All leathers in tank have been closed for several weeks!

[tallreefguy]

So over a month ago, I bought a big green polyp toadstool leather. It had a couple of small white spots in the middle, but otherwise looked ok.

Ever since I put it in my tank, none of my leathers extend polyps anymore. They will eventually peel off the slime coat and extend about once every 2 weeks. They don't droop or sag. The heads still appear to be reaching towards the light but they don't extend polyps.

In the past 2 weeks, the big leather has developed a hole towards the outer edge of the coral. I dipped it with Coral RX & it came back. Polyps extended for about 2-3 days. Now it's closed up again.

Param's are SG: 1.026, Calc: 450, Alk: 8, pH: 8.2, Nitrate: 0. Temp: 80.
I run a calcium reactor. Carbon & GFO.

I'm starting to think it's some kind of fungal disease, but only the big one appears to be showing any signs of degraded health.
Any ideas??

 

[aleonn]

A photo would help a lot in an accurate diagnosis. My leather toadstool developed a hole towards the outer edge last year, and over the course of a few months, that hole extended to the sides and dropped a baby toadstool. It was pretty fascinating, and hopefully that's the case for you.

 

[acropora1981]

You didn't mention it, but are you by chance using an aluminum based phosphate removal resin?

 

[tallreefguy]

I did for about a month. I pulled it out and put in GFO

 

[acropora1981]

I did for about a month. I pulled it out and put in GFO

Ok. Leathers are quite sensitive to aluminum. If it co-insided with the usage of such a product that would make sense but it sounds like that was quite a while back?

 

[tallreefguy]

Actually, no. It was probably about 2 months ago or so?
But that could explain why the leather I moved into my other tank has had great poylp extension.

 

[acropora1981]

Well that could definitely be it then! Do some larger water changes, change carbon, floss, etc; try to get any remaining excess aluminum out of the system.

 

[BlackDendro]

leathers are tricky, my first leather was a devils hand that barely extended polyps the entire time i had it. this gave me a bad first impression of leathers, until i got a free large leather toadstool. it extended polyps after a day under my metal halides and has been been propgating itself since. i started with 2 large heads, and now i have over 7