finger leather coral necrosis- Help! (1 Viewer)

[ReefNoob]

My tank is fairly new(2 months old) but I keep all my parameters in line carefully: pH=8.3,Ammonia,Nitrates,nitrates =0, dKh=8.5, Ca= 470mg/L,temp=82F,doing water changes every other week,while topping off with Ro/DI water.
It's a 55 gal with aqua C 180,80Lbs LR and 80 of "live"sand bed; lighting is 4*54 T5,two 10k two actinics

Yesterday,I noticed a branch of my beloved coral starting to contract and darken a bit;got scared but did not want to overreact.
This morning,this is what I saw.




What is it?
what's the likely root cause and can I salvage any of the coral?

Thanks in advance for your help!

A noob

 

[Rick]

That sucks...
I had something similiar happen to one of my green colt corals. I cut off a large frag above the infected area.
The main coral died, but the frag is very healthy and has grown quite a bit since then.

 

[ReefNoob]

I've never fragged anything yet(new to this1).
Do I just take a razor blade and cut a few intact branches and glue them to a small rock?

 

[Rick]

Yep... just cut it with a razor, you can try super glue.
Some corals like my colt coral, mushrooms would slime off. I would use needle and thread, poke the needle through the base, pull enough thread through to wrap and tie it around a rock. Might take a week or two to reattach to the rock.

Good luck.

 

[wazzel]

Leathers shead their outer layer from time to time. Kind of looks like you peeling from a sunbrun. If it is not obiviously rotting I would not start hacking it up just yet. First time it happend to me I freaked.