Melting or shedding?

[LeonardTheWrasse]

Hey all,

I got a new leather coral about a week ago, parameters are all on point, lighting etc all stable, I've been monitoring everything due to some past swings (phosphate and nitrate), but everything is great.

Phosphate - 0.03ppm
Nitrate - 5ppm
Ammonia, Nitrite - 0ppm
Alk - 11dKH
Magnesium - 1250ppm
pH - 8.3
Temperature - 25 degrees Celsius, 77 degrees Fahrenheit.

These parameters have all been stable since before the coral was introduced to the tank, aside from the phosphate which has dropped very slightly in this time.

I left the house at about 8 this morning, and when I got home, the coral was bent over, half on the sand. I moved it over so it would stand up and remain in the flow, because it looked like it was shedding at this point.
When I came back to take a closer look, it seems that part of the leather is shedding, and part of it is melting, or dying.

I have no clue what's actually going on, so advice would be awesome, TIA.

 

[LeonardTheWrasse]

Just a 9 minute update haha, the leather's not looking good at all, and I'm quite anxious that it'll be leeching some toxin into the water, or just cause an ammonia spike by what looks like necrosis.

Should I remove the coral from the tank, will it pose a risk to the rest of the tank and inhabitants?

 

[Kasrift]

Just a 9 minute update haha, the leather's not looking good at all, and I'm quite anxious that it'll be leeching some toxin into the water, or just cause an ammonia spike by what looks like necrosis.

Should I remove the coral from the tank, will it pose a risk to the rest of the tank and inhabitants?

What are the other inhabitants? Doesn't look like shedding. I'd throw a bag of carbon in the tank and let it ride for the night if it was me though.

 

[LgTas]

What kasrift said... doesnt look great though

 

[LeonardTheWrasse]

What are the other inhabitants? Doesn't look like shedding. I'd throw a bag of carbon in the tank and let it ride for the night if it was me though.

The other inhabitants are a few other softies, clownfish, yellow assessor, pink streaked wrasse, leopard wrasse, clown goby.

I'm an idiot and am on my last bag of carbon right now, needing to replace it tomorrow anyway. I don't have any left, and what I have now has basically been exhausted.
Given my idiocy, what should I do to help the situation at this point?

 

[LgTas]

Ive had a large sinularia melt in my frag tank with no impact. Id probably still ride it out given you have no lps or sps

 

[Kasrift]

I'd still let it ride and just be ready for a water change. It doesn't look great, but leathers can look sickly and rebound. It's a good size leather so if you are super worried about it I'd just take scissors and cut off the parts that look like they are melting. Go to YouTube to search how to frag a leather coral. Literally just scissors.

 

[LeonardTheWrasse]

Ive had a large sinularia melt in my frag tank with no impact. Id probably still ride it out given you have no lps or sps

I'd still let it ride and just be ready for a water change. It doesn't look great, but leathers can look sickly and rebound. It's a good size leather so if you are super worried about it I'd just take scissors and cut off the parts that look like they are melting. Go to YouTube to search how to frag a leather coral. Literally just scissors.

Seriously? I can just cut it off?
There are parts close to the center that look iffy, should I be concerned about those as well?

How large of a water change should I be aiming for?

 

[Kasrift]

Seriously? I can just cut it off?
There are parts close to the center that look iffy, should I be concerned about those as well?

How large of a water change should I be aiming for?

Depends on what it looks like tomorrow. I really don't think it will affect the other inhabitants that much, but I'd say 20%. Wouldn't hurt to do one anyway just to see if it helps out, though I don't know your normal schedule.

What dip did you use and have you tested your parameters?

 

[LeonardTheWrasse]

Yeah, the parameters in the original post are from last night, so very recent.
I fed the tank very minimally today as well.
I used the Red Sea DipX coral induction bath.

I found this bag of carbon in the abandoned tank things cupboard from my freshwater days, would this be alright as a relatively 'only option' thing?

 

[LgTas]

Yeah, the parameters in the original post are from last night, so very recent.
I fed the tank very minimally today as well.
I used the Red Sea DipX coral induction bath.

I found this bag of carbon in the abandoned tank things cupboard from my freshwater days, would this be alright as a relatively 'only option' thing?

some freshwater carbon products have heaps of phosphates

 

[LeonardTheWrasse]

some freshwater carbon products have heaps of phosphates

Thanks, won't be adding that then haha.

I just cut off most of the melting parts. I may have missed some, if so I'll go back to it tomorrow and get a larger margin.
I just did a 7% water change, and I'll do another 20% tomorrow when I have enough RODI water on hand.

Thanks for all the advice and help, I hope the problem doesn't escalate, but it seems okay at the moment.

 

[LgTas]

No problem. Keep us posted

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Do you have any flow in the tank? Leathers will droop over like that if not enough flow. It also can't shed if not enough flow. To me it looks like lack of flow

Also phosphate and nitrate are very low for leather corals, they like slightly "dirtier"
water.

The polyps are still visible, it doesn't look that bad. Personally I wouldn't have cut it up yet.

 

[LeonardTheWrasse]

Do you have any flow in the tank? Leathers will droop over like that if not enough flow. It also can't shed if not enough flow. To me it looks like lack of flow

Also phosphate and nitrate are very low for leather corals, they like slightly "dirtier"
water.

The polyps are still visible, it doesn't look that bad. Personally I wouldn't have cut it up yet.

Phosphate and nitrate have been a struggle to get lower than 3.0ppm and 20ppm respectively, I'm not sure whether I should let them creep back up for the leathers sake. I'm hoping to introduce some fimbriaphyllia soon, and don't want them to suffer at that point.

Thanks for the input, the flow was direct flow from one wavemaker, and partial flow from another. I've directed the flow from multiple wavemakers now, and it seems like it's perking up a bit and starting to shed.

 

[Dbichler]

That doesn’t look good I would frag this a soon as possible making sure only good tissue is left and toss the bad. Looks big enough to get some decent sized frags at least and leathers grow fast so do be afraid to keep small pieces.

 

[LeonardTheWrasse]

That doesn’t look good I would frag this a soon as possible making sure only good tissue is left and toss the bad. Looks big enough to get some decent sized frags at least and leathers grow fast so do be afraid to keep small pieces.

Yeah, I did that around 12 hours ago, and I think I missed some bad parts. The bad parts are basically the main part of the leather, like the center near the stem, can I just cut that part off?

 

[Dbichler]

Cut it all out don’t worry about much with leathers that way as long as there’s good tissue they will grow. In the same respect though bad tissue continues to grow fast as well best to get it all out fast.

 

[LeonardTheWrasse]

Cut it all out don’t worry about much with leathers that way as long as there’s good tissue they will grow. In the same respect though bad tissue continues to grow fast as well best to get it all out fast.

Awesome, thanks for the help

 

[LeonardTheWrasse]

I just hacked away at it, I got a lot more off, but you can see in the pictures, there's still some bad part. I can't really get to it, should I just attack that part with a knife to get it off, or what?