Finger leather question

[Alaa]

Hi i have a new tank with only one finger leather and one hammer corals
I have 2 questions regarding the leather coral
1- can't get it to fix properly, tried to epoxy it to a small rock but now barely hanging
2- i added seachem phosgaurad yesterday (phosphate .25) and noticed it shrunked markedly, so i turn off and the same happened again today is the normal
Thanks for all your help

 

[sfin52]

Leathers cant be glued. They like moderate flow and light. Prop it in some rocks or try to rubber band to a rock. It will attach to the rock.

What's your tank numbers.

 

[Alaa]

Leathers cant be glued. They like moderate flow and light. Prop it in some rocks or try to rubber band to a rock. It will attach to the rock.

What's your tank numbers.

Hi
Will try the rubber band
PH 8.2
Salinity 1.024
Ammonia and nitrites 0
Nitrates 10
Calcium 400
Phosphate 0.25
Temp 78.6

 

[sfin52]

Numbers look good po4 high like that to get down to .1

 

[garbled]

Don't use too tight of a rubber band. You kind of want to just keep it in place without trying to strap it down. If you use a tight one, it will just bisect the poor thing.

New softies react to all kinds of things, let it stabilize and attach before you muck too much around with the chemistry of the tank. After awhile you can tell when you've done something bad by watching all the softies deflate.

 

[BigHildy53]

My finger leather is a good size, but will shrink down when unhappy or when shedding (may not be the correct term) an outer layer. Then it bounces back. Mine snugged into the base of a rock; sticks out over the sand.

 

[Daniel Waters]

If you have a certain rock you want to place it on, you can bore out a small hole, deep enough and wide enough for it's base to sit down in (not too tight and not too much empty space either around the base). Place the base down in the hole and leave it to attach over time. The problem with this is that it still might come out of the hole depending on your flow and other critters that move around at night. I sometimes would take a piece of pvc and place it down over the head of the coral and sit the pvc around the base as to try to keep stuff from moving the base out of the hole and to help block flow that might blow it out. Sometimes its best to do this in you sump or fuge or other low flow area till it attaches. You can then just move the rock and leather to the main tank. It should attach in a week or two. If you do the pvc piece, you just want to be sure the opening will fit over the head of the leather, which usually isn't too hard as they will shrink up if you tick them off or pull them out of the water. Note: I always used to like to use a decent size rock for a base, as the leathers can get very large. I liked having a rock that was large enough that would support the weight of the leather and allow me to more easily move the leather to where I wanted by just moving the large (but mobile piece) of rock it was attached to.

I've done the rubber band thing also. I would poke a toothpick through the base and tie rubber bands around each side of the toothpick around the rock. The problem with this method is that the toothpick can sometimes cut through the leather, so you can't have the rubber bands applying much force on the toothpick. After the base attaches, you cut the rubber bands and can pull the toothpick though and out.