Devils Hand Leather Coral vs. Torch Coral & Acans

[Mish1]

I need some help. I have a Devils Hand Leather Coral that has been waxy/shiny for over a week now. I read this has to do with shedding skin and growing and I am noticing the coral growing daily plus new bumps are forming everyday which turn into additional stalks. Since this started I haven't noticed the coral extending it's polyps. I also have a small Toadstool Leather. The Toadstool Leather has been fine and has been extending it polyps daily. It did have one day where it went waxy/shiny but then returned to normal the next day.

A couple days after adding the Devils Hand, my torch coral started retracting it's polyps and not extending although the past couple days it has started extending but today I noticed it is starting to turn from a brown with green tips to white with green tips. This color change has started in the center and seems to be moving outward. I also have an Acan with multiple heads that was nice and plump and now the past couple of days has not been plumping up or extending it's feeding tentacles/polyps.

I have a 32 gallon Biocube with the Steve's LED kit so I feel my lighting is acceptable. My tank has been running for about 3 months now and I am doing bi-weekly water changes. I do run Chemi-Pure Blue in the tank and have the In Tank filter section and refugium. The refugium has chaeto. Here are the tank stats.

Temp - 78
SG - 1.025
PH - 8
Cal - 440
Alk - 8.6
Mag - 1330
Ammonia/Nitrite/Nitrate - 0

I think I know that the leather corals particularly the Devils Hand is the problem and is causing the Torch Coral and Acans to have issues but I just want to make sure I am not missing anything before I start trying to re-home corals. Is there anything else I can do besides running carbon to get all of the corals to coexist or is this just a losing battle.?

 

[W1ngz]

The chemi pure is likely stripping all of the nitrate and phosphates out of the water which is starving your corals.

I've never heard of devil's hand mushroom causing problems with other corals. I have 5 large stalks in a back corner and my torch, hammer and frog spawn (and everything else) are just fine.

 

[Mish1]

Interesting so I should remove the chemi pure and wait and see? I have been wondering why my nitrates were never registering but thought it had to do with the chaeto.

Oh and sorry, I didn't mention in my original post but I had read that soft corals particularly Devils Hand release toxins into the water that effect stony corals.

 

[W1ngz]

If your refugium is healthy you don't need the chemi pure. It's probably doing more harm than good.

To really track the results you'll want to do some routine nitrate and phosphate (low range) testing to make sure the chaeto is keeping up, but not dropping both to 0.

If you need to remove impurities or the water looks yellowish then just use activated carbon.

 

[CindyKz]

It could be either scenario or some of both - nutrients too low (both LPS and softies will do well with higher nutrients) or a little alleopathy (aka chemical warfare). In the small amount of water in your biocube toxins accumulate very quickly.

Your Biocube setup sounds pretty similar to mine.

I would raise nutrients first - ditch the chemipure for a while. With your low nutrients you don't need it. Put some carbon in a mesh bag in the extra compartment of the InTank insert to try to deal with any toxins and maintain water clarity. The twice weekly water changes are kind of questionable - they will lower nutrients, which you don't need to do, but also remove toxins, which would be helpful if it is an alleopathy issue. I would cut back for a bit and see what happens.

If the issue remains after you raise nutrients, and it isn't a flow issue (you didn't mention what you have for flow, but softies like a fair amount, so do euphyllia) you may have to re-home the Devils Hand. They get really big for a Biocube anyway, BTW. TBH, if this all coincided with adding the Devil's Hand and you made no other changes to lighting, flow, or feeding - I would lean toward alleopathy.

I have had similar issues in my 32 Biocube softie tank. I ended up moving some corals to another tank.

Just my 2 cents.