Help! Injured Toadstool leather

[LuluB]

:?: My green toadstool leather has a large hole in the side of it's stalk. The LFS told me this leather was from Madagascar and somewhat rare here. He( the leather) was looking great until last week. Had a series of disasters. First a bad UV pump shocked him and all the other critters. It went on for about 2 hours before I discovered it ( when it shocked me). He was starting to make a come back a few days later when the reef had it's 3rd rockslide. And last (thanks to all you great folks on this board, Tanu and my rockdrilling sweetie). While I was righting the fallen rock and corals I discovered the hole on the leathers side. I thought it was an injury from the slide. A few days later after drilling and rearranging the rock I put him in a Seachem Reef Dip for 10 minutes as per the product instructions. Next day the hole was bigger. So I read some more and checked him over for a snail or other culprit. I didn't find anything so I painted some diluted Reef Dip on the wound and put him back in the tank. Today he looks miserable. Has some white spots on his head, the big hole and another pinsized hole in his stalk. I have never fragged a coral and my tank conditions aren't ideal due to the rockslide etc. But I would hate to lose him altogether. I sure would appreciate some advice.

My Tank info is:
90 gallon with overflow
Wet dry filter
Protein skimmer
UV sterilzer
Denitrator
2- 250 Metal Halides
4 VHO 2 Blue actinic and 2 white actinic
approx 70 lbs live rock
Live sand ( was before wrasses)

Water Parameters:
PH 8.2
SG 1.022
KH 15ppm
Ca 300
Ammonia .025
Nitrate 0
Nitrite .05

Livestock:
1 Closed brain - Looks great
1 Green star polyp - Looks great
1 White Long tentacle plate - Looks a little miffed
1 Green short tentacle plate - Looks good
1 Bubble coral - Looks good
1 Mushroom rock - Looks good - maybe not as happy with his new location
2 Large Rocks covered with green polyps - Look great
2 Bubble tip anemone - They look pensive and haven't fully expanded.

All the fish are fine.
2 Clowns (Concerned for their anenomes)
1 Dragon wrasse
1 Yellow wrasse
1 Orange bar goby
2 Blue Damsels
Snails, bluelegged hermits and 1 red legged hermit

Lost to electrical shock and rockslide:
1 Spiney oyster
1 Coral banded shrimp
1 Decorator crab
3 Large Feather Dusters
a few snails and hermit crabs
Sad but could have been much worse.

 

[Carpentersreef]

Hmm.
A few thoughts.... Your Ca is too low (s/b closer to 425) and Ammonia s/b 0. How old is your tank?
I haven't had to deal with an electrical shock in my system before, hopefully someone else will pipe in with possible ramifications.

White spots on your leather could be new polyps forming from an injury, assuming that the hole is from a landslide, and assuming that the white spots are forming inside the hole. (I may have read it wrong) But the new pinhole is puzzling.
If you want to frag the leather in your tank, be sure to have some carbon running to help absorb any toxins released. Ideally, frag the toadstool out of the system, and run some carbon for a couple of weeks anyways. To frag the coral, simply take a sharp blade and slice the stalk off below the injury. When you're fragging the coral, it will feel like cutting into a piece of meat. It's surprising how tough leather corals really are. Your less than ideal water params might delay healing time though.

HTH,
Mitch

 

[LuluB]

The tanks been reef for almost a year. It was FO - Reef is so much more rewarding but a constant learning experience.
I've struggled with the PH,Alk,Ca issue for some time now. Quite a balancing act. I'm using the B-Ionic 2 part. All the guys in my tank seem pretty happy but the coraline algae has been up and down. I had it all right on for a couple of months but water changes seem to upset the whole balance- I can't figure that and don't know whether to believe the testkits.
The electrocution was due to a pump without intake cage sucking up the retieval string from a cabon bag. Small details sure can make the diff here.
The white spots on the leather are on the head, the hole on the stalk. I did turn him on his side yesterday with the hole facing up at the lights and the head hanging down- Looked pitiful - threw in small doses of Iodine- Coral Vite- Coral Accel and DT's and today he looks much better and is extending his polyps. Still looks a pretty wimpy compared to his normal self but progress.
I still would like to frag him but hopefuly later under better conditions.
I have a 20 gal quantine tank.
Would that be to small to use for a grow out tank?
When fragging this guy would you take to whole head or a piece? The head when inflated is 6 to 8 inches across.

LuluB

 

[Carpentersreef]

If the coral is doing better, then be thankful, and watchful. As you probably know, corals have their good and bad days. When I mentioned cutting the coral out of the main system, I didn't mean a grow-out tank. I meant to cut it in a separate bowl of water and then place the coral back into your main system. If the coral is large enough to make several frags, from the head and the stalk, then by all means, do it.... If you think that you will otherwise lose the whole coral.

Oh, and as my own little "editorial"....

I would unplug the wet/dry....the UV....and the denitrator.

From my own experience, I'm finding that the simpler my system is, the more stable it is.....with as large of a water volume that I can incorporate into it as I can. (sorry if that just complicates things)

I should probably be leaving now.... :wink:

Mitch 8O

 

[LuluB]

Wowza! Unplug all that stuff. Including wet/dry? This is a whole new concept for me. I would need some more info on this. :
Please explain.

 

[Carpentersreef]

Given a resonable bioload, your live rock and live sand should be able to handle detritus breakdown, making the denitrator kind of redundant.
Given sufficient water circulation and water turnover, your skimmer should be able to remove most of the excess DOM and DOC.
A wet/dry filter only traps and holds onto waste matter and doesn't allow for the anaerobic conditions necessary for complete breakdown.
A UV filter kills off ALL the little creatures, good and bad, some of which your corals feed on. In a healthy system, with healthy animals, the "bad bugs" should not be a problem. Of course there will be exceptions, but practice common sense, like quarantining your animals properly from a reputable dealer.

Don't get me wrong, all those pieces of equipment DO have their place...
I think that a UV would be useful in a quarantine or hospital tank...
Denitrator in a FOWLR....
Wet/Dry as a nice planter in the front garden....(joking)...take out the guts of it and it could aid in circulation.

Do a number of searches on the board, as well as check the FAQ's at the top of the page for more info.

...AND as usual, this is my opinion....yadahyadah.

The best thing is to FULLY understand what each piece of equipment does and try to learn what your animals really need to thrive.

Mitch 8O