Leather coral lighting

[reef tank 2.0]

I picked up a leather coral from a very generous fellow reefer last night.

Right now, I have the leather on a plug and sitting in my tank, waiting to see what happens. My light levels are as follows:

UV: 50
V: 49
RB: 71
B: 71
G: 25
R: 25
W: 60

I have it set at 50% acclimation and that is running for 30 days. I believe the Hydra 26 HD has the ability to slowly ramp the settings up automatically through out the acclimation period. Should I adjust these light settings any?

 

[garygonzales]

most leathers dont require lots of light.......easy to care for

 

[Dkuhlmann]

I disagree, leathers like higher lighting and higher flow to help with shedding. They may stay alive in lower light but won't thrive by any means.

 

[reef tank 2.0]

can you recommend or comment on the settings I have set? I have my settings listed in the OP

 

[Dkuhlmann]

From what I've researched on that light I'd say you're fine with those settings. Just make sure you put your leathers in a higher flow area to help with shedding.

 

[reef tank 2.0]

Alright, thank you much

 

[garygonzales]

i know that yellow leathers like higher light to stay more yellow...but otherwise they dont need too much...i should know ,,,softies for life...lol........

 

[SilvaReefer]

I have a leather coral at the top of my rock work, it has grown up towards my LEDs and isn't bothered at all by the high light levels. It has stopped growing about a half inch below the water level.

 

[champion6sigma]

What does it mean when a cabbage leather spreads itself thin and wide and is showing discolored spots. Is that a water quality or lighting issue? My finger leather looks like a big ball with tiny stumps and there is no extension. These two leathers are on same rock. I've tried lighting and placement changes (flow placement). I'm going to do water testing soon

 

[Dkuhlmann]

Champion6sigma, Hard to say but if you give your size of tank, location of coral, how long tank has been setup, water parameters and lighting would be a big help in figuring it out for you. Picture would also help.

But please start a new thread on it. Hijacking someone else's thread is frowned upon.

 

[cloak]

Leathers don't necessarily need a lot of light to survive, but when it comes down to thriving the more light the better IME. They don't have to be right up under the halides, although a Fiji leather would probably relish this, but somewhere up top on the reef structure with quite a bit of chaotic flow seems to suit them best. (Sarcophyton, Lobophyton, Cladiella, Capnella, Sinularia etc) GL.

 

[champion6sigma]

Champion6sigma, Hard to say but if you give your size of tank, location of coral, how long tank has been setup, water parameters and lighting would be a big help in figuring it out for you. Picture would also help.

But please start a new thread on it. Hijacking someone else's thread is frowned upon.

Perhaps...but it seemed like the initial query was resolved, and that this was a tiny thread with a tiny amount of users all with leather corals thus I believed it to be a great way to get my question seen by only leather owners. I was mainly looking for a general knowledge such as if light is capable of destroying and causing spots or if its just capable of bleaching or if water is the usual culprit to brown/color degradation.

I'll start a thread soon.

 

[champion6sigma]

Leathers don't necessarily need a lot of light to survive, but when it comes down to thriving the more light the better IME. They don't have to be right up under the halides, although a Fiji leather would probably relish this, but somewhere up top on the reef structure with quite a bit of chaotic flow seems to suit them best. (Sarcophyton, Lobophyton, Cladiella, Capnella, Sinularia etc) GL.

Thanks cloak. I think I've seen your posts on other threads too. There are so many opinions on how to care for things...its tough. I've been reading thread after thread...I've posted thread on other topics, I don't always get responses.

Based on what you say and others here I think I can deduce that light variance is OK with a leather because it can live under various, my issue must be water, nutrient insufficiency, or too high bad parameters.

Thanks

 

[cloak]

What does it mean when a cabbage leather spreads itself thin and wide and is showing discolored spots. Is that a water quality or lighting issue? My finger leather looks like a big ball with tiny stumps and there is no extension. These two leathers are on same rock. I've tried lighting and placement changes (flow placement). I'm going to do water testing soon

Are you sure those spots your seeing are not the polyps?

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=597+600+638&pcatid=638

 

[Dkuhlmann]

The main reason is so when people do a search they can find the threads about the same thing they're looking for.

Perhaps...but it seemed like the initial query was resolved, and that this was a tiny thread with a tiny amount of users all with leather corals thus I believed it to be a great way to get my question seen by only leather owners. I was mainly looking for a general knowledge such as if light is capable of destroying and causing spots or if its just capable of bleaching or if water is the usual culprit to brown/color degradation.

I'll start a thread soon.

 

[urbanrat84]

What does it mean when a cabbage leather spreads itself thin and wide and is showing discolored spots. Is that a water quality or lighting issue? My finger leather looks like a big ball with tiny stumps and there is no extension. These two leathers are on same rock. I've tried lighting and placement changes (flow placement). I'm going to do water testing soon

Without knowing more, usually you will see little patches of necrotic tissue from detritus settling on the coral and not being blasted off regularly. I would say your flow is not high enough or the coral needs to be placed in a higher flow spot.

 

[champion6sigma]

I just tried uploading a picture from my dslr. Didn't accept it.

I'm seeing polyp growth now on the green cabbage...Does not look like the above link posted yet. My leather finger is showing more polyp looking fingers rather than just a big ball (like the hamburger helper white hand with stump fingers). Its not showing any height or true extension of the fingers but the fingers have multiplied. I moved the rock that both are on to a different location. I've been adding reef roids weekly now. I put a no 28 seachem bar which supplements calcium as needed. I did a big water change with salt from reef crystals.

Thanks for the help and info. I have two mp40's in a tiny 50 gallon cube and I'm running a 2000 gph vectra (all of these at very low power but which fluctuates speeds within tank limits so that it creates good motion. I need to figure out why my pics are not accepted. Everytime I take a picture with my outdated camera on my phone, its just junk.

 

[Evoixjohn]

Have a Kenya tree that is doing well with the hydra 26. It's starting to get big real fast . I may trade it in for some store credit.

 

[Dkuhlmann]

You can't upload pictures any larger than 2mb. Use Microsoft Paint which is on all Windows computers to reduce the size.

 

[Dkuhlmann]

Have a Kenya tree that is doing well with the hydra 26. It's starting to get big real fast . I may trade it in for some store credit.

I wouldn't trade the whole thing in for credit unless you don't want to keep it anymore. Just cut off a few branches and then you can get much more out of it as individual frags. The LFS is going to do the same, you can just save them the trouble and get more credit for yourself :dance: