Please help me save my leather corals

[nada2reef]

Hello,

All leather corals have not been opened for 2 weeks and now laying down on rocks. Please help me save my corals.

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=169549&papass=&sort=1&thecat=500

[Sk8r]

I can't tell you specifically: I'm sps and lps, but I've had leathers in the past.
Check the following: temperature, by more than one thermometer: it's getting hotter, and thermometers like like rugs.
alkalinity: s/b 8.3 to 11
calcium: 400-420
salinity: 1.024-6
If parameters are screwed, do a 20% water change with ro/di saltwater, then re-test.
Run carbon, in an unused nylon stocking if you haven't got a bag.
What unusual thing have you added/done/changed? Did the leathers' unhappiness follow that?

[nada2reef]

Thank you for the reply.

I've just done retesting the water.

PH: 8.1
salinity: 1.025

The corals had been very active until I added AquaC EV-180 skimmer and scrubbed algae on my tank 4 weeks ago. After that, they have never been opened. I don't know what's wrong with corals. I have open brains, anamone , leathers and fish in my tank. Everyone except leather is fine.

I turned off the skimmer 4 days ago to see leathers better, but same. I'm using miracle mud only now and giving reef plus, trace soft and dKH buffer.

I changed 10% water with RO saltwater.
Any help will be very appreciated.

Thanks,
Young

[graveyardworm]

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I would discontinue dosing, you should be testing more than just PH and SG. Would like to see Temp, ALK, PO4, NO3, Ca, and Mg. Also lighting, and flow. Has the skimmer been pulling out alot of stuff?

[tinyreef]

i agree with sk8r's carbon suggestion. the algae removal might have let loose a lot of plant matter that's affecting the corals. think of it as sap from a tree.

some of the "plants" (it's green and it's simpler to say 'plant', ok? :p ) give off chemicals to impede growth from neighbors. it's still a basically just a turf war on the reefs. (no pun intended)

by ripping the algae apart, you've let loose all that crappie. no way around that but you need to address that gelbstoff or whatever that's floating around imo. carbon and some other chemical filters are the best/quickest option. the skimmer may not pull it out as some of the chemicals may even act as surfactants thereby nullifying the bubbling.

try the carbon aggressively (switch every 3~4 days) and you should see an improvement in a week or so (maybe sooner). hth

[graveyardworm]

My thought was that possibly the skimmer upgrade cleared the water to such a degree that the light intensity increased and may have stessed the coral. Depending upon lighting it may now be in an unsuitable location. If that is the case carbon use may compound the problem. At this point it could be any number of things, and knowing more about basic water parameters sure would help.

[tinyreef]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7369604#post7369604 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by graveyardworm
Depending upon lighting it may now be in an unsuitable location. If that is the case carbon use may compound the problem. true, but acclimating to the lighting the coral can do by itself, albeit slowly.

otoh, the presence of a noxious chemical (if there even is such in the water) is not something it can adequately deal with. that requires our intervention via filtration or waterchanges.

shocking it with more light (this can be mitigated/adjusted via shading) is a better option than leaving it in a (slightly?) toxic environment. again, i don't know if there even is something in the water but algae harvesting can do that.

either way, the use of carbon in this situation is long-term beneficial imo.