Toadstool coral with brown stuff on it

[fishyideas]

Left for two weeks as I was on a trip
Nitrates spiked to 50, have it under control now
There’s this brown stuff growing on my toadstool
Toadstool was very healthy before that
Any ideas?

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Leather corals need to shed their outer layer of skin, its how they clean themselves, they need to be in higher flow area.

 

[Timfish]

Near as i can tell from what I've read every coral has to shed it's surface mucus layer occasionally as it ages and the microbes in it start to shift to less favorable species You can GENTLY brush it off or GENTLY blow it off with a turkey baster but I would for the most part leave it alone. Bothering it too much will keep it closed up limiting it's ability to feed.

Here's some stuff to read if you want to go down the rabbit hole a little further :D

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4989324/
https://www.jstor.org/stable/24870854?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/14999280/
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2017.00009/full
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2016.00371/full

 

[vetteguy53081]

Leather corals need to shed their outer layer of skin, its how they clean themselves, they need to be in higher flow area.

This is a result of the lack of water flow and often based on location in the tank where flow is broken up or even a ded spot. Add or am a powerhead towards it, not at it. Begin with light scrub with a Soft toothbrush and giving the entire stem and cap of the coral a few bursts with a turkey baster to loosen likely film on it from flow issue. Moderate light heavier in blue also best

 

[fishyideas]

Thanks for the replies, will try out some of the methods panicking as I have never seen the brown stuff on it’s stem before in the months I had it