Help! Leathers are acting weird!

eaglephot

eaglephot

Member
Hey all. My finger leathers haven't opened for a few days. They have never done this before. I have one big one with three branches and one smaller seperate that was from the same original finger leather. Both are not opening. My other leathers in the tank are fine. Do they go through a dormit stage or something? Everything else in the tank is fine. Any help would be great. These leathers are my favorite.
 
eaglephot

eaglephot

Member
Everything is normal.
ph 8.2
trates 60
trites 0
ammonia 0
Everything else in the tank is doing fine. Just the two leathers are odd.
 
rebelprettyboy

rebelprettyboy

Active Member
trates are HIGH! You need to get those down to as close to zero as you can. Those trate level are really high for coral and high fora fish only tank.
 
jerthunter

jerthunter

Active Member
I wouldn't worry about it. Most leathers go through stages where they slump over. Generally they will be back bigger then before in a few days. You might want to consider doing a water change or running carbon since when they do this they generally shead their 'skin' which can hurt your water chemistry.
 
ophiura

ophiura

Active Member
I would agree, however, that the nitrates are at a point where they are a concern for a reef tank. Typical for a fish only...but not for a reef.
 
eaglephot

eaglephot

Member
The nitrates have always been that high. Everything is thriving in the tank. Except the leathers are being weird. Calcium is 450 ish Alk in the safe area (whatever that is). I would think that my anemone would die before the leathers if the water was bad. Everything is just doing great. I did a 25% water change today so maybe they will pop back up soon. I am just concerned about them.
 
eaglephot

eaglephot

Member
Originally Posted by Appaloosa1
Mine also tend to slump right before they multiply
The big colony looks like they are splitting. Hopefully that is the case. However, it is odd that they are both looking a bit poor. Do they multiply at the same time?
 
eaglephot

eaglephot

Member
Originally Posted by rebelprettyboy
trates are HIGH! You need to get those down to as close to zero as you can. Those trate level are really high for coral and high fora fish only tank.
I have filter feeders. I can't get the trates to zero. I always thought they needed some. What is a good level for filter feeders?
 
eaglephot

eaglephot

Member
Originally Posted by ophiura
Filter feeders don't feed on nitrate
Why did I think that? That is odd. What is a safe way to lower them? Small water changes every week or something?
 
ophiura

ophiura

Active Member
Soft coral tanks often are a bit dirtier than SPS tanks - soft corals tend to do much better in water with higher nutrient loads....up to a point. Over about 20 ppm, IMO, is where I would draw the line. Fish are not as bothered by these levels but corals may start to have issues. And basically, it is only going to get worse.
Bioload and feeding is the first thing to address, as it is the ultimate source that contributes to nitrates. Following this it is export mechanisms - lots of regular water changes, good skimmer, refugium, etc.
The symbiotic zooxanthellae in corals does benefit from some degree of nitrate...but your levels are very very high - many orders of magnitude over normal levels in seawater.
 
eaglephot

eaglephot

Member
OK. Excellent. That helped a lot. I will perform more frequent water changes. I am doing 25 % every 3-4 weeks. Would 25% every 2 weeks be too much? Or should I do something like 10% weekly?
 
cvetnich

cvetnich

Member
I have tried and tried to get my trates down to 0 but mine have ALWAYS been 15 to 20 and my tank does awesome. I agree 60 is to high but if you can get them down to around 15 to 20 you should be good....
 
ophiura

ophiura

Active Member
I personally think "0" is a bit much to ask in most systems, and striving for that can take the fun out of it.
But a soft coral and LPS system between 10-20 is not an big issue, IMO.
 
jerthunter

jerthunter

Active Member
Originally Posted by Eaglephot
OK. Excellent. That helped a lot. I will perform more frequent water changes. I am doing 25 % every 3-4 weeks. Would 25% every 2 weeks be too much? Or should I do something like 10% weekly?
A few bigger water changes will help you lower your nitrates faster compared to smaller frequent water changes but I personally like doing a 12-15% water change. Anything more scares me.
As far as lowering nitrates to 0. I think that is not only not necessary but also possible bad since if you have 0 nitrates and any phosphates at all you have a good chance of growing cyanobacteria. I would recommend that you try to keep phosphates at 0 and nitrates below 20 ppm.
 
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