Is my Toadstool sick? Or just grumpy?

[santame]

Hello,

I have a leather toadstool coral that I have had for about one month now. He was doing really well for a long time, he has not opened his polyps in 8 days now and I am worried.

Below are a couple pictures. He has some white patches on his top and some greenish-brownish areas around his trunk that could be algae?

White patches:
http://robynblair.com/toad1.JPG

Algae or something else?:
http://robynblair.com/toad2.JPG


He never seems to get a break from my hermits and my snails. They are constantly crawling all over him. Could he just be upset or do you think it may be something more serious?

I am new to reef keeping and he is one of my very first corals. I also have a hammer and a torch.

Amomia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 4
PH: currently 8.05 (but I struggle daily to keep it up, but always falls below 8.0 in the AM.)

Calcium: 400

Not sure what else you may need to know. Any help/advice is appreciated. Thanks for your time.

[Nykademus]

Your hermits wont hurt it, but it will retract all of its polyps because of them.

Did you have any changes in the tank? Temp, salinity, add a bunch of fish or anything?

What kind of lighting was it kept in previously? Might be sunburn if you have MH.

Leather corals are pretty resilient so it should bounce back as long as whatever caused it has been taken care of. They will shed too if its really upset about it.

The green looks like algae and there is some bubble algae there too it looks like. Are you using RO water? It wont hurt that coral though. For the bubble algae, you might think about getting an emerald crab or two to take care of it.

Your pH will fluctuate on a 24 hour cycle, its normal. Depending on where you are located it will go down in the winter due to the house being closed up because of the carbon dioxide levels inside.. on a minor scale, this is also why it will change during a normal day.

[santame]

Thanks for your reply.

Yes, I have added two fish recently. I maroon clown and a diamond goby. I do not have MH lighting. It is a Red Sea Max 43 gallon tank if that says anything. :)

The algae you see is Grape Caulerpa, rather than bubble algae.

Image of Grape Caulerpa from Google (http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.reefcorner.com/images/GrapeCaulerpa.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.reefcorner.com/SpecimenSheets/caulerpa.htm&h=480&w=640&sz=60&hl=en&start=1&um=1&tbnid=VDoMWfHOqsQCaM:&tbnh=103&tbnw=137&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcaulerpa%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN)

Funny, though, I too thought bubble algae when it first cropped up and bought a couple emeralds. Then was disgusted when they did not eat it. Then did more research and realized I had misclassified it as bubble algae, rather than Grape Caulerpa.

My PH fluctuating would not be so bad if it was not so low. I got up this morning and it was 7.6! Yikes! I spent the next five hours dripping Reef Buffer in just to get it back to a reasonable 8.0, but it will just drop way low again tomorrow, I think. I have been fighting low PH for weeks now to no avail. I have done two water changes in the last three weeks to try to level it off.

[Michael]

whats your phospate reading, by the way try and get that nitrate down, its not bad, i sometimes struggle with mine but less than 1 is now the norm, phosphate could be a problem, check it out

[Blown 346]

This is normal, My toadstool did the same, has the same algae on the base of it. Mine started get white blotches and then those areas started to form holes. Then the coral started to split which is normal to re produce. It wil open again, otherwise it still has its color and looks healthy. It takes alot to kill these guys.

[Amazon4]

I've been told as long as nothing is turning black, it is OK. Just wait it out.

[Aquarist007]

what's your flow rate, have you changed it lately or is the coral in direct line with a korilia.
the base of your toadstool is becoming extended like mine. I wondered why it was doing this then I noticed that the outreach of the Korilia was hitting before--its like it moved out of the way

I agree with the hermits also--everytime they go across mine it closes up --but not for 8 days--so I am infering here that it could be flow

[Nykademus]

Salt creep can cause the white burn spots too if you brush it off into the tank and it lands on a coral.

I dont know how probable that is.. just thought I would throw that out there.

[rbursek]

Mine went thru that about 4 weeks, it is what it is, everyone is chasing PH if your house is closed up for the winter, Ph drops at night low light period, raises during the day when the lights are on, that is normal, be carefull about adding too much buffer, I think there was a thread on that in the chem forum and it can add borate which is not none to be good or bad.

[demonsp]

Whats your specs on the tank?
The age ,amount of LR and LS?
All equipment used?
All readings you test for?
Water source?

[neepsync]

I have 3 different types of leathers and they all close up and shed from time to time. My toadstool closed up for a few weeks before and I thought it was gone but it shed and then looked healthy as can be. So I wouldn't worry about it too much if your params are in check and your other tank inhabitants look good.