red sea xenia opening problems

[a2hotz]

A week or two ago I bought some red sea xenia. I brought it home, put it in my tank and it was awsome. It opened up about 75% on the first few days but not all the way and never pumped. A few days after that, a snail knocked the xenia frag off its perch and it flipped upside down landing xenia down in the middle of the nite for me to find the next morning. It shrivled up for a day or two and then started comming out again. It pulls back into its stalk and extends a little bit but it hasnt shown much improvement. Its been 2 weeks since that. It doesnt look like its dying... just barely opening and not pumping. I moved it so it gets a little more light and more flow...
Is there anything I can do?
and my tank parameters are right on with the exception of some phosphate...
(even though the test kit said theres no phosphates, I beleive I have some because of a algae problem...)

 

[a2hotz]

the waterflow isnt as rediculous as it looks in this picture...

 

[bonebrake]

When I first purchased my Xenia elongata it took two weeks for it to come around as well. I had a similar experience where it just started to look nice and the next day it was upside down in the sandbed courtesy of my bulldozer Mexican turbo snail. I found mine did the absolute best in minimum flow and maximum light.
:joy:

 

[bronco300]

it looks like your xenia is in quite a bit of flow, not sure if its true or not, but i always found as well that xenia likes lower flow....if its not dying then just give it time...xenia is crazy with how it works...they pulse one day like mad and are completely calm the next day...i'd just keep an eye on it to make sure it isn't going away....xenia is tough, i've lost a ton of it on a move recently, but had some tiny parts left that are growing back already, and have seen some stalks UNDER my rock...havent become of much with no light, but they were there, alive...so maybe get a better phosphate test, like merck...

 

[fbm]

For whatever reason my xenia went on vacation for about a week as did the rest of my coral and now the are back with a vengence. I would give some time and don't worry too much. They will come back bigger than before. My snails have knocked mine off as well and they have sat upside down all night before, or at least some part of it and I have never had any lasting trouble from this.

 

[tnn1567]

Have you check your akalinity? I used my xenia to tell me when my akalinity is low, the xenia usually closed up. When akalinity is better, they start pulsing again.

 

[ice4ice]

From what it looked like in the picture, looks like you got alot of water flow on them. Where are the powerheads located ? Are they flowed directly at your xenias ? Just a thought.

 

[bronco300]

the waterflow isnt as rediculous as it looks in this picture...

just noticed this was said under the pic, so maybe the xenia is just being lazy...haha...but if it is from water, even if not bad....maybe that would be something to try

 

[a2hotz]

the xenias were getting medium water flow but Ive been moving them out of the flow further and further. As for alk Im pretty sure Im right on... but Im taking water samples to one of the LFS, theyll get better results. Im also getting a phosphate sponge while Im there... and maybe some fragspawn if the have some. :thinking:
Ill keep you guys updated on water quality, but thanks on the help so far

 

[a2hotz]

I just moved them into my display tank to find a spot with lower flow... they started pumping a minute later

They still arent extended out but there is some pumping!
I have no idea why they started pumping in the big tank and not the holding tank... Im still gonna have the water tested in both.
Im also moving all my frags from the holding tank into the display tank too... Im scared now!

 

[a2hotz]

I didnt get to the lfs to get water tests but I did see that the xenia were more extended than Ive seen them in a while... any one have any ideas whats going on?

 

[pallan]

sounds like there reaching for more light. mine never did well, in fact i threw them in the sump for a time figured they would either get better or worse but at least i would not have to see them anymore. well they did not die so eventually i placed back in main tank. i then got metal halides and they took off. bought ready to start fragging. before they metal halides the arms were long and stingy now there thicker and shorter and pulsing and growing like mad.

 

[a2hotz]

Last nite I put them in the display tank and they started pumping in like 3 minutes or so. Today there not pumping. I have no idea whats going on... I dont think its light because my holding tank has a stronger light. How much light are xenias supposed to get anyways? I was orignially told that they need med/low light and liked alot of flow... now they need high light with little flow. Im so confused...

 

[pallan]

mine like high light and med to high flow. im sure you can get other opinions as to what is best just stating that the pieces i have in those conditions are growing like made and the pieces in med light are not growing as well.
i had my xenia under PC light and it was elongted and the arms were skinny. once i added the halides they shortened up and got bigger. i have alot of flow in the tank and i think they would do better with less flow but im really sold on the lights.

 

[a2hotz]

I have them in a high light, low flow area... right before the lights turned off, they were pumping every once and a while and seemed to look thicker but shorter. Im going to stop moving them for a while so they arent too stressed out.
I went out and bought 30 gallons of RO water tonite! Im sure it'll help with the algae and tank in general!

 

[bronco300]

just because they do not pulse does not necessarily mean something is wrong....xenia is very crazy and will pulse at different rates all the time...and even stop at some points....i wouldnt worry about it unless you really start seeing it fading away....mine will sometimes not pulse if they are looking for more light(ex-if they are coming out of a cave etc) or sometimes they just dont even though they are in the open..xenia with PCS are just fine, i had mine under pcs and they grew insanly! if you check out my picture diary thread, youll see my tank with pcs at first and how much xenia i had.

 

[a2hotz]

Thanks for the info... I think they are gonna be ok. There at the top of the tank with medium flow. I am also buying 2 48" vho lights soon. Im sure that will help. Also I noticed there is about a zillion new buds on the stalk so I think it'll be ok

does any body have adobe photoshop and ever used the sharpen filter? ...that thing is crazy! it picked up the dimples of paint on the wall behind my aquarium! too bad the online version of this looks terrible or you guys could see it too!