Help with sarcophyton leather coral!

[icyglaze]

Hey...last night I bought a good looking piece of leather coral and it was doing great for an hour or 2...polyps came out and everything, but now the edges are kind of folded and curled out and it's leaning forward...to approx. 90 degrees...

is there something I'm doing wrong?

[amcarrig]

Assuming that you have appropriate lighting to support the coral, give it a few more days to adjust to your tank before you start to worry. Keep an eye on it and post again if you notice that the coral starts to turn brown or starts to rot.

[icyglaze]

I have one 96 watt actinic blue compact and a 96 watt 10,000k daylight compact...the guy who sold me the leather said that it's enough for the leather and the leather is placed at the top for water flow and lighting as well.

the body has gotten a lot skinnier and...it used to be a reddish colour, now it's light purple and the bottom is turning yellow/green...polyps are no longer coming out...

there's something attached to the piece of rock as well...a rounded honeycomb like thing with small brown flower shaped things coming out of it in the light....anyone know what that is and if it's affecting my leather at all?

[kb.bear]

could you take a picture?
without seeing it, it is tough to know
Welcome to 3reef!!
If you post info on your tank ie size, filtration, lighting, and stock people could be of more help
Also how is your water do you test and do you dose?

[icyglaze]

my camera's hiding somewhere right now...but good news! leather seems to be doing great now. added another pump in there to increase water flow. it's getting fat again and the polyps are coming out

but now my green star polyps won't come out to play

[90_Berlin_joe]

Icyglaze, welcome to 3reef. Glad to here your leather is doing good. a bit of information on the leathers. If they are not in high to moderate flow they will retract(shrink up) and start to grow algae on them (not good)! Every now and then they will retract and molt for weeks on end and turn pink/purple this color is the leather releasing toxin into the water. Make sure they are placed away from other coral. I have a leather that shrunk up for 3 weeks so do not be surprised if this does happen. Good luck!

[icyglaze]

it seems to like the top the most...but it's on a really weird shaped piece of rock and it looks really unstable up there. any way to detach it from the rock it came on?

[90_Berlin_joe]

I would not chance it, however you can try to cut the rock down/flat and glue it in place. There are many type of glue that you can use. Here is one of the more popular choices. IC-GEL