Devil's Hand Leather is Rotting

[teddscau]

Hey guys. No pictures. So, the devil's hand came with the tank (got it back in May). The polyps never came out, and it's been pouting more than usual the past month or so (it closed right up). It's been getting red algae on it the past few weeks, so I've been cleaning it off with the target feeder. However, when I cleaned it a few minutes ago half of it was rotten and came right off. Legit, it looks like big chunks of sponge falling off. No, it's not shedding. I know what shedding looks like and this is something else.

Salinity 1.025
Nitrates 0
Ammonia 0
Nitrites 0
pH 7.9 (low, I know. It was 7.5 in August)
Temperature 75°F
Phosphate 0
KH 8 dkh
Calcium 420
Magnesium 1350?

The devil is maybe 2" away from an acro. Might that be the problem? But wait, the part that rotted off is the side furthest from the acro... Should I do a freshwater dip? Obviously something is going extremely wrong. I think I'll cut it off the rock and put it on a frag shelf or something. Thanks guys. We're actually having a bit of trouble with the tank right now. The guy we buy our salt from recommended this other salt, so we used that for the past couple of months and noticed the corals haven't been doing as well. Some even started bleaching. Lost a birds nest. Anyways, turns out that salt is supposed to be used for FOWLR, not reef tanks. The dendros have been upset, too. They're rarely out now.

 

[mcgyvr]

Leathers do rip/tear themselves to reproduce..
Without a picture its hard to say if thats whats happening or not..

 

[teddscau]

Doesn’t seem like reproduction. It’s literally crumbling apart. The tissue that came off is spongy and doesn’t feel healthy at all. I’ll try to get pictures.

 

[teddscau]

Wait, could the green star polyps be hurting it? It’s literally surround by them.

 

[mcgyvr]

My experience with devils hands is that they dont do well in low/zero nutrient systems..
Mine did fantastic when my tanks are new and nitrates are +10ppm... Below that they shrank up and disappeared..

 

[teddscau]

Okay, thanks. I’ll try turning off the skimmer to see if he starts to perk up.

 

[Tastee]

I lost a Torch and part of my Sinularia due to overdosing Lanthanum Chloride when my test kit kept reading Phosphates at 0.08 ppm, and in reality it was closer to 0.00. It only took a week and a half of zero Phosphates to knock over the Torch and damage the Sinularia.

I cut off the dying arm (1 of 3) of the Sinularia (and of course stopped dosing LC) and it has now recovered well. At that point I think my Nitrates were still up, probably close to 20 ppm. So zero Phosphates is also possibly your problem.


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[Uncle99]

My experience with devils hands is that they dont do well in low/zero nutrient systems..
Mine did fantastic when my tanks are new and nitrates are +10ppm... Below that they shrank up and disappeared..

+1.....this..... your starving them

 

[WVfishguy]

I had a leather which began to fill up a 90 gallon. The base grew to more than ten inches around, two - three feet at the top. Each day I'd start to trim it back, but my aquarium maintenance business was booming and I procrastinated ("I cleaned 8 tanks today. Damn, I'm tired. I'll trim that leather tomorrow."). One morning it just fell apart. In the ocean, pieces would have spread everywhere with no problem, but in an aquarium, it was a mess.