Need Help ASAP.

[madamo]

Yesterday,
My Kenya Tree began to melt away. At first I figured that it might have touched another one of my corals when I was cleaning the tank. Now, my favia brain coral (the outer walls) has begun to turn white (don't know if it is bleached or it is the skeleton). My newest addition to the tank is the coral in the link below:

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=597+600+673&pcatid=673

The article claims that it can release toxins that can harm other coral. Has anyone experienced such an issue. I just did a 20% water change and I am taking water right now to get tested at the LFS. The tank is a 12 gallon aquapod with 70 watt MH lighting.

What could I do to prevent further loss. The tank is over a year old.

Has anyone experienced this issue

 

[mike1962]

Hi Madamo,

I know that a fellow reefer in my local reef club experienced a mass die off after his leather coral was injured and then died. It released toxins after it was injured, and this was detrimental to everything in the tank. That said, unless your leather is injured or dying, it shouldn't be releasing any toxins into the tank. I have a finger leather in my tank, and all is well thus far. Is it possible that one of the tank parameters is off?

 

[DetectiveTofu]

Yes, test your water to make sure everything is in check; salinity, calcium, alkalinity/dKh, ammo, trites, pH, et cetera.
Leather corals can definitely release toxins and lots of mucus into the water column when very stressed; This is one of the main reasons people say to frag your leathers outside of the main tank. I would keep up the water changes, as they never hurt anything. If you can, I would recommend throwing a little bit of carbon in there to help pull out anything that may be in your water.

 

[cloakerpoked]

The size of your tank would almost certainly exacerbate any problems with toxins as well, since in a 100 gallon tank, it will get diluted a lot more significantly than it will in your tank with only 12 gallons of water to dilute the toxin. I've never personally had a leather release any kind of toxin that's been bad for my whole tank...

 

[seapug]

Toxins don't normally cause bleaching. The fact that it happened after you cleaned the tank makes me suspect something with your Alkalinity& pH. If the Kenya tree is melting just pull it out and trash it before it ruins the whole tank.