yelow leather problems

[somethingphishy]

(sorry, i can't include a picture) but me leather is slowly decaying away. Looks to have a brownish algae/fugus on its edges and it is slowly spreading. I have attempted as a last resort to save it to remove dead materal by cutting in to flesh of the leather. i'm wondering if this has happened to other reefers and what ways have they delt with this type of problem.

[graveyardworm]

I recently purchased a yellow leather which had a couple areas like you describe. Currently its in a QT until the fungal growth goes away. I found that having it in moderate flow has helped alot.
What kind of flow is yours in?

[somethingphishy]

it gets a good bit of alternating flow has been doing very well for a long time and then all of a sudden this problem.

[thorsen]

Are you sure it's a fungus? Mine is having the same problem. It was doing terrifically, but was occassionally being stung by my torch coral, so I pried it off of it's rock and moved it. I've tried to get it to stick to other places but with no luck and it has spent a lot of time laying in dark corners of the tank. I'm pretty sure that fungus like stuff is just necrotic tissue. When put pressure on it while trying to wedge it in a crack between rocks it also leaks out a milky white fluid that I worry will harm the other corals. Any suggestions on saving it would be appreciated. Maybe it would be wiser to just throw it out at this point?

[tinyreef]

thorsen,
in a separate container with tank water, try cleaning off the base of any loose debris/tissue. i always suggest a separate container because of "milky white fluid". there's other chemicals that are also emitted that are colorless. imo, it's either stress signals or "blood" depending on the coral.

but cleaning the coral of any fungus, necrotic tissue, smothering algae, etc. only helps the coral by alleviating some stress factors. place it in a moderate flow and highlight. hopefully, it'll recover or show signs of recovery within a week.

keep softies away from any stonys or at least keep them "upwind" of the stonys (altho you may see issues with your stonys later like that). but trailing stingers will win over farting softies if the stinger touch. if not, the softies usually win the battle in the long run (you'll likely need significant chemical filtration for peaceful cohabitation). hth

[bamsickle]

I wouldn't throw it away (but I'm one who saves corals from the LFS ;) ). Definitely follow tiny's advice and then try rubber banding it to a new rock until it attaches. If you're not up for the challenge, and I wouldn't blame you at all, it can be pretty stressful, maybe a fellow reefer in your area could help you out.

B

[thorsen]

thanks will try all that