming out of them. This usually means they only have a day or two left. Both types are placed at the bottom of the tank, about 20-24 inches away from the light. The fuzzy ones open up all the way and remain open but the ones in more direct light are beginning to turn a slight white/translucent color, while the stripes ones remain tightly balled up and have been consistently dying off. Is it possible I am "burning them" with too much lighting or direct light?

2. My green tree coral and toadstool completely inflate during the day and remain like that every day. The toadstools polyps/shoots are all out except the last little fuzzy tip that remains within the shoot. (Also as a weird side note, the toadstool has this pair of super thin, long, white "tentacles" that come off, each having shoots coming off them, that extend 10+ inches outward and retract incredibly fast if something brushes them. I have never seen this before in a toadstool) The green tree coral is similar, just not completely opening its polyps. Again is this a case of too much lighting? Didn't think that was possible especially with LEDs.

The rest of the tank is doing awesome with the xenia and zoas spreading daily. I just purchased reef roids to see if feeding them will entice their polyps to fully emerge. Any advice will be appreciated.

Thanks

Dan

[ahtatt]

I might try to move them towards the back of the tank in a corner, where the light and flow would be less.

[ahtatt]

^^the mushrooms

[FireWater]

Mushrooms can be very finicky. Best spot in my tank for rhodactis are in a low flow and medium light spot at the bottom of a 2' tall tank.

I don't keep leathers so I can't help you there.

[alton]

Maybe Paul will chime in but you could be seeing a chem war from the leathers. Run some carbon. When I ran a low watt LED fixture my mushrooms did not do well.

[Dean]

+1 on Alton's post. I had to remove the green tree leather (Nepthea) from my softie tank because it was affecting some shrooms and zoas that it was near. I moved it to a larger tank with more room. My experience with different types of mushrooms are they need to start off in moderate light and low flow. Move them slowly to where you would like them to be but only as you see that they get back to full extension when you move them. I lost several yumas by not being patient enough. Once they start that downhill slide its very difficult to get them to recover. Just my .02 cents and experiences.

On the toadstool white strings, that sounds very odd. I've never seen that before. Could it be a parasite? Almost sounds like a Vermetid snail.

[LappyD]

Thanks you all for the reply's and suggestions, I will attempt to make those changes and keep you updated. I have noticed that the mushrooms in the shaded areas look much better. I have also adjusted my light output accordingly by about 10% and minimized their time on. As far as that "tentacle" coming out of my toadstool, I went and looked up that snail and it is not the same. I am 99% sure it is part of the toadstool as it comes out in this one patch of polyps that remain slightly raised while the others retract at night. If I can take a picture of it I will post but it is very unlikely they will come out very good. I will also attempt to take pictures and post them later to reference my first post.

Dan

[FireWater]

It may be a snail of some type that is embedded in the toadstool. Picture a nail in a tree and the tree grows around the nail.

If you want to run carbon to try it out I think I have some I could give you.

[LappyD]

Didn't think something like that was possible! I have some carbon I can cycle through but thanks for the offer, I appreciate it. Just curious what the carbon would even do in this case?

[FireWater]

It will help with any toxins that are released by the leather and softies.

[LappyD]

Ahhh gotcha! I placed two new packs of carbon, and moved the shrooms to a lower lit area. The one set already looks much better, the other one might need more time. I did take another look into the toadstool and it is definitely possible there is a parasite embedded within the toadstool. The more I look I can notice a slight bulge in that area with a small hole on the bottom of the leather right below the area. Almost as if the toadstool was going to split with the edge having a small crevice forming. Interested to see what happens. I will post updates and thanks once again for the help.

[CPLHESS]

Several things can happen. Did u acclimate ur corals to leds prior to ur lighting change ? Like previously mentioned carbon and gfo and placement in the tank can take precedent as well. If they're doing better in shaded area Andy just introduced leds the they're probably in led shock as t-5's etc aren't a direct and continuous lumen and can burn or shock them basic rule and correct me if I'm wrong fellow members is start leds 50%or less to acclimate em to leds. Wether or not their low wattage or par. Hope this helps ya and good luck. Let us know if u need anything