Yellow Fiji Leather help

[singold]

Just can't seem to get Yellow Fiji Leather vibrant again. Used to have all polyps extended & looked great. For last few months it seems to open all the way but doesn't extend polyps & has light tan apperance on about 80% of it. Looks healthy otherwise. Any advise how to get this coral back to its glorious form?

 

[Skipper]

I've always thought they were sensitive to low pH. What's your pH?

 

[singold]

It has had low moments in mid to high 7's due to ALK swings lately that I am now honing in on via supplementation. Your assessment seems like it could be the case. Any other ways of raising PH other than increasing ALK level?

 

[Skipper]

Have you tried a buffer?

 

[singold]

No, have been dosing with Seachems powder Alkalinity booster. Having to dose 1.5 tsp per day to maintain Alk in my softy tank 100 gal total volume. What does the buffer do, pardon my ignorance?

 

[Skipper]

http://biomedx.com/pH/page2.html

 

[robot2222]

I am glad i read this thread. saying that just recently my leather and my brain coral look horible my nitrates are a little high 20 ppm and ph is 7.8 they were looking good the other day.

 

[singold]

Great article link, Skipper. I tested both tanks in my computer room & both showed low PH, so according to Randy's article I have an CO2 aeration issue in my room. I am opening windows on a fairly regular basis, so not sure I can increase aeration for better CO2 transfer. Is dosing Kalkwasser followed by the ALK/Cal. 2-part the best route then to get PH up & maintain through regular dosings?

 

[jvalentine]

If mine slips (pH) i use Seachem Marine Buffer liquid. It takes literally 2 hours to balance your pH

 

[humanremainz]

yellow leathers like a lot of light and flow, way more than the brown 1's that come out of Indo.

 

[herring_fish]

Yea My brown leather’s polyps extend and retract to the tune that I play by dosing Seachem produces or not. After I complained in a different thread one of he guys told me to stop dosing and let it go as long as the pH doesn’t fall below 7.8. I didn’t tell him about my leather but I have tried not to add anything. Well my leather has not extended to a week and I’m about to give up. Perhaps I will try to get rid of the CO2. I don’t know enough about Kalkwasser to jump into that but I have a few other things to try first. I do find that leathers just don’t like low pH.