Green Finger Leather "prolonged wilting"

[pyro]

I have had a green finger/rasta leather in my tank for about 6-7 months now I think. It's been doign very well and has over doubled in size since I bought it. It normally opens up about 6-7" upwards and outwards (almost perfect semi-sphere), and almost touches the water surface. It's right in the top center of my tank and has an emperor 400 output on each side of it. I have 2X96W PC running about 7 hours a day (normally more, on algae prevention right now). There is also a Rio 600 running as a return pump from my sump creating flow in the 30g.
For teh past two weeks or so it has not opened. It has always been moody, not opening up for a day or two - always assumed it was a growth cycle of some kind. But, its been a while. It still has its color, but it seems to be flattening its base out. Could it be splitting?
My levels are all in check still. 0 NH3/NO3/NO4 and unreadable PO4. Reef levels are all in check, pH of 8.2 and SG of 1.022. Any levels you would recommend double checking? I have double and triple checked pH/N/PO4 levels, not reef levels.
Any help would be greatly appreciated, Thanks =).

 

[uberlink]

I was having this problem with my toadstool leather. On advice of people on this site, I moved a powerhead so it got more direct flow. Returned to normal within hours, and it's looked great ever since.

 

[pyro]

I actually have a powerhead sitting around. I did that a while ago to see if it would improve health, but it didn't seem to like the direct flow as much as the indirect, closed up more. I'll try it again though, can't hurt much.
Thanks

 

[pyro]

I just found a black spot on it about 1/2" in diameter that looks umm "dead". Any hope for the coral? I moved a power head to get a good bit of flow as a last ditch effort.
If there is no hope for it, might as well remove it before it starts to put off NH3. Any suggestions for how to remove it, dunno if it will come off easily or not.

 

[pyro]

Gotta picture. It's nothing great but best I could get (cameras batteries died). You can see the spot towards the front right hand side of the coral. Looks like a dip out of it, but its actually a black spot.

 

[appaloosa1]

mine did that when i changed the flow and it took about a week for it to open up. its much happier now though. don't know what the black spot is but i can't imagine its a good sign!

 

[pyro]

I looked aroudn it and it seems like the branch inbetween the rocks (can't see in picture and vaguely in person) is actually split open. I think the bottom 2/3 of the coral are done for, but hoping I might be able to revive the top 1/3 because they were pretty distinct branches. Can't tell what it was that took the bottom two, if its a disease or water quality (which appears great from test results and other corals) ect.
I'll keep an eye on it and reply back the final results. If worst comes to worse, my candy corals and green star polyps in teh corner of the tank behind the leather really let me know they like the powerhead there. Got about 20 heads of Candy to trade in here real soon =).

 

[speg]

Have you maybe done something different recently that could have caused it to do that? I've noticed that when you get a leather looking beautiful and fully extended... you should leave it in that spot where its doing good
Is your salinity still in check? Any other corals in the tank? How long since you replaced those bulbs?

 

[pyro]

Salinity is at 1.022-1.023. That has gone down and up maybe .003 in the past 6 months or so.
Haven't touched the sucker, was actually about to pull it out and split it, but haven't gotten around to it. Bulbs are up to date.. Just replaced the actinic a month ago and the daylight is about 4 months old.
No corals are close to it. Everything else is on the sand bed, that is raised up and centered in the tank on the rock. Currently I have about 25 heads of candy coral in the lower corner that are thriving (expecially today since I added the powerhead), a rock of green stars that are half open (fighting an algae problem of some sorts on them), and a ton of red mushrooms throughout the tank thriving.
Thanks for the help =)

 

[azocean709]

I asked the same question 2 days ago. hmmmmmm mine has clammed up for 2 weeks now. but i haven't changed anything. i don't know whats wrong with it.

 

[jupoc911]

the black tissue is a sign of necrosis. It will spread through out the whole entire coral. You can either do a lugols dip or frag around the dead part. I would use the lugols first and only frag as a last resort.

 

[pyro]

I don't have any lugols and I think the frag might be the better option as of now. I dont' know if I can remove teh coral from the tank. As you see in the picture, it is attached between two 10-15lb rocks. It might be attached to about a 10lb below also. I could probably frag it much easier, just cut that one healthy spot off. Would I need to pull it out of the tank for this? Any suggestive ways to pull a half rotting coral off a rock w/o spreading it throughout the tank?
Also, any idea how it came to get it?
Thanks =)

 

[jupoc911]

Leathers produce a lot of toxins there fore it would do everything in my power to get it out. If you can't I would just cut off the dead peice under water, do a water change and add fresh carbon. You should be alright. If you wanted to you could even dip the dying peice in lugols and put it back in your tank and see if it makes a comeback.

 

[pyro]

Ugh, I'll give it a go. Maybe it'll come off easier now that is, um, rotting. Darnit, thought I was done touching dead things with my hands after anatomy. That'll let me rest assured not having to use my exacto knife under corrosive saltwater and contaminating the tank aswell =). I'll let ya know how it goes when I try it in a bit.
Thanks for the help.

 

[pyro]

Ok.
Fairly good success.
The 1/3 seems healthy. I cut it off in the tank cause I couldn't get it off and pulled it out and fishing lined it with a needle to a nice piece of live rock and put it in some low very indirect flow area. Seems pretty good, I'll check on it tomorrow and get some pictures up.
Bad part...
The 2/3 of the coral that is dead and kinda rotting won't come off the rock without going into 50 billion smaller dead pieces. I figured if I did that it would just bomb my nitrogen cycle all at once. So, I figure I'll let it rot from the main piece a little slower. Gonna stop by the LFS tomorrow and grab some hermit crabs (my 4 have all died off to my knowledge over the year my tanks been setup) to help with the cleanup.
Replaced the filter pads with some new carbon, thinking about adding some additional in the media cartridge.
Gonna keep a close eye on my levels in the next couple days and have some saltwater on the ready. Seemed to go pretty smoothly, execpt for my coral banded shrimp is now gaining more confidence when I reach in the tank and doesn't run away when I swat at him, now he charges claws open =/.
Thanks for the help everybody =).

 

[pyro]

Ok, picked up a couple hermits, they were almost out, so only got 3. More to come tomorrow. Got a picture of the healthy frag, can't tell if it is going to make it or not, any opinions?

 

[jupoc911]

give it some time it is a relativly hardy coral.

 

[pyro]

I'm betting a 50/50. I'll let you know how it looks in a couple days. It was about this size when I bought it, and since had tripled in size. Ohh well, back to square one (hopefully at least).
Thanks for all the help again =)