Help with mushrooms

I cannot keep a mushroom alive in newest project, it's a 20 gallon, been running for a year, water tests great when I test and when a local fish store with a good reputation in corals tests as well. Lighting is 4 T5s, Ati bulbs. 1.0025, no nitrates and maybe a trace of phosphates. I bought a rock with about 5 green mushrooms, they slowing melted away, bought a frag of red ones, same thing so bought a hairy mushroom and it appears unhappy, little stringy guts every where now. Only occupants of tank are 5 or so hermits and couple turbo snails. No fish yet. Other corals are a galaxia frag that has nearly doubled in a week and half and toadstool which is looking great, and so green zoas that started growing on their own on one of the live rocks. Any ideas why can't keep mushrooms alive?

 

Try shaded areas or very indirect lighting.

Four T5 over a 20 gallon can be a lot of light!

Hope that helps.

 

yeah, my guess is you're frying them. I can't keep shrooms in the top of my tank.

 

Agreed with all the above. 4 T5HO is enough light for SPS corals and clams. Mushrooms, OTOH, prefer much lower intensity. FWIW, I'm running a 2x24 T5HO fixture on a 29h, and my mushrooms do best on the bottom of the tank.

 

I figured that's what happened on my green ones I bought so I put the new red ones under a rock ledge where I didn't think there were getting any light and reduced the photo period down to 6 hrs and still fried then I guess...guess I should be looking into some higher light corals.

 

Also can two toadstools in such a small of tank be harmful? I grown a fondness of watching the polyps on my toadstool whip around in the current and there's a small yellow one at my lfs I like

 

I would not be concerned but I would run a quality carbon, and do routine water changes.

 

I do run carbon also do 3 gallon water change every Saturday morning. I know having corals host a clown isn't ideal but that's kind of what I'm after being afraid to purchase an anemone in such a small tank. What I read toadstools seem to be acceptable coral host. Sounds like I have enough light for an anemone though lol

 

In my opinion a toad stool is the next best host next to an anemone. When LPS corals become the host that can be an issue.

 

imo its not the lighting, i believe iodine is the problem, a lack of it will cause mushrooms to die off in the way you discribe, on your next shrooms try a iodine dip and increase your iodine to sea level my shrooms are under 2000 watts of lighting and still reach out for more, i believe you will see a difference.