Fed up with leathers

Laurier

Laurier

New member
K so leathers and some soft coral I have the hardest time keeping. I picked up a colt frag on Tuesday and it isnt drooping but it just won't expand. I also picked up a blue Xenia frag and have the same problem. Now my mushrooms and purple deaths are doing good. Tank gets changed with h2ocean salt during water changes

Parameters:
Ca-380
Kh-7.5
Mg- need a new test kit
P04-0.25
n03-30ppm (yes a bit high, did a water change last night)
Salinity- 1.021

Lighting is a 150mh
Flow- about 600gph from the return, maybe less. With a koralia evo 750gph

Tank is 19x19x16 cube

Any ideas would be great
 
Just a shot in the dark, but since it's your new additions that aren't opening I might hazard a guess that they need to acclimate to your lighting. They'll love the halide, but if they came from lower lighting conditions (many dealers stick softies in tanks with substandard light because they can get away with it) it may take them some time to get used to it.

30ppm nitrate is nothing to most colts, so that's not the problem. It's harder to say in the case of your "blue xenia", since species from six different families often have that label slapped on them. You might have xenia, heteroxenia, anthelia, cespitularia, sympodium or sansibia. Even possibly sarcothelia. Can you provide a pic or a more detailed description or identification?

Btw, good on you for buying a colt in the first place. One of the most underappreciated corals in the hobby.
 
I use tropic marin Pro reef salt, keep salinity at .024, and nitrates and phosphates as low as possible. I never worry about calcium, alk and all the other parameters are kept at nomal levels and right in check by using a qood quality salt. I do a 10% water change every week. The two main things I pay attention to are salinity and water temp. Anything above 78 degrees seems to be detrimental to most leathers. These will be the biggest contributors to leathers suffering. A low alk will have some drastic effects on them too. I've had everything from corals shrinking, to having burnt tips and tissue necrosis from all these. Its all trial and error but once you figure it out you'll be having them grow faster than you can cut and frag them just like me. I have 36 different species with multiples of many that I can't keep up with. Best of luck
 
Has anyone found that their leathers take longer than other corals to acclimate to their system if they are using a different style lighting than the shop?

I took a Devils hand off Laurier, as we read, he uses a 150MH, and I use T5, his Devils hand and his Corky Finger Gorg never really got used to his tank, but in my tank exploded open in a day.

Any theories there?
 
Also side note.. ive seen the size of frags involved.. they are smaller for both of us.. will the size the coral affect the ability of them recoup after a transfer?
 
Thanks guy, I think the "blue xenia" is anthelia.

I did alot of searching on here and other forums for similar situations and it seems like it may be the corals need to get used to the tank. hopefully the pictures can tell you guys a bit more.

As for phosphates, as much as I would like to run ro/di water I don't have the money for the filter and I gave my old one to my parents for for my SPS system (wasn't allowed that big of a tank in my apartment building).

As for temp, it was a bit high (80 degree's). I just lowered it, maybe this might help a bit

And salinity will be raised. Before the water change last night it was only 1.020

Really would like to get this in check. As much as I like sps, I just can't afford another tank like that and I have always been fascinated by leathers

P3190110.jpg

P3190113.jpg

P3190115.jpg
 
One other thing. Some can get Xenia to thrive, others, even the best of them, can't. Just a weird thing with them. but as far as Phosphates, well leathers do like kinda bad water. Trates up some and phosphates don't bother most.
 
Laurier said:
Thanks guy, I think the "blue xenia" is anthelia.
Click to expand...

Nah. Anthelia doesn't grow from a common stalk like the stuff in your pics. Looks like it might be a species of heteroxenia that liveaquaria sells as "octopus ink" and lonestar markets as "blue xenia". I've got some of these myself. A slower grower than most xeniids, but hardy for a heteroxenia.

Your colt though doesn't look like a colt. Hard to say for sure from the photo, but it looks more like a typical capnella or "kenya tree" type. They don't expand nearly as fluffy as a colt does, so bear that in mind.
 
But from your experience, just looks stressed?

just searched for kenya tree and that for sure looks like what I bought at the LFS

Still want some colt though once I get this figured out or the decide to perk up
 
I have found leathers take a long time to acclimate especially under halides because many times they are kept in lower light at the lfs. I keep my tank around 76 -77 degrees. I have never in two years been able to keep xenia I have no idea why. Once your salinity gets raised things will be happier too.
 
Just a quick update

had alot of issues with temp. Turned down the heater but the temp stayed at 82 degree's... yep this may be the problem. Now I fully turned off the heater and froze some bags of water and placed them in the sump since even with the heater off it stuck at 82 degrees. well in 8 hours I was able to drop it to 76 degree's and my problem may not be in the tank but my apartment. I have in-floor heaters so I turned the thermostat down and the apartment is now 74 degrees. So the MH is about to turn on and I am going to keep my eye on the temp of the tank all day, see if it raises. may have to invest in a chiller for the summer

as for the coral, they still look the same. fingers crossed that they will bounce back in the next week. Also doing another waterchange tonight
 
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