disintegrating leathers

[lisa foster]

I just went to move my large leather finger coral and it disintegrated in my hand the whole tank is now purple. I noticed my toadstool yesterday did not have its polyps out and that the purple leather was all shrunk up. My ph is 8.4 1.024 salinity. It now looks like the leather I have is disintegrating at the base, All my anemones frogspawn hammmer look great. Anyone have any ideas, When I removed the purple leather it smelled horrible

 

[bpfan64]

it probable isn't y, but i like my ph to be at 8.2... but that is just me...

 

[ReeferMedic]

Have you checked any other parameters? I'd be curious what the alkalinity is. FWIW, I've had that happen in the distant past and couldn't explain it.

Edit: FWIW, I went through a recent alk spike and my ph stayed at 8.2-8.3.

 

[frank180reef]

8.4 ph should be fine

 

[lisa foster]

I have a red sea alk says I am in the normal range. This started with a yellow leather I got that never looked good I noticed it was closing up alot more this wee. The the other leathers started to shrink. Then for the first time yesterday my polyps did not extend on my mushroom

 

[Joel A]

just being in range may not be enough. You can be in the low acceptable alk range (6.5-7 dKH) and then spike up to the high acceptable alk range (12 or so dKH) and that spike will seriously affect your corals. It's more about stability of that parameter than it is anything else...

alk swings can be fatal to a lot of things, including leathers.

 

[frank180reef]

well yes , but wouldnt her anenomes at least show signs of stress. They must be more sensitive.................

 

[lisa foster]

All my anemones one which is a long tentacle, bubble tips, look great , hammer , cap coral torch look great.

 

[ReeferMedic]

Was the yellow fiji new? Again, just a possibility if it is new. They some times can succumb to bacterial infections. Like I said, I had a couple way back that dissolved for reasons unknown to me. Sorry, I wish I could offer more help.

 

[lisa foster]

the yellow was a few weeks old. The person who had them had left them in his car when I came to pick them up without a cooler they were cold. Never looked good.

 

[ReeferMedic]

the yellow was a few weeks old. The person who had them had left them in his car when I came to pick them up without a cooler they were cold. Never looked good.

That could be it if the fiji developed a bacterial infection with getting so cold.

 

[jojo1n2]

I had a yellow fiji leather that did the same thing. Turned black at the base and just died slowly. I only had it couple of days, maybe a week, never opened. When I pulled it out, it disintergrated were it was infected. I read that they can be tough to keep sometimes.

 

[bill120mph]

I would also check iodine levels, leathers love iodine

 

[stingythingy45]

I just recently had a Devil's hand leather disitegrate also.It's odd because I have 2 other leather that are large frags from this in the same tank that are doing fine.I believe this one caught a bacterial infection like reefermedic mentioned.As it was fragged or torn off an existing rock and managed to survive.Also,FWIW......iodine seems to help out a lot with leathers and infections.