Mushroom questions

[FISHEYE]

I have various mushroom rocks in my tank, all of them who seem to be doing well. I am new to SW and a few questions have come to mind, following the behavior/appearance of some of my mushrooms. From my understanding, its normal for them to expand, some of them even elevate (as if they had a small stem) and move along the rock.

I have some really great purple/green mushrooms on a rock, the size of toonies on average, but some have expanded to mush larger than that, but less lately. Is it normal for mushrooms to go through cycles? Certain of these mushrooms have faded in colour slightly and aren't "stretching" like they used to, while on the same rock some of the mushrooms look fine (is that normal?).

Aside from that, I have two rocks with smaller mushrooms that tend to seem happy one day, and not so much the other. Finally, my last mushroom rock has large mushrooms that seem extremely healthy.

This is probably normal but you guys have more experience. I have to note that I do a 20% water change about once a week (or so) and top off my water about once a day with Culligan water. None of them are in the shade.

[sniggir]

could you give us some specs on your tank... you my need to boost your nutrients, or you may have to much light for them, let us know what you feed your tank, and what elements you may add to it aswell..

Pat

[FISHEYE]

could you give us some specs on your tank... you my need to boost your nutrients, or you may have to much light for them, let us know what you feed your tank, and what elements you may add to it aswell..

Pat

I don't add anything to the water, aside from PH booster (I think that's what its called, Zoe, my fiancé, has her tank, and she's been adding the stuff to our replacement water buckets). I had a 65W fixture on the tank, that is a 16G bowfront (20 inches wide), but yesterday I upgraded to a 96W fixture (50-50 PC).

I've been thinking about adding Carbon to my AC110 that acts as a refugium, is that a good idea?

Any advice would help if some of the behavior is not normal. The mushrooms are about 10 inches from the light. I might post some pics as well if you think it might help you find the problem.

Thanks!

[az]

IODINE .

[FISHEYE]

Az, can you tell me more about Iodine?

[FISHEYE]

Also, I need to note that my tank is about 4 months old or so... (I think it affects certain nutrients that you need to add when tanks get older...)

[RoxyDog]

Zoe has shroom "issues" too ya?

why are you using ph booster may I ask?

[FISHEYE]

Looking at my tank today, everything is really nice and open, aside from the purple mushrooms that are fine, aside from a side of some of them that is a faded colour.

I was off on the ph booster... I just got home, and the bottle says Pro-Buffer dKH... Says that it increases Alkalinity and maintains ph at 8.3. Forgive my mistake! (rookies!)

I will test my levels to see if tweaking is needed. As mentionned everything else is really happy. It might even be that some of the mushrooms are higher than the ones that are successful. (therefore getting more light). Does that make any sense?

[Julie]

Mushrooms dislike strong lighting from metal halides.  Only time mine get really big up top is when the halides need changing.

[FISHEYE]

Mushrooms dislike strong lighting from metal halides.  Only time mine get really big up top is when the halides need changing.

Would a 96w PC fixture be too much for a 16 gallon high setup? I just changed it yesterday from a 65w (I had the same problem before), both are 50-50.

[Adam]

It could be they're a little shocked from the extra light they're getting.  Wait a couple days and things may improve.

[FISHEYE]

At this point, I don't think it was the change of lighting, because the problem started before hand and the lighting was only changed the day before yesterday.

I've since moved the rock (with the mushrooms on it) to the other side of the tank, slightly lower but in direct light. I've also added Carbon to my AC110 refugium. I've read on another site that the recommended lighting for mushrooms ranges between 3-8 WPG and before the change, it was at 4WPG (although the bulb was a few months old) and now I have it up to 6WPG (new bulb). I have also read that someone else was having a similar problem, "whitening" mushrooms, and this was due to lack of light. Once the person had moved the rock, it made a full recovery (fingers are crossed!).

I hope I can solve my issues, everything else, including many other mushrooms are very happy. If this fails I will try adding nutrients, although I've also heard that in a new setup (4 months), with weekly water changes there shouldn't be too much unbalance.

Thanks to all of you for your advice! On this rock, 4 out of 8 mushrooms are doing alright too, I would hate to lose some of them, they are a great purple with light green dots here and there.

I'll keep you guys posted!