[GregD]

All,

I was just wondering if anyone had success keeping mushrooms in a tank with Normal Output Flourescent lights?

I have a little 30G that I have had setup for 2 years. The tank has low water flow, no nitrates and has tons of pink calcium formations on the rock. The fish are two false percs and a small goby.

I am wondering if the single flourescent bulb on the tank is enough/not enough to keep mushrooms.

TIA,
Greg D

[mountainraised]

My first setup had a 75 gal with two NO 48" bulbs, 1 actinic, 1 trochromatic. I had a colony of red shrooms and they did fine, even multiplied from one shroom to 6 in 5 months. After I got new PC's, they multiplied two-fold. Since you only have 1, I would keep the shrooms in the open to maximize light exposure from your NO's

[bongobrian]

My first tank was a 20 gallon which I started out with only one NO flourescent tube. I kept mushrooms and star polyps effectively in that tank. You should be able to keep mushrooms but don't expect much growth out of them. I would suggest getting a second strip and running higher output flourescents such as one 20k daytime and one actinic. You'll notice much more growth in the corals with the proper spectrum. If you decide to go with stronger lighting, you may start to see more nuisance algea in the tank. Just some thoughts.

[GregD]

Cool...thanks for the feedback guys. I think I'll give it a whirl.

I'll let you know how it turns out!



Thanks,
Greg D

[TooFar2Sea]

Mushrooms tend to expand more under low light to increase their surface area. Give them some room and you should have some monsters! You can also supplement them with a bit of food from time to time.