Help with xenia... probably a stupid question. picture attached.

[dandb]

2 weeks ago we got a frag of Heteroxenia. They have been doing very well. They started pulsing about 3-4 days after we received them, and have already started growing new branches. We have been very pleased with them so far... until today.
Came home from work and found a white patch on one of the stalks and the branches were shriveled.
We sort of panicked and decided to crop the white portion of the xenia out. Now, 5 minutes later, they are back to pulsing and acting normal.
Any suggestions on why this happened? Could it be bacterial? do I need to worry about any of my other corals being affected by the whiteness?
here are some specs.
tank: JBJ 28g Nano HQI, skimmer, chiller/ heater.
inhabitants: 2 oscellaris clowns, bi-color blenny, sailfin blenny, banded coral shrimp, lettuce slug, 2 peppermint shrimp, a dozen hermits, a dozen assorted small snails. everyone gets along great!
other corals: green star polyps, green leather coral, 3 or 4 kinds of polyps, heteroxenia frag, pompom xenia frag. there's also a very small BTA
parameters: pH 8.3-8.4, Ca 420-440, Nitrates 0, Nitrites 0, Ammonia 0, Carbonate Hardness 161.1ppmKH, Temp 77, Salinity 1.024
I know there are a couple of other treads on here about this, but I just want some opinions. Is this whiteness going to affect the rest of the tank? Are the other stalks going to turn white and die?
Anything will help! Thanks!

 

[nycbob]

give it 2-3 days to monitor it. xenia is very tough.

 

[killer whale]

Originally Posted by DandB
http:///forum/post/3243879
2 weeks ago we got a frag of Heteroxenia. They have been doing very well. They started pulsing about 3-4 days after we received them, and have already started growing new branches. We have been very pleased with them so far... until today.
Came home from work and found a white patch on one of the stalks and the branches were shriveled.
We sort of panicked and decided to crop the white portion of the xenia out. Now, 5 minutes later, they are back to pulsing and acting normal.
Any suggestions on why this happened? Could it be bacterial? do I need to worry about any of my other corals being affected by the whiteness?
here are some specs.
tank: JBJ 28g Nano HQI, skimmer, chiller/ heater.
inhabitants: 2 oscellaris clowns, bi-color blenny, sailfin blenny, banded coral shrimp, lettuce slug, 2 peppermint shrimp, a dozen hermits, a dozen assorted small snails. everyone gets along great!
other corals: green star polyps, green leather coral, 3 or 4 kinds of polyps, heteroxenia frag, pompom xenia frag. there's also a very small BTA
parameters: pH 8.3-8.4, Ca 420-440, Nitrates 0, Nitrites 0, Ammonia 0, Carbonate Hardness 161.1ppmKH, Temp 77, Salinity 1.024
I know there are a couple of other treads on here about this, but I just want some opinions. Is this whiteness going to affect the rest of the tank? Are the other stalks going to turn white and die?
Anything will help! Thanks!
0 nitrate ? Is it a new aquarium?

 

[dandb]

Originally Posted by killer whale
http:///forum/post/3244439
0 nitrate ? Is it a new aquarium?
The nano tank is over a month old - but all of the live rock and live sand were transferred over. We decided to downsize from a 55 gallon to a more modest 28 gallon. The live rock and live sand were in our larger tank for over 3 years.
Some of the corals are newer additions, primarily the xenia.
Again today, the rest of the corals look fine, and the xenia in question continue to pulse and act normal. None of the other stalks/ branches seem to be affected so far. And all of the water parameters are unchanged from above.
Any suggestions?

 

[mr.clownfish]

xenia needs nitrates to survive.
i started out with 2 frags about the size u have now and ended up with 20+ different frags, via fragging. i had 40ppm of nitrite which never used to go away no matter how many times i did water changes. it all disappeared in about a year after i added the xenia. then after all the nitrite was gone they started to melt and die, i lost half of them. i started to OD with coral excel, phytoplex, and microvert. they came back and where doing great.
then they all died when i moved into a new house due to a heater malfunction

i would say that there was about 300 bucks worth of xenia in my tank at one point.

 

[dandb]

Originally Posted by Mr.clownfish
http:///forum/post/3245416
xenia needs nitrates to survive.
i started out with 2 frags about the size u have now and ended up with 20+ different frags, via fragging. i had 40ppm of nitrite which never used to go away no matter how many times i did water changes. it all disappeared in about a year after i added the xenia. then after all the nitrite was gone they started to melt and die, i lost half of them. i started to OD with coral excel, phytoplex, and microvert. they came back and where doing great.
then they all died when i moved into a new house due to a heater malfunction

i would say that there was about 300 bucks worth of xenia in my tank at one point.

My other pompom xenia seem to be thriving, and the frag with the white spot still seem to be doing well... I guess - they are pulsing and have new growth on the stalks. The place where we did surgery to remove the white spot has almost completely healed up.
I was more wondering if this was some sort of bacteria/ fungus/ terrible plague disease which would destroy the other corals in my tank. Which doesn't seem to have happened yet.