Reef problems

[nevurrmore]

I was wondering if anyone has any advice about pulsing zenia's and leather corals. I have had some for several months, but last night they withered away, but are barely still alive. The leathers polyps aren't out, and the zenia's aren't out or pulsing, and both are grayish in color. Everything else in the tank is doing fine, and the water conditions are testing fine, so any suggestions?

 

[lnarobbins]

the only thing that comes to my mind is what is your lighting?
Alan

 

[nevurrmore]

power compact, 96watt

 

[insguy]

I think Alan may be onto something with the lighting, have you tried moving them into a position higher in the tank? Also, are you using Lugols or an iodine regularly? I had to upgrade my lighting to keep some of my corals happy. I have 4 vho's in a 55 or just short of 6watts per gallon.
Water flow too high in that location?

 

[bradsmack]

AH Neverrmore, dont feel to bad, my Anethelia(xenia) did that exact same thing 2 nights ago! JUST DIED! I use one 55 watt PC.. I think i need to buy a new light, it has lost its brightness quite a bit, that may have something to do with it, check your lights.. how old are they? My water is fine too!

 

[nevurrmore]

these are brand new lights, about one month old, everything was doing fine, then last night it just fell apart, donno. it's letting off something from the ends of the coral, it looks to be deflating. postion hasn't changed, so i'm not convinced it's the lights.

 

[broomer5]

Nevurrmore,
Have you added anything to your tank recently, Any new additives/supplements or phosphate removing media ?

 

[nm reef]

Also post info on recent water tests and filtration. The more info the better....but its been my experience that xenia are for the most part hardy and do well in an assortment of set-ups.

 

[demosthenes]

Nevurrmore, from The Raven I assume, I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss lights as the problem. How many W/g do you have? For all I know you could be running 96 W on a 10,000 gallon, or a 10 gallon. I think the reason you are dismissing the lights is based on the fact that they were doing fine, but now aren't. Well, look at it this way. If you feed your dog a piece of bread a week, he will do okay for awhile, but eventually problems will arise. The lighting seems inefficient to a point, at which the anthelia slowly died. That, IMO, is what happened, or is happening.

 

[nevurrmore]

15gal tank, with chiller

 

[demosthenes]

Well, that's 6.5 W/g. Now I'm stumped. I've never had experience with xenia though, so, I can't be of much help. Like NM said, what are the parameters?

 

[susiepan]

Also,unless I missed it, how long do you leave those lights on and what is the tank temp??
~Susie

 

[nevurrmore]

temp is 78degrees, and i'm running a CPR backpack. my hammer, polyps,ultra maxima clam, metallic mushrooms, and all snails are fine. so i'm not sure what happened.

 

[demosthenes]

Do you add Iodide?

 

[bradsmack]

I was just wondering.. how did you fit a 96 watt PC on a 15 gal. tank? just curious let me know.. thanks

 

[demosthenes]

Bradsmack, can you shorten your signature a little bit. It's just that your sig is longer than your post.

 

[thehat]

Add Iodine. My silver xenia did the same thing. I then uped my dosage of Iodine and it is now starting to come back slowly but surely. I had so much xenia and other things that used the supplement that it starved even though my conditions were perfect.

 

[nevurrmore]

as far as my power compact goes, i customized a retro fit style that i found, it measures 17 1/2 inches, then made a top that fits perfect on the top, with my cpr backpack. a must have with this set up is a fan. so any suggestions about water temp, i think that could be the problem, but still not convinced.