Finger Leather

[lostcreekreefer]

Hi Kevin,
Has the surface taken on a "waxy" appearance? If so, it's something leathers do fairly often. It's how they clean their surface. The surface kinda thickens up, the polyps withdraw and then the surface actually peels off. If it's in an area where it's getting detritus build up on it, this will happen more often.

In my tank, that leather went through similar behavior on a fairly regular basis. How long has it been "green" instead of the tan color? That could be an effect of different lighting.

Hope this helps.
Sincerely,
Michael
Originally Posted by lostcreekreefer
HI Michael- I have a question about that finger leather that I got from you a while back. It has been dong well in the tank, and has about doubled in size. This weekend and since it has been acting very different as in it is very contracted in size and all the polyps are withdrawn, it is a greenish color (tint) rather than the tan color it has been forever. Is it dying or? doin' something else? There are 2 other leathers in the tank (on the other end of things) they are both business as usual. Nothing new is near or touching the finger leather, just can't figure it out. Do you have any suggestions? Thanks! KevinD

Hi Michael, this will; be easier for pictures...

So the finger leather in question used to be a slightly darker tan than the first leather pictured here.

The 2nd & 3rd pics show it right now. It is green and you can see the individual polyps on the surface, but they are retracted. It used to be 2 - 2.5X the size of the green polyp neighbor, it moved quite alot with the flow, now it does not at all.

The lights have been new for about 3 months (3' T5s X 8 bulbs per fixture, 2 fixtures), no changes there. I just checked my water, all is well (but I do need to get Ca & Mg bumped up a bit). The only thing new that I've been doing is adding 'Arctic Pods' & 'Oyster Feast', both made by Reef Nutrition, to my daily feedings for the last 10 days. One thing I will say is that the fish feed more aggressively, the brittle star & shrimp all come out looking for something (what ever that new stuff is!) to eat when I do add either of them or both of them to a feeding, pretty cool. I also have one of 3 LSPs now feeding in the early AM, eating the pods (& pretty much anything) pretty well. The tank looks great, the fish & all the corals are doing well.

[DevonM]

I had a leather in my tank for a while that did real well for about 6 months. Then I added another leather to the other side of the tank (6 feet away) and they began to fight with chemical warfare. They would both go from looking really good to really bad. The ended up killing some zoos and I think it stressed some other corals.

Do you have any other leathers in the tank?

[lostcreekreefer]

Do you have any other leathers in the tank?

Yes, the leather in the first pic was added first about 11 months ago, then the contracted leather in question (from Michael's coral run this summer), then the gray one (from KevinP's fragging demo) what?... about August? Everything's been fine. I have heard Charlie & Michael bot comment on leather chemical warfare and was wondering if I should run some carbon? Give one away?

[CutthroatKid]

I would at least start running carbon. Most things I've read say to run it even if you have just one leather in your tank...

[DevonM]

Yeah I would run some chemipure or some other type of carbon and see what happens.

[charlie]

Just some good carbon!!!!

[returnofsid]

Definitely run carbon. It'll drastically reduce the toxins that are floating around in the water from the Leather Corals and Zoanthids. Increased water changes will also help.

As for the effected Leather, try increased flow in it's area. This will help blow off any detritus that might be settling on it, causing it to "wax over," in preparation of cleaning itself. If it is in the process of cleaning off it's surface, it will slough off the waxy covering, which is actually it's outer layer of "dermas." Be sure to watch for this event and not allow that layer to float around and settle on any other corals.

[lostcreekreefer]

Definitely run carbon. It'll drastically reduce the toxins that are floating around in the water from the Leather Corals and Zoanthids. Increased water changes will also help.

Everybody is in favor of carbon, I hung it in a bag last night in a high flow portion of the sump. I'm thinking about a reactor of some type, Marine Depot has been offering:
ViaAqua Poly-Reactor (Multi-Media Reactor)

ViaAqua Poly-Reactor (Multi-Media Reactor)

which looks like it would be helpful for a more positive flow thru the carbon. Suggestions? What does anybody else use for "running carbon" ?

As for the effected Leather, try increased flow in it's area. This will help blow off any detritus that might be settling on it, causing it to "wax over," in preparation of cleaning itself. If it is in the process of cleaning off it's surface, it will slough off the waxy covering, which is actually it's outer layer of "dermas." Be sure to watch for this event and not allow that layer to float around and settle on any other corals.

As for the flow, I am learning from our more seasoned folks about the importance of better flow, something that I'm working on. You may recall that I have an Ocean-Motions 4-way on a closed loop that came with the aquarium when I bought it from Kyle. It sat unused for 8+ months, just had to work up the gumption to tackle the thing (the aquarium & 2 new sons pretty well had over flowed my tackle new stuff tank for a while). SO I got it running, stripped threads on the housing, tapped them out, got it water tight, then found the drum is scored & out of round. Paul at Ocean-Motions suggested a new drum & magnet assembly, and just run the OM-4 as a manifold until it arrived. So I did, and the first leather (and now the second leather...showing the 'waxy' surface on an edge of the leather, that Michael mentioned) to have 'issues' are right in the path of one of the outflow nozzles. I am going to try & get the new drum installed this weekend...note that I ordered it in JULY, and after a few emails & phone calls I received it in OCTOBER (not cool). That should alternately increase , then decrease the flos, achieving a variable (turbulent) flow and a higher flow part of the time than the constant flow I have now.

Fun to watch & learn....those nasty nasty corals, they want IT ALL! AQUARIUM DOMINATION! IN OUR LIFETIME!

[charlie]

I knew there was a reason I told Kyle he was nuts for having all the returns for that is the freaking sand. Unfortunately, you are paying for it!!!!

[lostcreekreefer]

I knew there was a reason I told Kyle he was nuts for having all the returns for that is the freaking sand. Unfortunately, you are paying for it!!!!

What do you mean, Charlie? I was just saying that the 2 not so happy leathers already are in areas of higher flow in my tank (like Michael suggested), the original one that I got from you is too, I guess they all are in areas of high flow. I'm hoping that with the drum in there rotating like it should, there will be: 1) more turbulent flow (on & off) and 2) higher flow...as in all the pump's output will now be through just 2 of the returns at a time (rather than split between all 4 of them all the same all the time) ... what were your thoughts? I know I've seen most of these OM-4s plumbed in from the top blowing down on everything in other aquariums....maybe not so good planning here as they are flowing/blowing up from the bottom?

[charlie]

Kyle insisted on having the holes drilled in the bottom, and if I am not mistaken, the intake is on the bottom also. In my opinion, this is just asking for trouble. Like I said, this is just my opinion, but you are also seeing the results of improper planning.