melting xenia

[jrthomas40]

this is the second time i have purchased some pulsing xenia and for whatever reason they are melting away...all my water parameters are good but i woke up this morning and they were milky white and later on today they were all melted away....all my other corals are fine and living well except the xenia colony....what is going on!!!

 

[krull001]

what type of other corals do you have? High calcium or heavy population of sps of lps corals could have an effect on them..... tempature could be another problem.... need more details about the tank

 

[jrthomas40]

temperature is about 76-78
ammonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate <5
ph 8.3
sal/sg 1.025
current corals...toadstool leather, goniopora, alevopora, mushrooms, colt coral, sun coral, some zoas
current fish.... 2 maroons, sailfin tang, 6 line wrasse, flame angel, blue reagal, leopard goby

 

[laddy]

Xenia are one of those corals which a lot of people believe are easy to take care of , but can be tricky.

 

[jrthomas40]

i have hand fed them plankton, i have put iodine directly over them, moved them closer to the light farther away from the light seems like i have tried everything....i am starting to think myself it is going to be one of those corals too.....people say they are easy but infact they really aint

 

[efishnsea]

I just had three of my prize white/pink stalks do the exact samething

. They were 2" thick at the base and had them for two years????? I just wrote it off to old age :thinking: . All of my other xenia colonies are fine

????????
From what I have heard xenia does that occasionally for no apparant reason

.
efisn :happyfish nsea

 

[jrthomas40]

what is even worse is they were doin great the other pulsing away lookin awesome and today whamo...dead

 

[mudplayerx]

Originally Posted by jrthomas40
i have hand fed them plankton, i have put iodine directly over them, moved them closer to the light farther away from the light seems like i have tried everything....i am starting to think myself it is going to be one of those corals too.....people say they are easy but infact they really aint
They don't need to be fed as they get most of their energy from the lighting. I'd also stop dosing the iodine as it hasn't even been proven if xenia benefit from it (definately don't dose the iodine unless you have an iodine test kit).
The thing with xenia is, nobody even knows why they pulse. Very little is known about this coral. I had xenia for about a year where it grew so much that I was making about $30-$50 a month in store credit selling frags. One day they just stopped growing and slowly faded to nothing.
Only tips I can offer that I know for sure is they like good flow & strong lighting. Strong flow may stop them from pulsing, but it will make them grow faster. It's a tradeoff. Good luck.

 

[psusocr1]

just my .02 cents
liek said above i was making alot of money on my xenia especially because it was longstaock.. one day i bumped my calcium and alk. alot higher since my clams need it and alot od my other coralsd as well.. once i did that as stated bango it started to slowly fade away.. IMO they dont like calcium above 350 and alk above 2.5
everyones opinions are different but thats just whats i noticed in my tank

 

[jrthomas40]

hmmm...that could be it!!! i add some calcium yesterday or the day before then wham bad shape

 

[fbm]

My calcium is 420 and mag 1170 and alk 3.2 or so...
And my pom pom xenia's growing like wildfire...
Waving hand xenias growing but slowly...
Dunno, has to be something else wouldn't ya think?

 

[poniegirl]

When I first started keeping xenia, I had what I thought was a nitrate problem, 40 on the Salwater Master test. The xenia grew so quickly that I was almost sorry I got it.
A month ago I moved my tank across the room, used 50% of the old water. The only real change (that I had anything to do with) was I ditched my filter sleeve media for chaeto in my canister. My nitrates have been 0, an absolute first for me and I was SO happy, until my xenia and zoas started to droop.
I have started target feeding them and they seem to be recovering. Just every week and a half, or so for feeding.
I don't know what this means, just another piece of an equation I will never have a total grip on

 

[reefkprz]

xenia are one of the few corals that are as close to photodependant as it gets, they take almost nothing from the water and almost soley rely on photosynthesis for nutrition. I currently dont have xenia because it spreads too fast and would take over my tank. but decent current stable water parameters and good lighting are required, I put an emphasis on stable. One thing I'v noticed is no matter who has it it gennerally either does great in a tank or doesnt, you can even have two tanks kept in the same manner by the same person and xenia wont grow in one and flourish in the other. Dont know why, just something I've noticed.