problem with leather

hobbzz

How do I change this?
I picked up a leather for my wife about five weeks ago. It has never opened up yet. It was under led at the lfs. I have led and a 250w radium. I've tried it under the led in high and low flow spots, and now under the radium in a high flow spot. I've dipped it in Seachem Reef Dip twice now and still nothing. Everything else in the tank is fine. Only one sps frag right now, mostly lps/zoas/palys. And I run carbon 24/7.

I've been letting it sit for about a week before moving it previously, but this is how it looks now after the dip last night. Very limp.

Any suggestions? Move up the pace on trying different spot maybe?

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Thanks in advance
 
From that last picture, I would move it out of the direct light and over to the side of the tank. Maybe secure it someplace right under that powerhead on the right. After that, just leave it alone for a month. These corals do not like it when you fiddle with them. GL.
 
Thanks. Last leather I had was in 2006. It was a yellow Fiji. I did a lugols dip, placed it n the tank once and it loved it. Guess I got lucky lol.

FYI the flow pattern where the leather is should be about three feet wide, nice and gentle. I'll move it and let it be. How can I tell if it dies? Does it just start falling apart?
 
If it starts to die you'll know it. It will fall apart, change color, dissolve, etc. Right now it just looks pretty p!$$ed off. It needs a time out so to say to get accustomed to your parameters, the lighting, the flow. Just a new spot in general. GL.
 
If it is dying you will see rotting (necrotic black tissue) or liquefaction. At that stage, frag it and discard the dead tissue.

Don't confuse this with molting of a mucous/slime layer which is entirely normal and likely to happen during the adjustment period.
 
Added tidbit if after a few weeks it's a no go; Mine closes up if I run Carbon all the time, some prefer dirtier water for some unknown reason. But try everything else before trying no carbon. :)
 
Ok about a month now without being touched. Urchins knock it around every once in a while but I haven't touched it and this is what it looks like today. Algae growing on it now.



What kind of par do they generally like? 100-200? Less?
 
Leathers can handle pretty high lighting. I have mine at the very top/center of my tank under leds and he's puffed out nicely. From your second picture it does look like he's getting roasted but it's hard to say.
 
Third pic is the updated one. It's getting roughly 100 part. It's in the bottom front of the tank under the powerhead? Any ideas?
 
If you accidentally bleached it, it may take a while to come back. The algae is not a good sign. I would give it a dip and cross my fingers.
 
It never bleached. Wasn't in high light long enough. Stuck it in a higher flow area for tonight, hopefully that'll get the diatoms off, then I'll do another dip tomorrow after work. This things really starting to annoy me lol.
 
This answer is just from personal experience

This answer is just from personal experience

If that is a yellow fiji, I would just hold out on it for a while. Mine didn't show growth or polyp extension for one full year and the color was not very good (very pale). At that time my alkalinity was too low so I got it raised to 8.4 (aiming for 8.9) and I finally moved it to a higher lighting area and have now seen polyp extension and growth. I had LED lighting and a 90 gallon tank. In my opinion, I would try a higher lighting.
 
Not a yellow Fiji, but it's getting higher par in the new spot so hopefully that will work.
 
quite fiddling with it…

i have a devils hand leather in my tank that has just started putting its polyps back out after almost a year of looking like your does…grew it from a tiny frag polyps always out, added a couple LPS, ****ed it right off doing o and it has stayed closed for 9 months…

they take time to adjust…hopefully you don't have to wait as long as i…lol

generally leathers like high flow (it is the only way hey can eat and expel, not to mention molt, if it can't molt it will suffocate itself trying)

and i would say pretty high light, personally the second pic looked good but the flow sounds like it was far too low.

up the flow up the light, and quite touching it…if you keep playing with it, it will fall off…lmao
 
I've made a vortech reefcrest like flow pattern for my Tunzes. They cycle through 16 different profiles, ramping from 30-100% and everything in between over the course of an hour. So 1000-4000 from each pump. In the second pic it was about 2 feet away from a powerhead pointed at it. Flow pattern should have been about 3 feet wide at that point.

I'm all for leaving the alone, trust me. Just hard to tell if it doesn't like the location, or is adjusting. Especially since they take so long to adjust. Thanks.
 
Following along. I received one probably about a month ago and it looks much like yours. Every now and then it will look like it wants to extend its polyps and the whole trunk is enlarged just to look worse the next day. My water parameters are pretty much right there with yours and its midway under AI Hydras.
 
Leathers tend to shed frequently, but this typically doesn't take this long. what could possibly be happening is a failure to molt and/or opprotunistic bacteria irritating the outter layer. This commonly happens and you can easily make the coral happy again by putting it in an area of lower light and making sure it has good flow. This is to remove the bacteria and also the molting tissue. This has worked many times for me. I wouldn't worry about it dying though. The coral looks healthy otherwise.
 
What kind of leather is it? If you have SPS and LPS in your tank with it, it could be upset about that. You could try moving it further away from any hard corals but sometimes they just know.
 
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