My finger leather frag...turned to dust?

[Devilishturtles]

Hi guys. I'm in search of some insight about my finger leather frag. I got this frag free, from the Anthony Calfo Seminar, in Lancaster PA about a month ago. It's been doing great ever since I got it. I've got a Coralife 2x65 watt PC light fixture, as well as about 600 GPH of waterflow from a HOB and three strategically placed powerheads in my tank. The frag intially came unglued from it's original piece of rock rubble, so I set it in a crevice in the rock where it wouldn't get blown off and would still get plenty of water flow. Twice, I found it on the sandbed, so I put it back but in a different spot, and it's been in this same spot for about a week and a half...again, looking perfectly normal. I was doing some tank maintenece two days ago, and noticed a small hole in my frag, I thought maybe I was just looking at it wrong and it was growth or something, so after some consideration I let it go. One of my bulbs will not light for the past 4 days or so as well, so there is only 65 watts of lighting running to the tank. Still almost 2 WPG, as opposed to almost 4 WPG there was initially.

Well, I woke up this morning to find my frag nothing but a pile of white dust on my rock. There is still one small chunk of it left, about the size of a pea. When I turned on the light this morning and spotted it, I saw a noticeably large pod or two scurry from the crime scene.

So...what happened to my frag? Was it eaten by the pods? Did the lack of light kill it? It was gettting plenty of waterflow I assume. I tested the water anyways, and everything checks out fine. No NH3 or NO2, and about 20 ppm of NO3. I have a sebae anemone that is doing fine, and prospering. Any ideas?

Thanks!

 

[steve-s]

The nitrate is a bit of a concern. Some corals can adapt to higher levels but you should really try to keep that under 10 ppm for softies and as close to zero with LPS and anemones.

By the sounds of it though, it seems a series of stressful events is what may have caused it's demise, not just one single problem. Losing cohesion to it's previous base rock was the beginning of the problem and the need to keep relocating it just made matters worse. Once ailing, the higher nitrates could have easily done the rest.

Cheers
Steve

 

[Devilishturtles]

Thanks steve. I assumed this might be some of the problem...not to mention that the frag came from an already damaged coral, I do believe.

Live and Learn 8)