Softy not looking too hot

S

Spilo26

New member
Picture002.jpg
 
Coral has practically no polyp extension and also seems to be shrinking. I've read that leathers shrink and slime up from time to time but it's been like that for almost a month.
 
What type of lighting do you have? What are your parameters? It should be acclimated by now. BTW, what type of leather is it?
 
It's a green finger leather. PH 8.2, ammonia 0, nitrate 0, nitrite 10-15ish (I'm color blind lol) Calcium 400, Alk 8. It's under a 70 watt halide in a 14g biocube.
 
I thought that looked familiar , I have one of them or something similar mi ne has a bluish green color when closed but more tanish pink when open. I will see if I can find a pic. If your tank is showing any sign of nitrites makes me think that the tank might not have cycled fully or something might have died. How old is the tank?
That is pretty strong light for a 14g did you start that coral in a lower area to avoid shocking it?

Here is a pic of mine closed and open . I keep it under 216w of T5's about upper mid level in my 55g.

<a href="http://s144.photobucket.com/albums/r174/Kingfish62/?action=view&current=DSCF0551.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r174/Kingfish62/DSCF0551.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

<a href="http://s144.photobucket.com/albums/r174/Kingfish62/?action=view&current=leather.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r174/Kingfish62/leather.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>
 
Spilo26 said:
It's a green finger leather. PH 8.2, ammonia 0, nitrate 0, nitrite 10-15ish (I'm color blind lol) Calcium 400, Alk 8. It's under a 70 watt halide in a 14g biocube.
Click to expand...

I'd imagine the light is too much for it. I'd treat the nitrites and lower the softy down towards the bottom for a while. I've also notice my softies love medium to low water flow. A slight "breeze" encourages all those polyps to open up.
 
Oops I meant 10-15 nitrates 0 nitrites. Sorry about that it was late when I replied last night lol. Yeah I acclimated the tank by starting the metal halide about 14 inches above the tank, then I slowly lowered it about an inch a week. I had 96 watt PC's over the tank before, so I didn't think it would be a dramatic differance. The tank has been set up for about 6 months. Now that I really think about it, none of my soft corals, other than mushrooms and zoas have a very good growth rate. People put 250 watt sunpods over nanoreef aquariums, So I was under the impression this wasn't alot of light in terms of PAR for metal halides. Should I move the coral into a shaded spot and see how it does? Also wondering should I be feeding the tank phyto or zooplankton? This is my first smaller tank and I'm wondering why there has been barely any growth during the time it's been set up.
 
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Spilo26 said:
Oops I meant 10-15 nitrates 0 nitrites.
Click to expand...

I would get some water conditioner and elliminate those Nitrates. You want 0 nitrates / nitrites / ammonia / phosphates if you can manage it. The less the better.

It seems like you broke everything in well with the light. Starting high and slowly lowering it. So if you lower it and it still doesn't perk up I'd say it is starving. Another sign of light distress is bleaching... Either way lowering it and making sure it is in some water low/medium water flow should help.

Spilo26 said:
Should I move the coral into a shaded spot and see how it does? Also wondering should I be feeding the tank phyto or zooplankton? This is my first smaller tank and I'm wondering why there has been barely any growth during the time it's been set up.
Click to expand...

I run a skimmer at night and feed my tank every few days with Phyto. Many corals are photosythentic since they have the zooxanthellae. I believe they all depend on a good helping of Phytoplankton to remain healthy and grow however. They can't just get one or the other. Not enough light and the zooxanthellae die which starves the coral. Not enough phyto and they starve.

Copepods, polychrates, chaetognaths and larvae are the more commonly consumed zooplankton items in a coral's diet. If you have a well established sump or refugium attached to the tank they can filter feed out those as well, gaining extra nutrients.
 
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Your nitrates need a little work but I doubt that is what is stressing out your leather. How is your salinity? Some times that can throw my corals off.
I do not have any auto top off and sometimes i don't realize how much water has evaporated . All of the sudden my salinity is soaring and my coral look like crap!
 
My salinity is fairly consistant at 1.025. Sometimes there may be a lil evaporation jumping it up to 1.026, but not often. Im gonna try raising my light a bit,also, start adding Kent's phytoplex and microvore. I just wonder how it will eat with no polyps extended =/.
 
You have a point with the "no polyp extension"! Feeding would be a waste for that coral until you see some extension.
How often do you do water changes and how much? I try to do 3g weekly changes in my 14g biocube.
 
Does anyone see any immediate problems? I'm at a loss here. Everything looked great until I downsized to a biocube 14.
 
Everything else looks pretty good to me! Did any thhing else suffer from the downsize? Maybe run some carbon in your filter ,might be some chemical warfare going on.
 
This is probably a shot in the dark, but do you have any Petaloconchus (worm snails)?They are permanately attached to rock and they extrude invisible mucous strands. I have recently noticed a netting of strands keeping half of my toadstool closed. You can see the strands when you stir up sediment in the tank. Any particulates floating in the water column will stick to strands and it will look like cobwebs!
 
Actually, now that you mention it I do have a fair amount of those and spaghettiworms, I didn't notice them irritating my coral tho. I plan on adding some carbon and doing a 5 gallon water change to lower my nitrates, also moved the coral down, he spread out but still no polyp extension yet.
 
Yeah, I got a crap load of spaghetti worms but they are good cleaners and never bother my corals.

When you do your water change it will probabaly stir up your sediment and look for those webs.
<a href="http://s144.photobucket.com/albums/r174/Kingfish62/?action=view&current=DSCF3490.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r174/Kingfish62/DSCF3490.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>
<a href="http://s144.photobucket.com/albums/r174/Kingfish62/?action=view&current=DSCF3496.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r174/Kingfish62/DSCF3496.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>
 
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