Blood Red Muchroom Not Looking Happy

[garry_boyd3]

Thanks Jeasko, food wise I have only been using Marine snow, this also feeds Toady. What I have read is not to direct feed mushroom.

I have had to habdle hime twice. Once to put him in & second time to move him into correct postition. He came out for the first couple of days a lovely red colour. He looked alot better last night but just not right if you know what I mean. I have looked at pictures on the web sites etc just to make sure he is in the right place.

He did look better last night so you never know. But at least by 10.30 today I will know if any of my test kits are off.

 

[garry_boyd3]

Hi all, well i am back from the LFS. All tests were spot on, except for calcium. So I have got a test kit to use from now on & they suggested I use some thing called purple up to increase my calcium. Is this stuff any good? (they had loads of lovely fishes etc but will wait till next week )

So hopefully this may help. I will do a water change tomorrow & will get the calcium levels correct & see how I go from there.

 

[TigerIssey]

Purple up is a very expensive way of adding calcium and magnesium.

They were right to give you a test kit to ensure your levels remain good.

I am not convinced that calcium is actually the problem, calcium is used up by hard corals with a skeleton, not by soft mushrooms.

Did you get the refractometer calibrated??

 

[garry_boyd3]

Hi, by all accounts my refratormeter is spot on as well. so I am stumpted at the moment. Is there a cheaper way to keep calcium in even though it may not be the problem?

I am doing water changes in the morning & will get calcium up to levels. So I am not too sure whjat else to do. he is in moderate flow & good light (as per the book). So any other suggestion or because it only been about a week or so I should wait???

 

[TigerIssey]

There are many different ways to add calcium. If you do not have any hard corals, the best way is regular water changes.

What salt are you using??

Personally I would mess as little as possible for the moment, your salt brand may not be the best though, best to let us know what you are using as some are better than others for Ca and Mg leveels.

 

[garry_boyd3]

Salt brand is TMC. Have just brought the pro reef one. Will be using that today. Hope this one is OK I just brought a large buckets worth

 

[TigerIssey]

Have you always used the pro reef or just swapped to it. If Ca is low with pro reef there is something wrong somewhere, it is a high Ca and Mg salt. I use it myself.

 

[garry_boyd3]

I used the ordinary TMC stuff. I got the original box with the tank. I did a water change today with pro reef & I will another one tomorrow. Then will test the Ca again.

 

[TigerIssey]

That may be where your problem lies if you were using sea salt instead of reef salt.

If you get ryour calcium level up through water changes of the next few weeks, as you have no hard corals yet it will stay there with your regular waterchanges.

I would not worry about the mushroom, leave it to do its thing and don't move it. Do waterchanges a little more often than usual and keep testing Ca level. When it is where it should be, drop water changes down to normal scedule.

As you have used sea salt rather than reef, all of your levels will be lacking slightly, this means water changes with a reaf salt will be the best way to get all levels on track. I would not bother with Ca additive, once you get it up with water changes it should stay there.

There are all sorts of levels that will be down, such as Trace, strontium, iodine etc and it would cost a fortune to add them all individually, this is why I say don't bother with additives.

Hope that helps, good luck.

 

[garry_boyd3]

Hi, thanks Tina. I have done as you have suggested here are my stats;

SG 1.026
Temp 24
PH 8 <> 8.3
Nitrite 0
Ammonia <0.25 (therefore zero )
Nitrate 5
Calcium 400
KH 11 dkh
PO 0

So stats are OK. Mushroom still looks sorry for himself. His mouth area has gone white so not looking too good.

All crabs etc are healthy & my fish are doing Brilliantly. Toady (Mushroom toad stool) is omn his side but the book says that they will do that sometimes & come back looking good.

So any other suggestions would be appreciated.However I have only sorted out calcium etc with the new salt over the last week, so I presume it will be a sit & wait

 

[TigerIssey]

Which test kit are you using for ammonia?? Mine is API, did not bother getting salifert for that as API was OK, has only ever read 0 since initial cycle.

 

[garry_boyd3]

I am using salifert. I did get it tested at the LFS & they said it was fine. The lowest reading on them is <0.25. Do you recon getting another test kit to make sure?

 

[TigerIssey]

If that is the lowest reading on the test kit then that is fine. 0 on an API kit does not really mean 0, as hoby test kits are not accurate enough. It is however accurate enough for what we need.

If you have only just got the calcium to 400, I would wait it out for a while, although personally as I have hard corals, I go with Bornemans suggestion 450ppm or higher, and the best range for coralline algae growth which is 430-480 (I think thats right). Most additives (such as my Seachem Reef Complete, calc, mag, stront additive recommend 390) so 400 is not going to be a problem.

Looking in THE BOOK, NSW is 400-420, aquariums a minimum of 400ppm, so if you wanted to go a bit higher you could.

 

[garry_boyd3]

Thanks TI. I am doing another water change today. I will look on the tub of proreef salt & see where they bring the Ca to. But he looks worse today white patches. I will have anothr read to see if they shed their skins. Thanks again for your help.

 

[triks]

I found this topic very helpful.Thanks a lot for your nice discussion.

Thank you again