Soft Coral help Please!!! Alcyoniid beh.   03/07/06 Crew, <Donna> I searched the site for a couple hours to find and answer for this. now I will ask you.  I have a spaghetti leather coral.  Had it for a few weeks now and seems really healthy.  It is already expanding before the lights come on and is out in all its beautiful glory till the lights go out.  All tank parameters are normal (as of last testing).  Everything else in there (fish, a few mushrooms and Christmas tree coral) all seem healthy.  Tonight my husband said there was some sort of "web" floating in the water.  Upon closer inspection, I saw that it was coming from the spaghetti coral.  This "web" material had little white granules in it.  I took the net and scooped out what I could.  Not knowing what it was, I was afraid it would damage my system.   Is this normal or should I be concerned?  Do you know what it was and why it was happening? Thanks, Donna <Is most likely some "mucus" shedding... common/healthy with Alcyoniids... you want to remove this cuticle as much as practical (filtration, skimming, netting), but not much to worry re in an otherwise well-maintained, healthy system. Bob Fenner> Colt Coral 11-25-05 Hello Mr. Fenner, <Hi, Travis with you here today.> I wanted to ask you a couple of questions if I may. You have been so helpful in the past.  I have 2 colt corals in my 100 gallon reef tank, that I bought from a reputable dealer here in town. I am running a VHO lighting system, putting 440 watts of light into the tank, from 10:00 a.m. until 9:00 p.m. everyday. I follow a strict regiment of feeding, and do not over feed for any reason. <Make sure you are not under feeding because of this.> I have some button polyps, toadstool mushroom, green star polyps, Ricordea mushrooms, and some cabbage leather in the tank also. Now when I bought these 2 colts, in the store, they were a real light tan color and were on the bottom of the tank, reaching for the light. When I brought them home, after acclimating them, I place one on top of the rocks, and 1 one the sand. Both of the colts, after a couple of days, changed to a rich looking brown color, with all the polyps on the end extended. <They sound nice.> But they are not standing as tall as they were in the store, figuring the store manager did not have the intense lighting as I do. <I bet you are right.> All of the limbs are rigid, and show no sign whatsoever of being stressed. The colt at the top of the rocks looks like a very healthy bush, and the bottom one is a little taller, but neither of them are as tall as they were in the store tanks. Could it be that they are getting the right amount of light, and do not need to extend so far upwards to get what they need? <Could be.> Or am I doing exactly what they do not need? <It does not sound like it.> My water flow is medium, and is run by a wavemaker, so that they are not constantly pummeled by water. My water temp runs at a constant 78 to 79 degrees, and when I add top off water, it is also the same temperature.  It just seems to me that in the stores, colt corals seem to be reaching for the sky, straining to get at the light, but in the home aquarium, they shrink back to a smaller size, and get very bushy. I would greatly appreciate any comments you have, or any reference material I can look up and read more about them. I thank you for your time, and I hope you had a great turkey day. <Check to make sure you have very low nitrates and fresh carbon running.  Everything else sounds great.> Sincerely, Dan Simpson Dayton, Ohio
<Travis>