Mushroom question

[Elizzy]

A couple of months ago this mushroom looked like this:

Now it looks like this:

Is that bleaching? Thinking that it was, I've lowered the amount of time the light is on from 12 to 8.5 hours. The light is a low reef-type Build My Led. Nothing else has changed in the tank, all parameters good, water changes every week. All of the mushrooms are doing this, even those in relative shade.

Thanks!!!

[Timfish]

That looks like bleaching to me. It can be caused by phosphates being too low, exposure to temps too high or too low for that species but more likely I think in this case your assesment is right and it's the lighting. In the first picture was that under different lights than it's under now? I guess more specifically what is the history of lighting in your tank? Depending on the fixture, number and type of bulbs and the lens angle on the leds if you went from T5s to BuildMyLED it's possible you significantly increased the light with the BuildMyLED fixture.

[Elizzy]

Thanks -- well oddly, the light hasn't changed since October. A few weeks ago, I did raise the temp to a max of 80 (used to be 79). I've lowered it .5. The temperature fluctuates up/down 1 degree from set point of 78.5. I changed the salt I was using from Oceanic to Coralife. These mushrooms thrived on Coralife years ago (they're about 3 years old). Everything else in the tank is doing fantastic, especially the frogspawn, so I'm not sure what's up.

This is the first time I've ever had coral bleaching. Gonna pick up some marine snow today and see if that helps too.

[Nano Reefer Ky]

Could the GSP be irritating it?

[Elizzy]

Good thought, however I've actually got mushrooms growing on the gsp...had been fine that way for years. Some color is starting to come back since I lowered the lighting duration.

[Nano Reefer Ky]

I'm out of ideas. Good to hear it seems to be coloring back up. Hopefully that does the trick.