Yellow toadstool no opening

[EnderG60]

Ok so I have a mixed reef 58g and my yellow leather had been doing just fine and in the past 10 days has not opened and is starting to rot in small sections around the edge.

Current tank specs
58g w/ 120 lbs of live rock in system
400w 20k xm halide
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 2
Phosphate - 0
ph - 8.1
Alk - 3-4 mg/l
Calc - 350-425

Now the only thing I can think of is that I recently started to run carbon and phosgard again, but ive watched my alk and ph levels and nothing seems to be changing but the phos levels(went from .5 to 0)

It had been getting hit by a maxijet 1200 with a hyro on it(which i have now blocked so its blowing right on the leather and not rotating)

I have also turned off the carbon/phosgard reactor.

I am at a bit of a loss, all the specs seem to be good but after almost 4 months of being open and growing I dont get it.

[gh0st]

If you could get a pic of the coral with some if it's surrondings that may help.

Also, what unit of measure are you using for Nitrate?

I would suggest dispersing the flow a bit from the 1200 rather than shooting right at the Leather. If it was a more disperrsed flow, like a Seio, Tunze, Koralia, etc you'd be ok, but the concentrated constant jet of water may be irritating the leather, the sweep from the Hydor rotating may be better.

[EnderG60]

Using sea chem test kit for nitrate(mg/l i think)

here is a pic of it when it was happy



and current isnt direct, the hydro spinner only hits it once every 20 seconds or so, and its a bit clogged so its only about a 600 worth of power after the spinner and clogging

its been fine for months, and how its getting even smaller and starting to rot

[gh0st]

What is your temp. like?

It might be getting stung by a nearby coral, or you may have a chemical contaminant of some kind. Fresh carbon or Purigen may help if that's the case.

If it's rotting, a Coral Dip of some kind may be in order, as well as preforming surgery and actually cutting away the necrotic tissue, or possibly gently scrubbing it away out side the tank with a clean toothbrush.

Also, where is the rot located? The head, the base, or the stem?

[Jamokie01]

Very hearty coral, cut the rotting tissue away. If possible, move the coral out onto your sandbed away from everything else and give it a chance to heal. Take that time to figure out what may have been irritating it.

[tmz]

I agree surgery (aka fragmentation) is probably needed if there is necrotic tissue at the base.If it were my coral I would remove the necrosis with a razor going into a 1/4 inch margin of clean tissue, I would also take a few pie shaped cuttings from the rim of the coral.,as insurance of a sort against the death of the entire specimen. The cuttings can be affixed to a new base by gluing a toothpick to a rock and impaling the cutting on the toothpick. After approximately two weeks the cutting should fix itself to the rock and grow into a new complete adult in a mater of months. Sacrophyton are generally very hardy. i can't tell fro the picture if your coral is an elegans(yellow toadstool). If it is please note that they live high on the reef and prefer strong light and flow and are a bit trickeier than the other sacrophytons.
Goodluck,
Tom

[Rouselb]

Dont let the PH blow directly on it. Aim the PH toward the glass so it banks off the glass and passes by the leather. The Toadstool that i have all like to have lots of water movement. But most like it indirectly, and will open within a day or two once you get the right amount of flow.