Shrinking Mushrooms

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Bugrat

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jul 30, 2007
15
0
0
UK
I've had a slight problem with my Mushrooms in the past month, at first I thought they were spliting but it seems they have really shrunk and dont look at all well. My test revealed that Phosphate was high so I popped a bag of Rowaphos in to sort it. My question is could Phosphate cause my once large and immpresive mushrooms to shrink down to nothing?:1zhelp:
 
yes, it could, but generally mushrooms are pretty hardy. rowaphose works, but takes time to work, and is pretty expensive, best used with a phosphate reactor/chamber.

if you're tank is not too large, i'd suggest doing some larger water changes, 30% from a reliable water source.

sometimes store that sell water, they mix with just salt water and tap water, with poor quality marine salt.

or you could get good RO/DI water and mix yourself with good quality salt like from Coralife, Kent Marine. Let it mix then sit for at least 24 hours before using. But i'm sure you know all this already, so I'll stop.

Check the temperature, during the summer, over 84 could make them shrink.

Any fish nipping at them, some fish nip at mushrooms.

Any corals stinging them, there are like thousands of possibilities that could be wrong, they're normally pretty hardy.

Good luck, some photos, and detailed water parameters and upkeep info. would help. Temp., ph, salinity, Calcium, alkalinity, also could test for copper too...
 
Cheers for that Fugupuff, all my nirate, nitrite, calcium etc are fine, temp is
80 salinity .25, ph was low but just added ph buffer, I will keep an eye on the
fish to see if any nip at them. Fish are pair of Percula Clown, Regal Tang, 3 Green Chromis and 1 Anthias, also Coral banded Shrimp in there as well as clean up crew, which needs replenishing as I have had quite a few hermits die on me lately to. I only use RO water for top up and water changes so I dont think water quality is an issue. Ah well the joys of reef keeping I suppose.
 
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