Mushrooms are dying

[Jazzcat]

Over the past week, I've noticed my mushroom anemones dying. They are disintegrating into brown slime. I've had these mushrooms for more than four years, and they have thrived in my tank over that time, to the point where they were in danger of crowding out the other corals. No longer.

The tank has gone through a number of changes during the past two weeks.

I've begun supplementing with calcium. I have not done this until just recently. I am using Bio-Calcium by Tropic Marin. It is not supposed to change the pH. I am using as directed.

I have an Ich problem in my tank, so I began using Ruby Reef's Kick-Ick five days ago (mushrooms began dying three days ago)

I also recently added a flower anemone. This anemone went in also about the time that the shroom die off began. But how would the anemone kill shrooms that are not nearby it?

My tank is a 20g reef. 23# LR, DSB, 5.5 watt light/gallon (1 day/1 actinic PC), CPR Bak Pak skimmer, 1 powerhead/med flow. Livestock: 1 bicolor blenny, 1 cleaner shrimp, 3 scarlet hermits, 1 finger coral, 1 bubble, 1 cup, 1 open brain, and numerous dead or dying mushrooms (p.s. yesterday, while the mushrooms were dying, the other corals looked in great shape! So it appears that only the shrooms are affected.)

I've been been testing water quality every other day. I've had trouble with my ammonia test kit showing 0.25 ammonia, but it always shows this amount, even right after doing 1/3 tank water change. I think this is the baseline reading (test is Red Sea fish pHarm). All other water params normal.

I did a 1/3 water change two weeks ago, 1/4 four days ago, and another 1/3 today.

I think the problem is the Kick-Ick. I noticed that other "Reef Safe" ich meds warn against using with anemones, mushrooms, and starfish. This product had no such warning, but I think that it should!

 

[Jazzcat]

One other recent tank change: in order to encourage the growth of coraline algae, I've changed my lighting schedule. In the past week, I've been running actinic only for 1 hour in the morning, and 1 hour before lights out. I run daylight and actinic for eight hours in between.

 

[Carpentersreef]

I'd say get some carbon going and don't put in any more ich-kick until you find out exactly what's in it. Also get a siphon and suck out as much of the brown slime as you can. I would also keep up the water changes, but only 1 or 2 gallons/day.

 

[naesco]

What fish do you have in your tank that caught ich?

 

[Terry McGee]

small amounts of carbon and change carbon every 3 or 4 days. Small water changes, make sure the water has circulation make sure there is no ammonia in the tank. ,,,Take care Terry

 

[Jazzcat]

The bicolor blenny is the only fish in the tank, and it is fighting ich.

So does everyone feel that the Kick-Ick is responsible? Or could it possibly be the calcium changes or lighting changes?

 

[H@rry]

If it were me, I'd quit doing everything you have recently started doing and get back to the routine that has been successful for four years.

 

[danmhippo]

If you have successfully kept your inhavitants great for the last 4 years, and suddenly your blenny got ich, there must be a reason for it. How long have you had the blenny? Have you added anything else beside Bio-Calcium when the ich started? What you want to find out at this point is not what is killing the mushrooms, but what is causing this whole mess at the first place? I am suspecting (according to what you described) the culprit is the Bio-calcium, or more specifically, the usage of it.

I am a bio-calcium user too. However, I do notice the instruction is impossible to follow. The instruction says adding 1 tbspoon will elevate your calcium reading by 28ppm??? Crap. I test my tank calcium everytime I finished dosing to make sure the level are not too high, or to monitor the change in chemistry are not too drastic. I also noticed you can raise CA and Alk very fast using bio-calcium. I am suspecting this is the root of your problem.....drastic changes of water chemistry which led to stress = ich, which subsequently led to kick-ick, and everthing else.

By all means, Bio calcium is a great product, I have been using it for the last 2 years. But, I have said this before, whatever you intend to dose, don't add them if you will not deligently testing for it. You may not realize your levels are already off. Just a thought, this may help.

By the way, have you tested your Ca and KH before and after you dose Bio-Calcium? If yes, what are the readings before and after?

 

[Lefty1]

I think it was the kick ich. I have used it and had similar results. I will never use it again. Inverts get shrunk, some don't recover, and the rest take a couple weeks to recover. Do some water changes and rotate some carbon and hopefully everything will recover.

RR

 

[Cliff]

Same thing happened to my mushrooms last week after I dosed TwoLittleFish 2part calcium. My mushrooms disintegrated starting from the bottom ones then progressed to the top ones within 24-48 hours. All other corals were fine. I had some 15 mushrooms that disintegrated.

I noticed before when I dosed 2part calucium that mushrooms always shriveled up. But I was never concerned because mushrooms were so easy to keep and propagate -- but this time really to my surprise that all mushrooms got wiped out.

 

[Jazzcat]

Thanks for the feedback guys.

The blenny is a new addition to the tank. The tank's original fish were wiped out by ich

I let the tank run for three months with no fish before adding the blenny. I had hoped that without hosts, the ich had starved to death. No such luck (damn ich!) If only there were some detritivor that ate ich cysts. Seems like there must be something like that in the wild?

I staved off the first wave of infection by giving the blenny daily freshwater baths. The ich receded and disappeared. Now it's come back again, but not as strong as before. I think the freshwater baths helped knock down the ich population. I guess I'll try and catch the blenny for another round.

[ July 23, 2001: Message edited by: Jazzcat ]