raeh1 Posted August 18, 2005 Report Share Posted August 18, 2005 Since I got it 3 months ago it has been struggling. Does anyone know a best conditions to keep it in? Cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wasp Posted August 18, 2005 Report Share Posted August 18, 2005 Moderately strong light, and moderately strong current. What kind of lighting you got and how deep is the leather? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raeh1 Posted August 18, 2005 Author Report Share Posted August 18, 2005 150 watt metal halide sits about 15 cm under the water surface, under the haldie with strong current. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chimera Posted August 18, 2005 Report Share Posted August 18, 2005 Moderately strong light, and moderately strong current moderately strong?! try either moderate or strong otherwise it confuses things. yellow tonga leather needs medium lighting and medium current. not strong lighting or current. try moving it down the bottom of your tank more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brianemone Posted August 18, 2005 Report Share Posted August 18, 2005 what is your kH rueben?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reef Posted August 18, 2005 Report Share Posted August 18, 2005 check for is salinity. lighting and water movement seems ok. Yellow leathers are not easy to keep. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drifty Posted August 18, 2005 Report Share Posted August 18, 2005 do you have anything in the tank that is nipping it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wasp Posted August 18, 2005 Report Share Posted August 18, 2005 150 watt metal halide sits about 15 cm under the water surface, under the haldie with strong current. In my frag tank, which has 150 halides, I experimented with them at various depths. 15 cm will be a little close, it will tend to close most of the time. Try 25 cm or similar. moderate current, well I'm not sure how to define that, but I'll stick my neck out and say moderate current. If all your other water parameters are Ok you should be sweet. One thing with leathers, reactions can be slow, so give it a few days to see if it will open. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chimera Posted August 18, 2005 Report Share Posted August 18, 2005 check for is salinity you would think most of his corals would be out of whack if his salinity was wrong (except perhaps mushrooms :-? ) yellow tonga's require medium care to keep. http://www.justphish.com/saltwater/softcorals/yellowtongaleather.htm http://www.aquahobby.com/corals/e_sarcophyton_elegans.php place it as low in your tank as possible (this is advice from bob fenner) then try moving it higher over time if necessary. Since I got it 3 months ago it has been struggling. can you elaborate a bit more? is it just a loss in colour or is it dying? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reef Posted August 18, 2005 Report Share Posted August 18, 2005 you would think most of his corals would be out of whack if his salinity was wrong From my many years of reef keeping leathers react to salinity more than other corals. yellow tonga's require medium care to keep. i dont see many yellow leathers around. but i see many umbrella leathers so i would class them as not easy to keep. Yellow leathers do like high/medium light, My current yellow leather has hardly grown over the last year as it is in low light, however my last yellow leather had to be sold as it grew to big. this leather was receiving very high light. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chimera Posted August 18, 2005 Report Share Posted August 18, 2005 More according to Borneman... the yellow tonga leathers dont grow as well compared to other leathers probably because they come from cooler waters. Maybe keep your tank temperature around the lower end of the scale and see what happens? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cookie extreme Posted August 18, 2005 Report Share Posted August 18, 2005 have to agree with reef.harder to keep then most other leathers (except for that bastard of a finger leather of mine which has never opened in the time i had it, 6 months + or so :evil: ) have 3 small YTL which hardly grow and my water is pretty cold at present. so temp doesn't seem to have a great impact, have also seen them in tonga in shallow warm water! used to have a larger one a few years back which did really well, was able to cut every 6 month or so. but have to admit that that tank then had a much higher nutrients levels, which would match up with the locations in tonga. all YTL i saw were in shallow, turbid ( almost lagoon water) and none on the outer reef were most stonies were found. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lduncan Posted August 18, 2005 Report Share Posted August 18, 2005 (except for that bastard of a finger leather of mine which has never opened in the time i had it, 6 months + or so :evil: ) Is it a Lobophytum by any chance? I had one for a year and a half before it decided it had polyps. Layton Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chimera Posted August 18, 2005 Report Share Posted August 18, 2005 dont shoot the messenger just to throw a spanner in the works, your guys are predominantely SPS tanks, water conditions are optimised for SPS corals. if it was a completely soft tank (ie: unlikely to worry about a calcium reactor and not so intense lighting) could this have an effect on "how hard it is to keep?" btw, the temperature thing was only relayed from what borneman quoted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drifty Posted August 18, 2005 Report Share Posted August 18, 2005 i have one doing great mid tank under fluros with moderate flow, my brother has 2 at the top of his tank under a 250w mh in next to no flow also doing well, both tanks are soft tanks though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cookie extreme Posted August 18, 2005 Report Share Posted August 18, 2005 Is it a Lobophytum by any chance? don't really know, but would say it is (99%) never opened in my tank but lives on anyway! your guys are predominantely SPS tanks wish it would be that easy, but lots of other leathers doing great. had that one in a high nutrients setup before upgrading, and it was still unhappy if thats the right word for it. just doesn't want to open. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reef Posted August 18, 2005 Report Share Posted August 18, 2005 Lots of the Lobophytum wont open because of the acropora. Could be all the toxins the acropora release. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wasp Posted August 18, 2005 Report Share Posted August 18, 2005 That's interesting! I knew leathers were masters at releasing toxins, so did not occur to me that the sps may be fighting back. In my tank which is mixed, just wondered if the one finger leather may be affecting the sps? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lduncan Posted August 18, 2005 Report Share Posted August 18, 2005 One of the benefits of UV and Ozone is that it can neutralise these toxins by breaking up the carbon carbon double bond found in aromatic rings. These are found in turpenes, which seem to be the most common toxins released by corals. Layton Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raeh1 Posted August 18, 2005 Author Report Share Posted August 18, 2005 I have other leathers their fine My saltinity sits about 1.028 (rags has high salt levels in NSW) KH i have no idea, I'll move it down a little, Sometimes it looks a bit green.. if that helps Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lduncan Posted August 18, 2005 Report Share Posted August 18, 2005 KH (alkalinity) is an important parameter. You should get a test kit and see what it is. Layton Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chimera Posted August 18, 2005 Report Share Posted August 18, 2005 your salinity is bordering on the high side. try slowly dosing RO/DI water over the next couple of weeks to bring it down to 1.025 and see if this fixes it. do you have acro's too? wish it would be that easy, but lots of other leathers doing great one leather is not the same as another though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lduncan Posted August 18, 2005 Report Share Posted August 18, 2005 One thing I think is underestimated with leathers is the need for quite strong water flow. The are a large mass of living tissue producing waste. The way corals get rid of waste is through the water movement around them. Leathers can easily adapt to higher flows. Layton Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raeh1 Posted August 19, 2005 Author Report Share Posted August 19, 2005 I think water flow is good. 10,000 litres per hour in 180 litres water. How do I get all the nutrients out of my tap water. I have 16 types of soft corals in the tank and one hard one. (lime star polp, green star polp, tan/white finger leather, green finger leather, pink finger leather, yellow tonga, silver xenia, blue mushrooms, green mushrooms, green/tan mushrooms, brown mushrooms, Brown with white polp leather, white trumpet coral, brown with green centre trumpet, and some type of green and orange polp.) Unknown type of hard coral. All look stoked. I don't use carbon as they all react badly to it. Maybe something is posioning it. Most are from frags and a growing really fast. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chimera Posted August 19, 2005 Report Share Posted August 19, 2005 How do I get all the nutrients out of my tap water RO or DI (or both) unit. Call following company: Anthony Preston 167 Moore St Howick Phone: cant post because advertising a useful phone number is bad Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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