melev

I hate to share bad news, but...

The Toadstool Leather that was moved out of my reef is in terrible shape. It was moved into a trashcan with live rock on July 4th. I knew it would slime heavily, and it did. I changed the water twice that week, doing 50% water changes in the barrel.

While I was out of town over the weekend, my tank sitter texted me that the house smelled terrible and that it was certainly the leather. As soon as I got home, I drained out 50% of the water again and replaced it with new saltwater.

I tested Nitrite and Ammonia. Nitrite was fine. Ammonia was terrible. I added Prime to the water to help lock up the ammonia.




I did another water change that night, but it didn't help. The coral continues to shed or melt off tissue. Overnight, I collected another 55g of RO/DI water and mixed it up with salt. When we put the coral in the barrel, it filled it completely. I pulled it out today, and it fit into a 5g bucket and smelled horribly. I pulled the trashcan outside, and pulled out all of the live rock. All the clean pieces were set aside, and any that were slimed were blasted with the garden hose. The trashcan was rinsed out repeatedly, the rock put back in, and new saltwater added.

I added saltwater to the bucket with the leather in it, and added some ReVive. Wearing surgical gloves, I dunked the coral a few times and wiped away what I could. The coral was then put in the trashcan with the live rock and plugged in the two Tunze pumps. It looked a little better, and when I tested for ammonia, it read .5ppm instead of 8ppm. I added more prime. The smell has gotten worse again, and I do have more saltwater for another water change tomorrow.

I'm not really sure what else I can do, nor what I could have done differently. My original plan was for it to settle down, and then I'd plumb it back into the system with all the other livestock. I'm glad I didn't or I would have surely lost everything at this stage of the game. The body of the coral still has some firmness to it - it hasn't turned into a lump of jelly.

Without trying to be too bleak, I can't help but think how the new tank will do without the leather. The toxicity of that coral had to have a serious impact on the other corals. I'd absolutely miss it, but it might be nice to get a different one with green polyps if this one doesn't make it.

If I had any idea that this was going to happen, I would have contacted the Dallas World Aquarium the day after I broke down the tank to see if they would like to accept it.