Leather Question

[beachbumin]

My LFS gave me a small green finger leather that had fallen over and isnt looking too hot. Any tips on bringing it back to health? I put him towards the top of the tank and under my down spout from the HOB fuge to give him plenty of light and current but it still doesnt look very good. Now Im stumped, hopefully theres something im overlooking

[ntswift]

Just give it good water quality, proper light and flow and you should be good to go. I got a leather frag for free from my lfs that looked about dead so I brought it home and just put it in my tank with some hope that it would get better. Now its doing awesome. I didnt treat it with anything different or add anything. Just let it be and hopefully it will pull through. It may take a couple months so just be patient. HTH

[beachbumin]

Thanks for the heads up, that definitely makes me feel better! How much current is your getting? My fuge doesnt kick out a ton of water movement but it keeps a steady flow over the piece. Hopefully that does the trick otherwise Ill have to reposition a powerhead and try and find a new spot for the coral!!!

[ntswift]

Mine is just at the edge of the current coming out of my fuge. Its not completely direct. You don't want a ph blowing right on it. I have my other leather right where the two jets from my ph's crash that way it kinda breaks up the current so its not as strong. Its still a high flow area though. I think where you have it will be fine. Just give it some time.

[beachbumin]

Thanks for all the help! Hopefully it will perk up over the next few days!

[melosu58]

Leathers will do what we call sloughing which it will not look to good. Mine do it every two or three weeks. But they do it every time they are moved to a new tank or position IME. Hopefully in the future he will look like mine here. I think you`ll be OK. Keep an eye on him.

[beachbumin]

Now mine has a black tint to about 1/2 of the coral. This morning it looked ok but now that Im back in from work it looks terrible!!!! BTW thats a awesome looking leather, what type of lights are you running?

[melosu58]

VHO`s - super actinic R and actinic white (50/50) bulbs. Try maybe putting on the substrate where mine is. This one was 2-3 inches 5 yrs ago and you see how much he has grown always on the substrate. He`s about as big as a volleyball now. My tank is only 3 WPG. a medium light tank.