Shrooms taking over, need to get rid of some...
 

I have a large patch of mushrooms that I'd like to thin out a bit so I can put in more corals. They are on a rock that is not removable so whatever I do it has to be done in the tank. What can be done to kill some of these shrooms and not upset the balance of the tank?

Thanks for any help.

Could you just pull them off? I'm sure some would regenerate, but...

I think I read once that kalk paste can do the trick. Seems a shame to have to kill the shrooms, but I know the feeling of watching a coral take over on a rock you cant get out of the tank to work on.

I read on RC that if you aim a PH at them they will release from the rock in time... then you could sell them. I have not tried this yet though.

This has happened to me before, unintentionally. I would give it a try.

I've lived through this too. Some mushrooms will take over an entire tank, then you post for advice, and there's always the "well send them to me, I can't find any over here. Oh did I mention I'm 40000km away? Will you ship?" and so on.

Save those that you want to save, just take a razor blade and slice them off. Yeah it sounds brutal, but .. they're mushrooms. MUSHROOMS. They'll only heal up. And for those that you can't remove off the spots you need mushroom free, inject'em with kalk paste. Paste is better than kalk, kalk by itself is just spicy water, but the powdered paste you get at the bottom of a kalk mix that won't dissolve because you've put too much kalk into the water mixing jar.. that's the stuff you want to use.

This has worked for me too in the past. I had one mushroom and now I have 400...it's just about time to do this myself.

Thanks for the replies, I thought about a powerhead aimed at them but that might tick off the other nearby corals. I will try to slice off and save what I can and paste the rest. Will the shrooms I paste just slowly die or let go right away? Do I try to inject them right in the mouth or at the base?

I actually don't mind shrooms at all, as long as they are on their own rock and not able to spread onto the main rockwork (like what's happened to me in this case :()

If anyone wants some shrooms PM me, I have quite a few in my nano that are ready to go now. Whatever I save from my removal attempts will go in the nano too.

I did both mouth and base to make sure. They shrivel up, and either they'll heal up and you'll have to do it again, or they'll just sort of get smaller and smaller and eventually disappear.

I am the same way, I don't mind mushrooms per se, but anything that gets to "plaque proportions" generally just needs some gentle (or not so gentle) management.

I've had success removing shrooms just by irritating them :-) I rubbed them gently with my fingers a few times and they just "decided to move" somewhere else at which point I just took them out of the tank...

I am currently doing the same thing to my tank. I am injecting mine with vinegar. I am doing a few every other day so as not to put too much vinegar in my system at once. I tried the kalk but find that the vinegar is working better.

Hmm that's interesting, I didn't think of vinegar. It's working okay for you? Do they let go and survive or does it kill them? I'm assuming it kills them but like GSP and xenia, shrooms seem indestructible sometimes.

ya irritating them by poking them and higher water flow made mine loose grip so i could pick em off easy and move em to a small rock for trade.

Sit a horn coral or galaxy next to them... :twised: Or cut them off as close to the base as you can with a razor blade (and mount - sell them) then cover up whats left with some epoxy and a new frag.

I just seems to kill them. They shrivel up and sort of dissolve away after a few days.
I was doing an experiment. Kalk on 1 end of the tank and vinegar on the other. The vinegar is definately winning.