help with leather coral

Jpergamo · #1 01/01/2008, 10:00 AM

ive had a "toadstool" or mushroom leather coral for about 4-5 months now and all of a sudden i looked at it yesterday and it wasnt expaned mid day and had white blotches all over the stalk and head and thismorning just looked again and they are worse, what disease am i looking at and how should i treat it? water parameters are fine from what i can tell and other tankmates including an acro, frogspawn, finger leather...

demonsp · #2 01/01/2008, 10:25 AM

Food , light , and flow all play a part. They like small meaty things like cyclops , and other frozen food bits. They also may open at night and may need to be feed later after lights go out.

Are you asking what water readings will support this coral then i ask do you know what the water readings are.A test kit is the most importatn tool in reefing and you may need to get 2 or 3 kits in time. I rarley see just 1 problem in any tank to cause any issue. Well not feeding could be about the only single issue if all other factors in place. But this is not normally the case and if you add a coral before you research it ( same as fish) then you might aswell flush it. All coral require differant things from lighting , to placement to flow to feedings.
Its great you asked but its better to inquire before the purchase for maximum results.
As you have nothing listed in your profile then your a newb and i wonder how long your tanks been up and your type of equipment to amount of LR and LS and your stock you have now from CUC to fish and coral. Adding these things to your profile greatly reduces the response time to any question.

stingythingy45 · #3 01/01/2008, 10:27 AM

What's your parameters?
Toadstool's are one of your best water quality indicators.

Jpergamo · #4 01/01/2008, 10:30 AM

yea im a noob on this site kinda and i consider myself a noob in reefing tanks been running for over 2 years with very little problems, 60 lbs LR bare bot, aqau c remora, and ive got test kits comin out my behind lol.
PH-8.2
dkh -8
calc-400
nitrates phos undetectable salifert
feed very little tho so maybe thats the reason and also it was given to me im not big on softies

Jpergamo · #5 01/01/2008, 10:31 AM

i would really like to get my profile set up like u said im just not sure how

demonsp · #6 01/01/2008, 10:37 AM

Well if all was weel for awile then all of a suddon they looked bad then its the food or lack off. Also whene you feed photo plankton turn your skimmer off for a few hours.

stingythingy45 · #7 01/01/2008, 10:41 AM

Do you dose anything?
And how often/much do you do water changes?

Jpergamo · #8 01/01/2008, 10:41 AM

could it be a fungal infection of some sort?

Jpergamo · #9 01/01/2008, 10:42 AM

10 gallons ever week i only dose 2 part cuz anything else just makes strange things grow haha.

Jpergamo · #10 01/01/2008, 10:43 AM

magn and stronium all other parameters are pretty normal and steady.

stingythingy45 · #11 01/01/2008, 10:55 AM

That's pretty good for water changes.
I do about 10 gallons every 2 weeks.

Anyways the reason I ask is,was wondering if you ever dosed iodine.I dose a cap of Kent every other week.
Some folks here are going to......

But.....works for me.

Jpergamo · #12 01/01/2008, 10:59 AM

to tell ya the truth i noticed it did help water some when i put in purple up a few times a few months back cuz that has iodine in it but havent dosed regularly.

stingythingy45 · #13 01/01/2008, 11:06 AM

Interesting.
Your tank is similar to mine except for the bare bottom and different filtration.Do you have your sump under a standard 55 gallon stand?No brass fittings I hope.

Jpergamo · #14 01/01/2008, 11:15 AM

yea its right underneith no fittings period its just a hose from my over flow right into the sump very simple to get some things out of the display tank thats all

stingythingy45 · #15 01/01/2008, 11:43 AM

Cool,
Maybe doing a water change then dosing some iodine might help.If it's small enough you could look up dips using iodine.
If worst comes to worst,you could frag it.I've heard of hobbiest fragging the cap off and it will grow a new base.

vipjd39 · #16 01/01/2008, 12:23 PM

ive had a toadstool and other leathers for several years now and it seems my toadstool does the same thing from time to time. I freaked out the first time it happened and checked everything I could. Mine was simply "shedding" itself. It lasted a couple days and after it was perfectly fine and bigger!

This might not be something to worry about. Im not saying ignore it, Just watch it for a couple days and see if it opens up again. Do you have any pics?