Help for finger leather

[puckstopshere]

I have a finger leather that I’ve had since late January and haven’t been able to sustainably keep it happy. It shed once after coming home, then was good for ~3wks before shedding again and then coming back strong for another week or so. Then last weekend it scrunched up again and stayed very still since. A brown gunk is building up on it and it has gone all week without responding to light (it usually retracts polyps at night). Is it dead or maybe preparing for another shed? I upped the flow a bit this morning to give it a little motion. It usually gets more flow when extended, but at current height it wasn’t getting much.

Is there anything I can do to help it? I have a Duncan, GSP, and one zoa and they all appear to be doing great.

Tank: IM Nuvo 14
Alk: 7.2dkh
Salinity: 1.025
Nitrate: 5
Ammonia: 0
Calcium: 360
Magnesium: 1260
PH: 8.1

Pictures from today:

This was one week ago:

Thanks!

 

[BryanM]

My whole tank did much better when I raised nutrients. Nitrates 23, Phosphates .3. Everything puffed up and looks happy.

Prior to that all my leathers were closed up.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

It needs good constant random flow to make it happy, not just an occasional squirt.

Is it turning white? What kind of light do you have on what intensity?

the nitrate is almost zero, what is the phosphate level? Alk is very low.

 

[puckstopshere]

It needs good constant random flow to make it happy, not just an occasional squirt.

Is it turning white? What kind of light do you have on what intensity?

the nitrate is almost zero, what is the phosphate level? Alk is very low.

I do think it’s getting improved flow now. It was never stagnant but it’s getting more motion at this point.

Color wise, it is naturally a whiter color with slight green hints in the polyps. It looks blueish when scrunched up. It doesn’t seem to have lost any color, other than the buildup of dark gunk.

Phosphates are 0.01 on my Hanna checker. I run a Bubble Magus MiniQ skimmer that I can turn off if the view is that will help. I’m new to the hobby and was worried I’d overfeed so have been kept the skimmer going. Could also run the skimmer part time if that’s a thing?

Yes I know the alk is low and other than this coral that is my current project. I’m using AquaForest reef salt and although the ICP test on the batch says it should be 8.4dkh, I get +/- 7dkh each time I mix. Starting to bring it up slowly with baking soda while I try to sort out why the salt is mixing so low.

My light is a Noo-Psyche K7 mini, it runs for 10 hours/day and peaks at 35% intensity. I don’t have a par meter so I tried to estimate a reasonable level based on what I’ve read on this site.

I also did the last water change on Wednesday and Nitrates had been above 10.