Adding leather corals and dealing with toxins

[AquaVaj]

I have a mixed reef and been thinking of adding some leathers (toadstool, cabbage, sinularia..etc) but it seems they are known to release toxins. Are they worth the hassle of dealing with the toxins? I do run carbon continuously and replace once every month.

[A Little Blue]

I need answer to that Q as well. 

[paneubert]

I have never worried about toxins from those types of corals.  I think the risk is way overblown, a lot like the folks who wear a full bio-hazard suit and welding gloves when they frag their zoas.  😉

 

Unless you have a pico tank, I think just keeping an eye on things and making sure there isn't massive coral warfare is fine. 

[A Little Blue]

32 minutes ago, paneubert said:

I have never worried about toxins from those types of corals.  I think the risk is way overblown, a lot like the folks who wear a full bio-hazard suit and welding gloves when they frag their zoas.  😉

 

Unless you have a pico tank, I think just keeping an eye on things and making sure there isn't massive coral warfare is fine. 

See the problem I have is that I don’t run a lot of carbon and my leather is quite large. Didn’t have any issues yet but...... 

[AquaVaj]

I'm more concern about the health and growth of the other corals. This is only a 40g so space can get cramped especially since leathers can grow quite quickly.

[paneubert]

1 minute ago, AquaVaj said:

I'm more concern about the health and growth of the other corals.

Sample size of one, so take this just as one example, but my LFS had a MASSIVE toadstool in a tank that was probably around 80-100 gallons total.  The toadstool probably took up 60%-70% of the tank.  Had a Maroon Clown mated pair that hosted it.  The female was massive.  Sometimes it was hard to even find the clowns due to how big the toadstool was.  They had plenty of other corals in the tank.  So at least for them it was not an issue. 

[KNelson]

10 hours ago, A Little Blue said:

See the problem I have is that I don’t run a lot of carbon and my leather is quite large. Didn’t have any issues yet but...... 

I have a few different leathers and run a minimal amount of carbon that I change monthly.  I have yet to have problems in the year I've been set up. 

 

10 hours ago, AquaVaj said:

I'm more concern about the health and growth of the other corals. This is only a 40g so space can get cramped especially since leathers can grow quite quickly.

My leathers are my largest corals, definitely fastest growers, however they are light whores and as such are at the top of my rock away from the other guys.  I will have to frag one soon as it is starting to shade out the other.

[Clown79]

Leathers do release toxins that can effect other leathers(the purpose of the toxin to begin with)

 

It's also known to effect sps.

 

Using carbon replaced every 2-3 weeks can help but no guarantee.

 

Leathers also grow ridiculously large quickly.