Ricordias keep melting away

[Tonii]

Good afternoon guys,

So I've tried to keep ricordias twice already but they ended up melting away. My tank is about a year old. I have a few LPS, some mushrooms and a couple of SPS which seem to be doing fine. For lights I have 3 Kessil A160WE. Is there something else I'm supposed to be doing?

PO4 0 (API Test)
NO3 0 (API Test)
Calcium 480 (API Test)
Alk 12.8 (Salifert Test)
Magnesium 1350 (Salifert Test)
Salinity 1.026

 

[mta_morrow]

I know my ricordia do best at lower light and moderate flow.

I don’t know about alkalinity that high, I run high 7’s to low 8’s.

 

[Waters]

I had a huge colony of the orange ones that started with 3 and grew to roughly 17. They were stable for over a year then melted in a matter of 2-3 days. I could never find out what caused it unfortunately.

 

[Gareth elliott]

Mushrooms have more fleshy tissue than most stony corals. Ime mushrooms, leathers, zoas will be the first to tell you that your nutrient levels are low.

Though i am hesitant to say that the api tests are correct at the low ranges. Your phosphate and nitrate being zero might be correct and the reason they are in distress.

 

[mta_morrow]

Mushrooms have more fleshy tissue than most stony corals. Ime mushrooms, leathers, zoas will be the first to tell you that your nutrient levels are low.

Though i am hesitant to say that the api tests are correct at the low ranges. Your phosphate and nitrate being zero might be correct and the reason they are in distress.

Agree on the low nutrients. I tend to believe zero in API tests really aren’t zero.

 

[Gareth elliott]

Some ideas.

Feed more in a quantifiable manner. If feeding x now increase by y test again in 3 days, if still zero increase by y again. Till you get a non zero.
Or use something like reef energy from red sea start low same process.

Get better test kits, salifert, nyos or red sea are all accurate enough for our purposes. For phosphate the hana ulr is the best but the ones above are more budget friendly.

 

[Tonii]

Thanks for the responses. Ill get some better test kits and go from there.

 

[lapin]

+1 on the above advice
Depending on where they came from the alk could be too high for them. You can also try feeding them a paste made from Reef-Riods if your nutrients are really that low.

 

[Mjrenz]

Good advice above...i run t5s on my tank and it seems to be way too bright for my mushrooms because they would stay shriveled up. I've placed them mostly in areas where they are partially shaded and they did better almost right away