Is my Devils Hand Dead??

[TucsonReefer91]

Hello everyone, I have been using this site to answer most of my questions about my new Reef tank, but now I need a bit of help with a more specific question. First things first....

I have a 40 gallon Tall acrylic tank. Octopus Skimmer rated for 70 Gallons, a GFO reactor, and a carbon pad that the overflow travels through. Two Powerheads in the tank, one rated for 1250gph, and one rated for 950gph. A strong set of LED's with 55 bulbs total. My water parameters are on point.
Calcium 450ppm
Alk 3.6
DKH 10.1
Magnesium 1280
Salinity is at 1.026 and 35ppt
Temp is about 78-79 (its kinda hard to tell on this tiny thermometer)


Ok, so I have been adding coral slowly over the last two weeks and everything is thriving and opening up almost immediately. The Devils hand was doing great towards the top of the tank, but I went to bed and woke up and the piece had fallen (like 2 feet) to the sandbed and was sitting upside down. I attached a picture of the little guy and was just wondering if it is dead, or dying? I want to do everything I can to keep it alive, but I don't want it to die in the tank and then mess with my water levels and have it disturb the rest of the coral that is doing great. Let me know what you guys think, and any course of action you think I should take.

Thanks!

[shifty51008]

looks healthy still. the thing with leathers is sometimes they can close up for weeks for no real reason and also to shed a mucus layer off. just leave it be and it will be fine.

[welcome]

[mluntz]

Your ALK is very low. 8.0 to 13.0 is optimal. It looks healthy though.

[shifty51008]

I am thinking the 3.2 he has listed as alk is harness and the DKH of 10.1 is his real alk number

[ctopal]

I think it will be fine, just needs a little time.

[saltyair]

It will take time looks fine imo
just watch the base is not turning brown

[TucsonReefer91]

I am thinking the 3.2 he has listed as alk is harness and the DKH of 10.1 is his real alk number

Oh, oops Well can one of you explain to me what the 3.6meq/L means? It sounds like the DKH reading you get is the alkalinity, but then why does the meq/L have to be between 2.5-4? (at least thats what I've read.) If it falls in this range does that simply mean that the DKH reading will fall in its acceptable range? Am I asking a really dumb question? lol

[shifty51008]

meg/l is just a different measurement of alk, to get dkh from meg/l you need to multiply the 3.6meg/l by 2.8 to get your DKH

[CoralBeauty13]

I had one that looked like crap for 7/8 months on end. First it did it's shedding, so I gave it time to bounce back...nothing happened. I moved it to a corner away from any other leathers or sponges, and in a matter of two days, it's one of the prettiest corals in the tank. It bounced back so nice, it had thousands of little polyps I didn't even know it could have.