melting ricordia

[mmessing]

I must be the only person who can kill mushrooms. My orange and green ricordia are melting over the last few weeks. Have been stable in the tank for about 3-4 months. Using PC and metal halides, they are about 1/2 way down. Other mushrooms seem fine. Only difference is I did use Stop Aptasia on a polyp rock just above them, but can't remember if they started looking worse before I did this. I had questions about iodine dips, moving them lower in the tank, other supplements or parameters to check besides the usual ph,alk,ca? Thanks, Mark

[Chuck S]

Iodine dips are usually made for SPS corals but you could try it for soft corals. I would have the mushrooms towards the bottom of the tank versus the middle in a halide lit tank. Salinity should be 1.026 or 35ppm temperature 78-81.
calcium 400-450 alkalinity 8-12DKH.

If they have been in the tank for a few months and now this has happened I would do a full parameter check of your water conditions. As always a good 25% water change can only do good. There has to be a chemical imbalance somewhere for this to happen out of the blue. Nitrate level?

[IrishStout]

I agree with Chuck that you should do a full param check and see if something is out of whack. For something as hardy as shrooms to take a turn for the worse there has to be something going on. Iodine is a thought but I would check your levels first. Again, as Chuck suggested you could try moving them to a lower light area to see if that makes a difference, that is of course if your levels are good.