How Are Saltwater Aquarium Mushrooms Affected by the Nitrate Cycle?

When you first purchase a saltwater aquarium, you have to clean the environment in the tank in a process called nitrogen cycling. This cycling goes through four stages: ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and nitrogen. The first cycle is extremely toxic and some mushroom coral will not survive to the following stages. As the toxins reduce, the mushroom coral will settle.

  1. Nitrogen Cycle

    • The nitrogen cycle is designed to convert biological waste byproducts and toxic substances into harmless compounds by using bacteria emanating from a live rock. Cleaning the tank in this way is known as nitrogen cycling, which begins with the ammonia stage. Ammonia enters the system through dead organisms or fish waste and is toxic to both fish and aquatic life such as coral mushrooms. The live rock converts ammonia to nitrite, which is less toxic than ammonia. From here, nitrite is converted to nitrate. The harmless compound nitrate does not do much damage to life in your aquarium as fish and most plants can tolerate high levels of nitrate. Nitrate is then converted to nitrogen and at this stage the ammonia reading should be at zero.

    Nitrogen Cycling in Saltwater Aquariums

    • Nitrogen cycling is normally done with the fish and aquatic mushrooms or other saltwater aquatic life already in the tank. Through each stage of nitrogen cycling your fish may show signs of distress and some may not survive past the ammonia stage of the nitrogen cycling; this is the same for aquatic mushrooms. However, after the cycling is completed you can begin to add more fish and coral into your saltwater aquarium.

    Saltwater Aquarium Mushrooms

    • There are different forms of aquatic saltwater mushrooms and each has a different look. The most popular genera of mushroom corals are actinodiscus, discosma, ricordea, corynactis, rhodactis and amplexidiscus. Corynactis California cannot tolerate high levels of nitrates, although ricordea and actinodiscus can. Distressed aquatic mushrooms may float around the tank or detach themselves from the live rock.

    Considerations

    • Most saltwater aquatic mushrooms can tolerate moderate levels of nitrate as it is less toxic than nitrites or ammonia. However, some mushrooms may begin to deteriorate if levels of nitrates are too high. Although the ultimate goal is to get the nitrate cycle to zero, anything under 20 parts per million should suffice.