Help! Leather coral constantly detaching itself from rocks.

[The_Pharaoh]

Hi guys, so my tank is doing great so far. Parameters are all great. Fish are healthy, I have 3 corals (leather, zoas and elegance). They are healthy but the leather started looking droopy yesterday, this is the picture below:

 

 

Today I woke up to this:

 

 

I thought it was dying but LFS told me it is not as it is still open, to use the coral glue to glue it back into the rock and glue that small piece that fell off separately to grow a new one next to it, so I did it and this is the result below:

 

 

In literally 3 hours I observed it as it slowly and slowly started to detach itself AGAIN until now this is the view (it fell behind the zoa garden so you cant see, they are closed because lights were off):

 

 

I am now panicking, I dont know what to do or how to approach this, I dont want to do something else and have this happen again. So please if anybody has a solution to this, please tell me before I do something else. It is laying on the sand and I am afraid it would die.. Everything else in the tank is healthier than ever before. Thanks..

 

 

[Gravity]

I had a similar issue with my toadstool leather. They don’t stick very well with coral glue. What worked for me was to place the coral in a small plastic cup weighed down with sand and a small piece of rock. I had the leather sitting on the rock then after a few weeks it had attached itself. Once attached I could glue the rock down in place. 
 

You may be able to cut the bottom out of a cup and have the coral sit in place if you prefer, securing the cup to the rock temporarily. 

[The_Pharaoh]

24 minutes ago, Gravity said:

I had a similar issue with my toadstool leather. They don’t stick very well with coral glue. What worked for me was to place the coral in a small plastic cup weighed down with sand and a small piece of rock. I had the leather sitting on the rock then after a few weeks it had attached itself. Once attached I could glue the rock down in place. 
 

You may be able to cut the bottom out of a cup and have the coral sit in place if you prefer, securing the cup to the rock temporarily. 

I dont understand what you mean sorry.

[WV Reefer]

22 minutes ago, The_Pharaoh said:

I dont understand what you mean sorry.

The idea is to get the coral to attach to a small rock first so that you can glue the rock, not the coral, to the big rock. 

[Humblefish]

You're basically gonna have to use rubberband(s) to attach it to a rock. If the leather is healthy, its base will grab on eventually. Superglue/coral glue doesn't work well with soft corals. Only on SPS and other stony corals. This is a good read: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/fragging-and-attaching-leather-corals.90938/

[The_Pharaoh]

19 minutes ago, Humblefish said:

You're basically gonna have to use rubberband(s) to attach it to a rock. If the leather is healthy, its base will grab on eventually. Superglue/coral glue doesn't work well with soft corals. Only on SPS and other stony corals. This is a good read: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/fragging-and-attaching-leather-corals.90938/

Thanks a lot, ill see what I can do..

[The_Pharaoh]

Update: The leather completely melted even after i changed its place, it had died and I have no idea why it did. I have other corals that are harder to take care of and they are florishing in my tank.

[Humblefish]

3 hours ago, The_Pharaoh said:

Update: The leather completely melted even after i changed its place, it had died and I have no idea why it did. I have other corals that are harder to take care of and they are florishing in my tank.

What are your parameters? Especially nitrates? Leathers and other soft corals actually need elevated nutrients to survive.

[Clown79]

6 hours ago, The_Pharaoh said:

Update: The leather completely melted even after i changed its place, it had died and I have no idea why it did. I have other corals that are harder to take care of and they are florishing in my tank.

 

 

If the leather was in too much light it can cause melting. No nutrients would be an issue.

 

If there are other leathers in the tank, they release chemicals- chemical warfare. If you aren't using carbon, this can lead to other corals being effected by the toxins.

It may have simply not been a healthy leather to begin with:  the transfer, acclimation methods, and change may have just been the last straw. 

 

The only leather I ever had that melted was a kenya tree. Within hrs of adding it. Everything in my tank was spot on including all other corals.

I still don't know why.

 

[The_Pharaoh]

5 hours ago, Humblefish said:

What are your parameters? Especially nitrates? Leathers and other soft corals actually need elevated nutrients to survive.

parameters were fine, nitrates were almost 2.0 but nitrites and ammonia were 0.

[The_Pharaoh]

2 hours ago, Clown79 said:

 

 

If the leather was in too much light it can cause melting. No nutrients would be an issue.

 

If there are other leathers in the tank, they release chemicals- chemical warfare. If you aren't using carbon, this can lead to other corals being effected by the toxins.

It may have simply not been a healthy leather to begin with:  the transfer, acclimation methods, and change may have just been the last straw. 

 

The only leather I ever had that melted was a kenya tree. Within hrs of adding it. Everything in my tank was spot on including all other corals.

I still don't know why.

 

It was perfectly fine for the month I had it for, havent added anything except elegance and that green anemone hitch-hiker like 2 or 3 weeks ago but it was still doing great. Havent changed its place, nitrated were 2.0

 

I feel devastated having something die in my tank, plus i heard corals turn rock hard white when they die, that melting thing scared the hell out of me.

[Clown79]

11 minutes ago, The_Pharaoh said:

It was perfectly fine for the month I had it for, havent added anything except elegance and that green anemone hitch-hiker like 2 or 3 weeks ago but it was still doing great. Havent changed its place, nitrated were 2.0

 

I feel devastated having something die in my tank, plus i heard corals turn rock hard white when they die, that melting thing scared the hell out of me.

A month isn't really that long. It can take a month for a coral to acclimate to new settings.

 

Corals unfortunately sometimes don't make it. 

It will not harm your rocks. It melting in the tank can release its toxins- that's why ppl use carbon. Carbon removes toxins.

 

Nitrates at 2 isn't really that much, consider all the corals that use it.

 

What's your phosphate levels, alk, and ca? 

[The_Pharaoh]

1 minute ago, Clown79 said:

A month isn't really that long. It can take a month for a coral to acclimate to new settings.

 

Corals unfortunately sometimes don't make it. 

It will not harm your rocks. It melting in the tank can release its toxins- that's why ppl use carbon. Carbon removes toxins.

 

Nitrates at 2 isn't really that much, consider all the corals that use it.

 

What's your phosphate levels, alk, and ca? 

I have carbon in my filters, I removed the molten parts as much as I could. They dont have tests for phosphates, alk and ca in their stores now unfortunately. What shall I do about nitrates then? My skimmer is only on for like 6-8 hours a day.