Direct flow pissed off my Xenia

[kappa]

I have a Mini-Jet 606 directly aimed at my Xenia at 80gph from 10 inches away from the spray nozzle. One day later, 80 percent of my Xenia stalks had layed over due to the pressure of the water flow. Wow, I had no Idea that Xenia was this weak. I omved my Xenia to a location away form the power head, and closer to the light, but still the Xenia still shows no sign of getting better. It is now melting away, with some heads covered with brown muck. I have moved the Xenia once again where there is little flow. DOes anybody know how hardy Xenia's are?

 

Ever since I added an additional PH, my Xenia has not been do well. I even turn off the 80gph PH at night, with the 160 gph one still on of course.

[crizq0]

mine did the same as well when i moved it. It was wilting over and looked like it was gonna melt and die. Turned to some ugly color. But I left it there for a couple of days and it came back to life and pulsing.

 

From my experience i think you should leave it alone for now away from direct flow and let it adjust for a few days. They are pretty hardy.

 

Maybe someone else will chime in.

[dhoffroad]

kinda funny mine were in the direct line of flow and loved it, I did a little moving arround an moved one out of the line of flow and it did'nt seem so happy so I moved it back, and, well happy. I have read somewhere that they can be tempermental and pout for a bit.don't know if this helps but this is my experience with them

[Turk]

no point in turning off powerheads at night

 

does the ocean take a break at night? granted there willb e less wind-wave action, but that wouldn't change much

 

 

My xenia came from a near zero current tank and they pulsed like amd at the LFS. brought em home (2 weeks ago or so) and they didn't much like the higher flow in my 10 gallon. so i moved them to a spot where they sway gently back and forth with my SCWD's switching. one stalk drooped over and attached to the rock (as opposed to being straight up), but other than that they see happy. just give them time to adjust to new surroundings

[demon2]

xenia's are like girls there sensitive to changes in there environment and complain when you do somthing to it without talking to them about it first.

 

lol

[kappa]

I moved the Xenia to a new location whihc had little flow 2 days ago. I checked it out this morning, and they were all wiped out. One stalk is drooping to the side of the rock, while the rest is melted down flat, others broke their heads off, and floated away, and the rest is covered with brown muck. I belive at this point, that my Xenia is a gonner, but I have not given up hope yet.

[supernip]

toss it before your tank crashes and get new pieces from other reefers.

[kappa]

No signs of Nitrate or Amoania, so far.

[kappa]

Here is my Xenia as of now. I can tell the Amoania is rising in my tank, but it still remains at 0.

 

Nitrate is 0.0

pH 8.2-8.4

Calcium 482 ppm

Hardness 9.6 dKH

Alk 3.42 mg

Phosphate 0 (this was hard to belive as I have amazing hair algae growth)

sg 1.024

temp 78F

 

 

 

Also today, I saw my Blenny bite a chunk off the xenia, and swallowed it.

 

Anyways, you guys might be able to to give a better opinion of what to do now that there is a photo.

[just dave]

I would take a small siphon tube ( I like to use a rigid airline tube connected to flexible airline) to remove all of the dead tissue.

[kappa]

The entire Xenia is very very fragile. Moving the rock can cause many heads to fall off. I'll take your advice, and suck out what I can, then do a partial water change.

[melcolm]

Your picture seems to show that you have excess algae...which tends to be caused by bad water quality. Xenias are usually very hardy. I have a couple of stalks sitting in heavy waterflow and they are doing well. What are you using to test your levels? Test kits are often inaccurate... xenias are sensitive to low level PH. My guess is that it's your water quality and not the powerhead that caused them to melt.

[kappa]

I use salifert test kits. My ph is 8.1 right now, so I addded Kent Marine pH buffer to raise it a bit. My pH is usually 8.2-8.4.

 

My Xenia was fine until I added the new PH which seem to have flatten it out.

 

I replaced about 1 gallon of the water, tore out as much algae as possible, cleaned out my three sponges with RO water, and replaced only 2 back in the sump. I also syphoned out any dead tissue that could get sucked up by a turkey baster.

 

Any other Ideas you have that may have cause my pulsing Xenia to melt?

[kappa]

If it is the water quality, I am not sure what part is not up to par.

[Angel]

Have you been adding the buffer on a regular basis since it has been in there? That may have caused it, not sure. I do not add chemicals, so this is just a guess. If any of the ones that floated away still have life, they will probably attach elsewhere.

[melcolm]

Hey, go save the remaining portions of it.

Watch the video here:

 

http://www.garf.org/MPegs/XeniaPropagation.html

[BJK2]

Mine started to melt monday, so i pulled off the brown stuff as best i could and moved it to a new less "breezy" part of the tank and i'm starting to see great growth. Today is only friday by the way.

 

If any heads still look live save them, i found 1 floating around my tank a while back and saved it and it has grown well.

HTH,

Billy

[SDA619]

wow i saw the video im going to try that with my melting pulsating xenia.... i have the same problem with Pulsating xenia... i have all kinds of corals and the only thing to have ever died are PX not once but twice. I have X elongata propagate like crazy but the pulsating kind always dies on me.

[supernip]

you should really consider removing it or cutting off all infected area to avoid further spreading. if you even have a mm of the stuff left, it can grow into a full colony in a matter of weeks

[kappa]

I don't dose pH regularly, as it is normally at 8.2-8.4. I think after I added some calcium, the levels got messed up a bit because calcium, and alk is to high. Well everything in my tnak is surviving, that makes me a bit glad. That does it, I am going to go out and buy a another turbo snail.

 

Nice propagation video.

[kappa]

Algae out break could be growing because of DT's phytoplankton one teaspoon dosing that I do every three or four days.

 

That just might be it.

[kappa]

Melting xenia is still in the tank. I am still holding on to it.

 

I do 1 gallon water change every 2 days.

 

Cleaning out alot of algae.

 

Scrubing the walls.

 

cleaned out all sponges.

 

Cleaned out both PHs.

 

Feeding fish less food.

 

No dosing anything.

 

Scrubed out one rock in salt water.

 

cleaned the substrate, and stired it.

[Sushi]

how are the other livestock doin in the tank? hope your xenia recovers and tank restabilizes

[kappa]

Nope, xenia looks like it was completely wiped out. I do a 1 gallon water change every other day to keep amoania from rising. The water I made is of RO water, and Instant Ocean salt that I mixed with a small power head for 2 days, then I let it sit for a another 2 days.

 

Everyday I look at my tank, and it gives me a headache, so I clean it out every other day, and suck out 1 gallon of water.

[kappa]

I resused my three sponges.

 

All three is in the first cjamber now, and rocks are in the other chambers.

 

To make all three fit in the first chamber with the PH, I cut a hole all the way through the top sponge, and fit the PH inside it.

 

One reaon why I decided to do this is because the detritus being sucked into the intake is being spit back out back into the tank from the intake in the first chamber.

 

The xenia is a goner. The algae is slowly diappearing, as the 3 hermits are taking care of it.

1 blue legged

1 halloween hermit

1 electric blue