Leather Coral

[Kristy44]

So about 2 months ago we adopted a reef tank. We had experience in the past with fresh water and some salt water tanks, but not reefs. Before adopting this 55 gallon tank my fiancee's dad combined it with a small tank he had. Everything seemed well except for a tree like coral who turned grey and shrunk. We weren't sure the salinity was being read correctly with the hydrometer so being vet techs we took a sample to work and tested it on the refractometer. The refract. was reading low so we tried to slowly raise the salinity with 10% weekly water changes. Now 2 months have gone by and the little tree guy is looking good (which made me think the water changes might be working). Not convinced the salinity was still right we took a water sample to the local fish store and when they tested it with their refract. the results were the same as our hydrometer. Doesn't make sense to me. A refract. shouldn't differ from one to another since all it does is compare the specific gravity of a sample to that of water. So now the salinity is fine, higher then it was, and the tree is still surviving but for the past week to week and a half our leather coral has turned purple and shrunk. A few days ago this neon tetra (we call pig fish) has been swooping down and biting and pushing it all over the tank. I thought maybe the coral was shedding, but now I am wondering if the fish knows something i don't. Like is it dying. Did we cause it even though everyone else looks great. Sorry I kind of babbled in this post but i am really frustrated and would like to save this guy if I can. I tried to upload pics but my files are to big. If anyone has any suggestions it would be a great help.

[lReef lKeeper]

if you can, upload the pics to photobucket.com and then copy and paste the [img] code back here in the reply box. when you click "post reply" the picture will appear in the post.

it is really kind of hard to visualize what is going on without seeing it, but it could be shedding.

[Amphibious]

Kristy44,

to Talking Reef Forum.

We're glad you found us.

It would be beneficial to know the water parameters besides specific gravity. What tests are you performing?

Ammonia?
Nitrite?
Nitrate?
Ph?
Calcium?
Magnesium?

Those are the most important things to be testing. It's best to own the test kits and do the tests yourself to be sure they are done accurately.

What lighting does the tank have?
What filtration method are you using?
What other critters are in the tank?

A picture of the "neon tetra" would be nice because I'm confused neon tetra is the common name for a freshwater fish. A picture of the leather might help, too.

Anything else you can think of that may not seem important to you, may be important to figuring this out.

It's very probable you did not cause this to happen to your leather but, rather that something is amiss in the system that you are not aware of.

Dick

[Kristy44]

I hope these pics show up. The first one is what the leather looks like now. The second one is how it looked a couple of weeks ago. The third one is how the tree one looks now, and the last one is how he looked a couple weeks ago.
As far as the neon fish I meant damsel not tetra. Sorry for the typo. My fiancee has been using the kits to test the water and said everything has come up normal.