Toadstool Killing my tank?

layer3guru · #1 04/10/2007, 10:40 PM

All,

I have a very large toadstool that I am very fond of. I have had it for about 2 years now and the crown I know when fully extended is a good 8 inches across. All of a sudden about 4 days ago it started what I believe is shedding though I have never seen it do this before (spewing slimy mucus) All my others have closed up, green star polyps, kenya tree and my waving hand almost seems to be melting away so I got worried. Tonight I took the toadstool out and have it in a 5 gallon bucket with a mj1200 and heater. 3 days ago I did a 20 gallon water change and tonight I performed a 20 gallon water change. This is a 100gallon tank with 20 gallon sump. I have a rio 26HF which is rated at 1590 at 1 foot right now I say I am getting about 1200gph, at 4 foot it is rated for 1390 but I have had it for about 3 years now. I also have 2 mj1200's in each of the back corners. I am also running a css220 skimmer in the sump.
Lighting
500watt MH 10k
110watt actinic
temp 77.4 to 80.2 at the highest
0 phosphate
0 nitrate
0 ammonia
calcium 470
ph 8.0-8.3

Any other advice anyone would be willing to share to help me get things back to normal if I have not lost every thing already would be appreciated. I am now considering getting rid of the toadstool and kenya tree as they both are leathers and I know highly toxic but in 3 years I have never seen this or lost any corals at all. Plus I run black diamond charcoal for about 1 week a month. I do not dose anything but I feed Marine snow, along with other frozen food that I let thaw in tank water before feeding. I top off with the popular 2 part solution so many seem to be fond of. It has worked great for me thus far.

As stated any help or comments at all would surely be appreciated because honestly I am starting to panic a bit

GreyHawk1968 · #2 04/11/2007, 03:39 PM

As you know leathers are toxic to just about everything. Probably the reason you had success until now was the relative size of the corals you have in the tank. As space becomes limited more and more by growth competition starts to increase. The size of the toadstool would indicate it has begun fighting with the other corals in the tank. My brother once had a toad which was 18 inches across the head and about the only thing that would survive in the tank with it was moshrooms. His was a 125. He ended up getting rid of the toad and most everyhting recovered with a few water changes and the addition of a good high grade carbon.
JMO

layer3guru · #3 04/11/2007, 05:07 PM

Thank you for the reply. But I have very little in the tank and there was not much of anything that was close to this coral. But I believe that was the problem though because my green star polyps are starting to come back out but not much of anything else.

Thank you again, I will perform another water change with RODI water by the way this weekend.

layer3guru · #4 04/13/2007, 08:00 PM

I do not think anything in my tank is going to recover. Nothing is opening up and all my parameters test fine. I have made 2 20 gallon water changes this week to try and keep from shocking the tank. I am also running charcoal that I am switching out every 7 days. Am I going to have to start over or do I give it more time?

layer3guru · #5 04/14/2007, 05:39 PM

I have not done a water change in 3 days but getting ready to do another 20 gallon change. I just do not know what to do. But before doing the change I went and got a copper test here are my test results today.

Lighting
500watt MH 10k
110watt actinic
temp 78.9
0 phosphate
0 nitrate
0 ammonia
0 Copper
calcium 440
ph 8.0

My waving hand coral is brown and shrinking away. I had no idea a toadstool would do this much damage. It ruined a very large frogspawn as well. Now question is do I start over or just sell off the equipment. So frustrated but trying to be patient.

Duby · #6 04/16/2007, 08:16 PM

Just want to say I have a leather thats about 10-12 inches, 3 frogspawns, 1 torch, lots of mushrooms and zoos, a devils hand, xenia(2 types), a brain, GSP, a cap, birdsnest, 4" acro(Richmond Blurple), an anemone, about 6 kenya trees, and probably a few more corals I'm forgetting. I have all this in a 125 but they were all in a 75. I never had a problem with anything fighting anything.