Leather not looking good

[USMA36]

I just added my first corals. They all look good except the leather. He's about halfway down under a radion xr30 running at 60% about 10" above the water. He looked great when I put him in yesterday. I only have one fish. A magnificent foxface. Tank has been cycled about a month now. Ph 7.84 0 Ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates. Alk 8.0 not sure on calcium. Kit comes this week.

 

[nervousmonkey]

Your nitrates are way too low for a leather. What are your phosphates? Leathers like, no need, to have nitrates above 0. In fact, everything does. Here are some good ranges IME, but this is a topic that everyone will have a different answer for and I'm sure I'll be contradicted: NO3 at a *minimum* of 0.5 to 25 (for leathers, SPS will not do as well with a NO3 level of 25). *Edit: I know I'll get hammered for giving a level of 25, however, OP didn't say he had nitrate sensitive corals. Interestingly, some of our favorite stores have higher nitrates for growth and brighter coloration. ReefGen runs at 50, although I'm sure that fluctuates.
Point is you need to get your nitrates up.
The answer to getting nitrates up is to:

1. add more fish (you can get freshwater mollies and add them, they are capable of living lives as marine creatures as well. They are not expensive, can get them at PetSmart or PetCo. Adding more fish is the best option in my experience.
2. add potassium nitrate, or Spectracide Stump Remover. Google "Spectracide Stump Remover reef" and you will get all the information you need. This stuff is cheap at Home Depot or Lowe's. Here is a formula from Dr. Randy directly from R2R when I did a google search (it's the first answer):
   "Dissolve 10 grams in 1 liter of fresh water. That 10 grams contains 6.14 grams of nitrate, so that solution is 6,140 ppm nitrate.
   If you add 1 ml of the solution per 2 gallons of tank water volume, that will boost nitrate by 0.8 ppm nitrate.". So in your case, add 10 mL of the solution to get a nitrate level of 8 ppm. That's still a safe level for SPS if you have any, but if not I would boost the level even higher.
3. Add SeaChem Flourish Nitrogen, available at PetCo or PetSmart. The formula for adding it to achieve a certain level of nitrates is: 0.05vn=m, where v is the volume of your tank in gallons, n is the desired nitrogen increase (in this case, nitrate levels, since the factor is 0.05), and m is the amount of Flourish Nitrogen to add. So an example is if you had a tank of 100 gallons and you wanted a nitrate level of 10 (these numbers for easy math), you would have 0.05*100*10=m, or m=50 mL of Flourish Nitrogen. Personally, I use this as it's so easy. Comes in a bottle already mixed. Keep in mind that you will be adding more nitrogen sources than just nitrate, so you can keep those additional sources to see if they help, but I imagine they would cause an algae issue of some sort, so I run Purigen and GAC (wait an hour after dosing to turn on reactors or add bag). I know that the GAC will remove some nitrate, but that's OK as long as I don't have an algae outbreak.

Speaking of algae, make sure you have a way to remove phosphates: GFO, aluminum oxide, or another product. I use a combo of Ultra Phos 0.04 from Fauna Marin and Phosphat-E Liquid Phosphate Remover from Brightwell. Either way, keep your PO4 levels down, esp if you go the route of adding more fish, since you'll be feeding more.

I hope this *really* long reply helps.
There could be a lot of other factors in play here, like lighting, flow, etc. but start with the important and obvious one.

Cheers!

Lloyd

 

[Kyuss414]

I would give it a few days and just leave it be, IME they get ticked for a few days when they get moved around.

 

[nervousmonkey]

Good point Kyuss. That's very true.

 

[USMA36]

Thanks. I don't have a phosphate tester yet. It's on the way. I also have a dual GFO Carbon reactor, and a co2 scrubber on the way

 

[Broadfield]

As always with this hobby, everyone's tank is different. I have run really close to zero, if not zero nitrates in the past and my leathers grow insanely fast and are as happy as can be. Mine would sulk if I didn't have very good flow... they tend to like a lot of flow. The higher flow helps keep detritus off of their crowns or fingers and helps slough off their skin when they shed.

IMG_5083 by Toby Broadfield, on Flickr

 

[nervousmonkey]

Wow, I stand corrected on the nitrate issue. Keep that one in your back pocket I guess.
Toby does have some of nicest leathers around, and if he's running a zero or close to zero nitrate level, it has to be OK. I'm not a leather guy, so trust the fellas who have them and do well with them.

 

[Broadfield]

Wow, I stand corrected on the nitrate issue. Keep that one in your back pocket I guess.
Toby does have some of nicest leathers around, and if he's running a zero or close to zero nitrate level, it has to be OK. I'm not a leather guy, so trust the fellas who have them and do well with them.

Well, I wouldn't necessarily stand corrected so fast. I still think that every tank is different... so what works in one tank doesn't necessarily work in another. I guess what I'm saying is that we are probably both right lol.

 

[Fin]

And based on BRS's latest video on the accuracy and difficulty reading results on a number of popular nitrate test kits, you may have more nitrates than you think. Leathers just do that sometimes, especially in a new environment. I wouldn't worry about it just yet.

 

[USMA36]

This is the coral today. Tip of one finger is white.

 

[TheLadyCrash]

Typically white tips are signs of bleaching in leathers (if it was sps whites can be signs of growth). Seeing this guy on your substrate makes me think that it could be a combo of bleaching and not enough flow. If you can, move it somewhere with a little shade but more flow until it adjusts to your lights. As someone mentioned earlier leathers need flow to shed their mucus layers.

After moving it, let it rest for a week or 2 before trying a different area. I have a finger leather that took about 2 months to find its happy place and now it is thriving.

 

[USMA36]

Thanks. He was in an area with more light about 18" from the light but I think the flow was too strong. Tried moving him twice last time was to the surface just yesterday. There is some flow where he is now and it's def on the darker side of the tank.