sick pulsing xenia?

[mismodliz]

Our pulsing xenia has taken a turn for the worse in the last few weeks. It has been fine for the last year but now it has white spots on it and is shrinking.
Any ideas? Is it a total loss?

 

[mismodliz]

It's my boyfriend's tank, so I'll answer the questions as best I can. I help with it, though.
Temp - same
Salinity - same
We use RO water and have a protein skimmer. Don't know about pH or dkh (??) flux.
We can start there.
The protein skimmer was down for a couple of weeks. We finally got it up and running again over a week ago. Maybe that caused some problems?
Everything else is doing the same, except for an excess of hair algae (b/c the skimmer was down).
Oh, and we are starting to see the cyanobacteria (the red stuff) come back, too.

 

[bigarn]

I agree...it's a water quality issue. Xenias are great indicators of water quality problems.

 

[mismodliz]

That's what I figured since it started after the skimmer went down. So start with checking pH levels?
A checklist to go through?

 

[bigarn]

Do you have any other means of water circulation besides the skimmer? Any PH's? If not your nitrate level might be high. I'd check all the parameters to be on the safe side.

 

[mismodliz]

Thanks for all of your help.
- We do have a powerhead to help move water.
- Water is topped off once a week or depending on what the tank needs. We strive to keep it full.
We will test the pH and other levels tonight.