Xenia too much light?

[juice_1080]

Ok so my Xenia was doing great and then my tank got ich so I had to take most of the rock work out to catch the fish. When I put it all back in (obviously not the same way it came out) The Xenia ended up a couple inches closer to the light and now it doesn't look near as healthy as it used to....So what I am asking is should I move everything around again and put it lower down in the tank again or should I just leave it be....
Tank Specs:
29g
T-5 NO 18w-Actinic + 18w 10,000K
T-8 27w Actinic + 2x27w 10,000K
2 Powerheads (Koralia #1 + AquaClear 3000)
Water Specs:
IO Reef Crystals
RO/DI H2O
NH4 - 0
NO2 - 0
NO3 - 5ish
1.025
pH - 8.3
kH - 120
Current Inhabitants(Fish in QT):
1- Sally Lightfoot
12 - Snails
15 - Hermits
Zoas
Shroom
Leather
Xenia
Its looked less healthy for about a week now....

 

[juice_1080]

Oh yea all the other corals look just fine right now

 

[perfectdark]

Its tough with Xenia.. IMO its a touchy coral, some people with near perfect chemistry cannot keep it alive and for no reason. Others have not so good chemistry and have good luck with it. The only thing I can say is IMO Xenias dont take well to change.
If the xenia came from a tank that had high trates or somthing was off and placed in a tank with near perfect conditions, then IMO it doesnt matter it has ill effects on the coral. Same goes with the reverse scenrio. You said you had to take out your LR and disrupt your tank to get out your fish. Did you stir up the sand bed at all? Did you test your water chem? and did you have any fluctuations at all? Only thing I can think of is that you might of caused a nitrate spike that didnt agree with your xenia. Mine sit directly under my lights litterally 2" from them and they are fine, so I dont think it has to do with that, but anything is possible I guess.

 

[juice_1080]

I was just wondering because it was used to being lower in the tank that maybe it isn't adjusting well. My water is the same as it normally is right now. The only real difference is that when I pulled out a couple gallons to start my QT I didn't replace that water yet. The only time I stirred sand up was in one spot because my goby buried himself so I had to dig him up. I didn't notice a spike at all though.
I bought it from my LFS about 2-3 months ago and it has been growing alot since then except this week. One thing I forgot to add was that it has been splitting since I bought it and just this week one part of it finally completely detached from the other. Would this have any effect on it at all?
Thanks for the input.

 

[perfectdark]

It may, and if it was that far from your lights to begin with I wouldnt discount a bit of light shock. Keep an eye on it and watch for it failing white'ish color branches withering and dieing off complelty not just wilting. Mine have gone thru a few stages of seeing some branches dieing off but the majority thrives. After the process is finished all looks good again and it continues to propogate. Good luck.

 

[buckster71]

I agree with touchy. I lapsed on my trace elements and my two xenias took a nose dive.
Now I keep up with them and water changes and the one that barely survived is doing pretty well.
It could be the change of light too, but I've moved mine around the tank quite a bit and it hadn't affected it from one level to another.

 

[jonthefishguy]

Xenias like moderate to high light. All but the blue ones I recently sold anyways. The blues don't like too much. So your issue could be light shock so I would just keep an eye out.

 

[juice_1080]

It seems to be doing better now....The arms still don't extend as much as when I first got it but I seem some new ones starting to emerge from where the one half of it split off of.