Sea Fan care tips?

Anyone keeping a seafan succesfully? I bought big orange one from last Thursday and its not looking so hot. It was fine up until Monday and then the flesh started turning white and turns to a powder and you can just touch it and it comes off. I can only assume that it is not loving life at the moment.
Any tips? What should I be be testing for? I test for all the normal stuff and everything is always spot on. I even bring water tests to store to double check. I dont test for magnesium or strontium or anything doesnt come with the Hagen kit hah.
Just looking for some advice if I ever decide to try to keep one of these again.
I am not currently dosing anything except purple up every now and then and iron whenever I think about it. maybe once or twice a week. I have a 72gal with icecap 660 (uvl super actinic x2, uvl actinic white, ge 6500k)
It was in the corner of the tank, stalk in the sand, and in what I consider medium flow. I feed DT's. I also do a 15gal water change every other monday with Oceanic salt, that is ph matched. Salinity is at 1.025
All my other corals and fish are doing great (except for one of my leathers(which I think they just do this time to time)
I took a pic of it yesterday, I will try to post it later tonight if I can.
-mario

 

What kind of sea fan. Is it this one Saltwater Aquarium Corals for Marine Reef Aquariums: Yellow Finger Gorgonian

If it is then you have to feed it bio-plankton since it non-photosynthetic. I have one and it does good with medium to low lighting, strong flow, and I have been spot feeding it every other day but, before I was feeding it everyday and it was doing good, now i feed every other day and its kind of disintegrating so im going back to spot feeding it everyday. Have had if for about 5 months.

This is mine a while back

 

hmm.. I dont think mine looks like that. The actual structure is brown like a stick and then the orange flesh grows on it I guess. It has reddish/orange polyps that extend out. As the tissue is dying it is turning white and I can knock it off with my fingers.

Mine branches out alot more than the one in that pic.. most of the arms on that pic are extended from the stalk. Mine has arms that extend from the stalk, but then those arms have arms and so on... the base structure is very twig like

 

Well here is a link amcarrig referred me to once. It talks about gorgonians (sea fans).

Advanced Aquarist's Online Magazine - Invertebrate Non-Column: Gorgonians

You have to see if its photosynthetic or not. If it has bright colors (orange,reds etc..) then its probably not photosynthetic. If is brown then it could be photosynthetic.

 

Pics.
This thing is a goner, but maybe I can figure out what went wrong this time and attempt it later on down the line. I wish it didnt die, it was a really nice piece and added that needed color

11-6-07 around 5:30 or so


Today around 6pm

 

Wow that was fast . Sorry about your loss. Did you expose it to air for long period of time. I think I read that gorgonian and sponges should not be exposed to air.

 

Hey dude...am also very sorry.

Have always wanted a seafan or two in tank...No one has yet to convince me they can be kept all that well.

Would like to know much, if anyone here has had any long term success. :-/

 

wasnt out of water for any abnormal amount of time.. just out of the tank into the big bag of water in a box at the lfs and them from the box to my tank.. It was exposed, but I was not aware that they shoulddnt have ANY exposure to air....

 

Just confirmed that reasoning with a quick google search. It says gorgonians/sponges should not be exposed to air.

 

Yes, Seafans and Gorgonians are harmed by exposure to air. I belive i have read that the O2 actually reacts and stays in their skeletal tissue causing rapid deterioration. May be a problem, and again some are photosynthetic, others are not!

Good luck if you try it again... I am yet to find long term success and gave up after 2 orange gorgonian failures!