leather coral not open in up

[Fish Keeper82]

I have one leather coral not opening up like before and starting to get lighter in color around edges . All others are fine : 4 zoa colonies ( thriving new heads every week) , cabbage leather coral (not much growth but fully open), GSP (thriving), 2 mushrooms( getting bigger but not multiplying yet), and 1 ricordea.

Its slowly been not opening as much during the day and is slightly opening at night.
Attached are some before and after pictures.


AI Hydra 26 lighting

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0.25
PO4 .05
Calcium 385
Specific gravity 1.025-1.026
Alkalinity 9.2 dkH
Magnesium 1280
Temp 80.4

Any ideas? or suggestions?

 

[cloak]

Has anything changed recently? (lighting for example) Is your alkalinity kept stable or is it bouncing around? In my experience when these corals start to sulk, increasing the amount of chaotic flow the coral is receiving always seemed to help. As long as the base is secure these corals can withstand the stronger currents and this will keep them free of detritus, algae etc. GL.

 

[Fish Keeper82]

Has anything changed recently? (lighting for example) Is your alkalinity kept stable or is it bouncing around? In my experience when these corals start to sulk, increasing the amount of chaotic flow the coral is receiving always seemed to help. As long as the base is secure these corals can withstand the stronger currents and this will keep them free of detritus, algae etc. GL.

Nothing has changed. Lighting is still the same. ALK has gone up very slowly from 8.4 to 9.2 in three months. I added more flow for a couple of hours, it did not open but I'm hoping it is just shedding. I ordered 2 more Hydor Koralia Evo powerheads. I plan on keeping one pointed on it as soon as it arrives in two or three days.
I also did a 15% water change and put 2 cups of fresh lignite carbon in my BRS reactor( BRS recommends 1 CUP for my 110 but just hoping if it is some kind of chemical warfare the extra carbon might help). Like I stated before all other corals are thriving.

I saw some reefers post their Sarcophyton can take weeks to shed. Any experience with shedding taking that long?

Is there any giveaways that its shedding VS stressed besides the obvious disintegration?

Any other suggestions?

 

[cloak]

The added flow and the carbon sounds good, but you don't want to have a power head pointing directly at the coral. You almost want to have the coral in the middle where two power heads converge. (chaotic) As far as shedding goes it really shouldn't take that long IME, maybe a week tops, but then again a happy healthy coral shouldn't really be shedding on a regular basis either. Rarely if anything. This process is generally used to cleanse the coral of algae, bacteria, detritus etc. Is there any coral around that might be stinging the coral at night? (sweepers) Being that the rest of your livestock looks ok I'm guessing it's just a flow problem at the moment. Hopefully those two power heads your adding will help, but don't expect the coral to do a complete 180 in a matter of hours or days. It might take some time to bounce back to normal, but now the trick is to see how long the coral can go without shedding again. GL.

Here's a good article regarding Toadstools btw. The information here pretty much covers all leathers IMO.

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2013/3/corals

 

[Rx79394]

How long has it been in this shrunken size? Especially if he starts to shed, but that is typically for around 3 days or so.

Mine tend to shrink quite often, but we have seen great growth out of it.

 

[Fish Keeper82]

It has disintegrated. it fell off the rock as well. once on the floor bottom I let it decompose and see what happens. some of the "polyps" are visible now. im wondering if I had too much light on it.
I fraged the remaining part to see if I could salvage any of it.
Do these leather like low lighting?
I didn't move it down because it seemed to open up nice where it was.
Again all ther corals are doing good in the tank.

 

[cloak]

If it disintegrated and basically turned to chalk then it was probably necrosis of some kind. Sometimes this just happens. If you salvaged any of it though, then you might want to put it right back where it originally was and see how it responds. These corals like a lot of light and a lot flow IME, but you can always move it someplace else if it doesn't take so to say. GL.

 

[Mark9]

i'd take it out and give it a sniff test, if nasty, toss.

 

[StinkyBunny]

i'd take it out and give it a sniff test, if nasty, toss.

There's not enough money in the world to get me to sniff a dying leather coral. There are only a few things in this world that turn my stomach, all related to the reef keeping hobby. Dead/dying leather corals, dead hammer corals or a dead anemone in a bag will curl your toes at the smell and it's a smell you don't get rid of too quickly.

 

[Fish Keeper82]

These are pics of some of the frags laying on the sand bed. They seem like they might have some hope

 

[Fish Keeper82]

Update and a follow up question.
frags did not make it. They died shortly after. But heres the wierd thing its the only coral ive lost since ive started this tank back in march. Ive got 3 other leathers a half dozen mushrooms all babies from my original ,. 4 Zoa colonies growing, hammer coral and an acan.
at the time i lost this leather i thought had small cyano or some type of chemical warefare because the coral that died had a very thin film on it. I did not know at the time but as the months have past that film was actually the beginning if Dinos. I now have quite a bit more Dinos in my tank and the corals dont look as happy because of the film that get on them from time to time but they all still look healthy.
Could the dinos have killed that coral?

 

[Spectorman]

Unfortunately, I can't seem to get my pics to load up. However, from experience I can tell you I have a leather tha I received much the same manner as you. It'sPurple Devils hand. Anyway, it was one stalk,and that shrunk to well,.....small. Because, it was dense and still had acceptable color I kept it. Years later,the sucker is huge. I've had the same or similar experience with many corals. They do what they want,when they want. Healthy(what we consider healthy)Tank params are always helpful, but, many corals adapt and go from angry to eventually happy. They are animals and have minds of their own so, don't get too upset. I don't get alarmed at too much unless theirs apparent tissue damage, severely discolored areas, bugs,amphipods,or nippy fish. You'd be surprised what pulls out. I would also, like to note, I have lost my fair share of creatures and corals over the years. It just happens.

 

[seamonster124]

How long has it been under your lights?
My giant leather was fine for a month then decided to hate my lights and never opened till I reduced lighting by 50%

 

[Dkuhlmann]

Spectorman, your pictures are probably too large in size. If they are over 2mb they need to be resized because the system won't allow them to be uploaded. Every PC has Microsoft Paint, open that up and then from the menu open your pictures and then use the resize function. Use the % and put in 75% of the previous size then save the file. Then you will be able to post them.

 

[Spectorman]

I had them initially, under MH/PC. It closed up for about a year. I moved it around the tank a bit......nothin'. One day I looked at it and the polyps started coming out and about 5-6 months later it was huge and out of control. I've had it under straight LED, back to MH/PC, Kessil LED, and now Kessil and ATI T5 combo. Like I said....if the tissue is dense and not discolored, it will likely snap out of it.

 

[Spectorman]

I don't use a Pc anymore. I use Tablets and phones...Wireless printers.

 

[champion6sigma]

I was told leathers need low light and not to place in direct bright light.....from my LFS

 

[cloak]

This can work, but don't expect them to be "sprite" so to say. Lot's of flow, lot's of light & decent parameters make a leather thrive IME. Right next to that Red Planet.

 

[champion6sigma]

Any experience with an ecotech radion xr30w pro? Bright lights as in the upper ranges of power of this lighting system?

Thanks, I have two leathers and I need to know more about lighting and flow and placement and feeding