Cabbage Coral Question

[trinisalt]

Hey everyone i need some help understanding if my cabbage coral is ok. I recently bought it about a week ago and today i noticed it looks a bit glassy or shiny, so i'm wondering if i'm doing something wrong. I have 500W (MH, daylight and actinic) in a 100 gal tank. I am slowing re-introducing the MH lighting to the tank, currently at 3 hrs a day so i'm not sure if it needs more light or is this normal?

Please share your thoughts?

[aquawolf]

Welcome to TRT!!!

Most leather corals will go through a molting process as they grow. They withdraw their polyps and get a waxy coating on them, which is what it sounds like yours is doing. Keep medium flow on it and as it begins to come out of the molt that will help it slough off the dead skin. You also may want to run some activated carbon in the system to absorb any toxins that may be released into the water column. When the molt is over you will see the coral bigger and brighter than before.

As long as it does not begin melting away, leathers are usually okay.

HTH

[D.J.]

yours sounds to be doing the same thing that mine is doing right now......MOLTING.....mine is under 260w pc for right now and has been that way for a long time and is doing great.....

[trinisalt]

hey thanks for the advice...you all were absolutely right, after a day it shed its glassy "skin" and look better than ever. If fact it has already done so twice! Now it looks like it's always been in the tank.

[aquawolf]

Glad to hear everything is good with it.