Xenia Question

ltvidal

ltvidal

New Member
Hello everyone.
I am new at this and my tank is up and running for about 4 months now. I added Xenia last week to the tank in addition to Bubble Coral and a few mushrooms. I started to notice that the Xenia is rotting away on one side of my rock. I have an established reef tank and the Ammonia, Nitrite and HP are on the money (0.0, 0.0, and 8.2) my Nitrates is a bit high (60-80). I need some help Please what do I do?
The coral is alive and feeds well however I am concerned abit.
 
ltvidal

ltvidal

New Member
One yellow Tang, two clowns, a bubble coral, two pepermints about 30 snails and 20 crabs.
A water change should do it right?
 
trippkid

trippkid

Active Member
Water changes to bring down the Nitrates. The Xenia is probably gone, they can be hit miss, sometimes they do well and others don't. The tank is not established, it is still very new a 4mo.. IMO that can take a yr or 2.
 
farslayer

farslayer

Active Member
Well, now not too large of a water change; going from really high nitrates to really low is also bad. And yes, what size tank do you have? how much sand, how much rock, what type of filtration?
 
spanko

spanko

Active Member
Xenia are a good indicator of water quality and your is probably telling yor the nitrates are out its realm of comfort. Large water change to get them down. Do you have a standard water change schedule?
 
ltvidal

ltvidal

New Member
I have a 90 gal tank and I just dbl chked the levels and it is 40ppm.
The Xenia is looking good but out of 20 heads I saw 5 of them looking like underwater snot (LOL).
 
trippkid

trippkid

Active Member
I'd remove the ones that look bad. do several smaller water changes over the course of a wk or so to bring down nitrates. What is your temp. also, my colonies don't like it above 82 max.
 
farslayer

farslayer

Active Member
Originally Posted by LTVIDAL
I am using two(2) Aquaclear Filter inserts Activated Carbon for 110 gla
Excellent...that will greatly help...i'd pull the corpses anyway
 
chadman

chadman

Active Member
this is unusual that everyone is saying nitrates are the problem...i was under the assumption that xenia likes water that is not totally perfect...i wouldn't say 100% that it is your nitrates causing the problem...whats your lighting like? flow? i helped an xgfriend put a tank together and her levels were all at zero for a while and i gave her some of my xenia and it died within a few days...another thing that could have happened was that it was under a different type of lighting before you purchased it...i have seen that happen
 
chadman

chadman

Active Member
but you should still do the water changes to try to get that number down but i don't think that is in the deadly zone just yet...at least not high enough to kill it in days
 
ltvidal

ltvidal

New Member
I just did a 5 gal RO water change. my Salt level is at 1.025 and I have the new corallife 48" blue/white and LED light. I placed the Xenia in the middle of the tank not directly under the flow but just engh to move the "arms". the rest of the Xenia (mixed light blue/gray and Brown) looks fine and pretty healthy.
I will do another water chage tomorow (10 Gal) any other sugst?
I know that it takes time to get the tank running but I am full of time and not in a rush.
 
farslayer

farslayer

Active Member
Originally Posted by chadman
this is unusual that everyone is saying nitrates are the problem...i was under the assumption that xenia likes water that is not totally perfect...i wouldn't say 100% that it is your nitrates causing the problem...whats your lighting like? flow? i helped an xgfriend put a tank together and her levels were all at zero for a while and i gave her some of my xenia and it died within a few days...another thing that could have happened was that it was under a different type of lighting before you purchased it...i have seen that happen
It's the same as over fertilizing your yard or taking a lot of antioxidants; too much is not good.
 
chadman

chadman

Active Member
i understand this...but in most cases levels like that should not kill coral within a weeks time.....do you agree??
 
chadman

chadman

Active Member
Originally Posted by LTVIDAL
I just did a 5 gal RO water change. my Salt level is at 1.025 and I have the new corallife 48" blue/white and LED light. I placed the Xenia in the middle of the tank not directly under the flow but just engh to move the "arms". the rest of the Xenia (mixed light blue/gray and Brown) looks fine and pretty healthy.
I will do another water chage tomorow (10 Gal) any other sugst?
I know that it takes time to get the tank running but I am full of time and not in a rush.
so you have multiple types of xenia?
 
farslayer

farslayer

Active Member
Originally Posted by chadman
i understand this...but in most cases levels like that should not kill coral within a weeks time.....do you agree??
I'd have to say I wouldn't
Reason is that I also use Xenia as an indicator of water quality. If the nitrates are extremely high, or if they shot up rather quickly, it could very well be the culprit. But at this point, anything is possible. Perhaps another coral is too close and is stinging them? It's the only thing I've seen so far which looks like a possibility. Definitely needs to watch those other corals and make sure nothing looks out of place with them. A pic would also help if he can do it.
 
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