Firestarter's 2ft Standard tank II

[Firestarter]

I've decided to make a comeback again after lying low for the past year.

For posts on how my tank was started, refer to Part 1

Introduction

I've always been crazy about mushroom corals. Their ease of keeping and fast propagation amazed me the first time I learn about it when I just started a marine tank. Ever since, it has been my dream to have a tank full of mushroom corals with different assorted colours.

Unfortunately, I have no luck in keeping them. My mushrooms tend to do ok for the first few weeks and then start to fall off the rock or simply melt away after some time. Other corals I had were bubbles, frogspawn, hammer which were doing fine except my mushrooms.

After my corals died, I sold off the remaining corals and decided to make it a FOWLR tank with a couple of dwarf angels. Due to lack of maintenance, I lost my bi-colour angel and decided to call it a day. I was about to convert my tank into a paludarium when I thought I would give a last try to acheive my dream again.

The Goal

To acheive a tank full of mushroom corals with assorted colours. No rics or yumas, plain old discosomas species.

Tank specifications

Tank size: Standard 2ft tank

Filteration: IOS

Return Pump: Seio M820 (Yes a wavemaker)

Lights: 2x24w T5 lights DIY from DE

Fan: DIY 12V PC fan

Skimmer: Skimmerless

Misc: Algae scrubber with 11W LED light

Livestock

Assorted mushrooms

Star Polyps (To hopefully cover my wall)

1x Common clownfish

2x Firegoby

1x Yellow wrasse

1x Turbo snail

1x Sand starfish

I shall not bore you guys any longer.. here's my FTS

[Zoa guy]

interesting. what bulbs are you using?

[peacemaker]

Sweet setup, bro! Looking good.

[Gobyluver]

U can add shrimps to ur livestock bro...

[Firestarter]

interesting. what bulbs are you using?

I am currently using Aquaz Blue Pro and Aquaz cool daylight I think.

I only turn on the daylight for photo taking purposes hence the weird colour hue in the pic. I lost a few mushrooms today, reason I think attributed to the sudden light from the 2nd bulb.

[Firestarter]

U can add shrimps to ur livestock bro...

Hi Gobyluver, yesterday I bought 3 more rocks of mushrooms and one had a 2-3cm tiger pistol in it. After searching to ensure it is reef safe, I put the shrimp in but it got whacked by the yellow wrasse and clown before it could hide.

[Firestarter]

Things are not looking good for my tank.the new mushrooms are starting to melt at the base and I've tried my best to cut away the infected areas. Lost a few nice shrooms so far. Sigh.

[Harlequinmania]

Welcome back to the addictive hobby..keke

How often you change your water without using a skimmer ? Maybe you should stock slowly , mushroom prefer a more mature tank .

[Firestarter]

Welcome back to the addictive hobby..keke

How often you change your water without using a skimmer ? Maybe you should stock slowly , mushroom prefer a more mature tank .

I change about 15% of water every week. Right now my mushroooms seem to be melting one by one. I hope history does not repeat itself.

I'm thinking it could be the dieoffs from the LR that I added that caused an ammonia spike.

[tunicate]

Hey bro, what boss said about "mature tank" could be very true. I remember my office mushies kept shrinking & melting until after 2nd year onward. Now they're growing like nobody's business with minimal maintenance.

[peacemaker]

Jia lat leh... if that's the case, how long then, should we cycle our tanks? FOWLR in the first year, then add corals after 1 year anniversary? IME, a stable system (or you could say, aged) does make a better reef.

[Firestarter]

More mushies have melted this morning. Can't wait to go home after work to do a WC. Hai.

Seems like the infected ones are spreading to the healthy mushies.

[Firestarter]

Lost some nice coloured mushrooms... just did a 20% WC and those mushrooms which were melting were salvaged by slicing away the infected areas.

Conclusion of diaster: Bought new mushies and didn't let them adapt to brighter lighting,resulting in them melting and infecting others.

Another lesson learnt that patience is always the key to the hobby.

Hope things will be better soon.

[Terryz_]

Once a mushroom melt, it will affect the others... Try to Rx dip and Lugol dip the mushroom before you put them in the tank..

[Firestarter]

2 more mushies melting this morning.

Someone mentioned dipping in iodide solution. Does it have the same effect?

[Terryz_]

2 more mushies melting this morning.

Someone mentioned dipping in iodide solution. Does it have the same effect?

It will help a to stop the melting... Check your water parameter... such mass melting might cause a ammonia spike esp in a small tank...

[Firestarter]

The tank seems to be stable now. Mushrooms are opening up like before and the melting has stopped.

Will post a pic of the tank nxt week as I won't be ard for the next few days. Overall lost about 30% of my mushrooms... very heavy loss to me but I will keep on going.

[Firestarter]

Here are some pics of local mushroom tanks, that I hope to acheive as well.

[Zoa guy]

any updates?

[Firestarter]

any updates?

Hi thanks for the interest in my thread... I am currently in the process of propagating my mushrooms in my pico 'nursery' tank. I took many pics but can't seem to get the white balance in place...

I can post them if you don't mind the blue hue.

[Zoa guy]

lol, shroom themed tanks are interesting....

[Firestarter]

Here's a pic that I just took... sorry for the lousy pic.

[Firestarter]

Another pic..

[Zoa guy]

lol...why not put some shrooms on the sand?

[Firestarter]

I have to apologise for the pics... the colours are way off in real life. I need to get a decent digicam to get better pics. I had a sand star that was helping to keep the sand clean but it melted away.

I'm still contemplating to do a major rescape to the tank.

Also, coral chips will be placed over the sand for the mushrooms to attach to when they fly away.