Xenia isn't looking so good

[Lypto]

I've got a fairly nutrient rich little system with mangroves and macroalgae, and my Xenia was thriving and growing well. After maybe 5 months of being in the system my Xenia shriveled up, the system is a little over a year and a half old. I know there's countless stories of this happening and I've had it happen before in another tank, but I'd love to know the reason for it, The only thing i did since then was change out some old carbon. I like this coral to much to give up on it and I'd like to prevent this from happening again.

 

Any ideas on how to prevent the meltdown and get this coral back to healthy?

[Clown79]

Are they getting a decent amount of flow and light?

 

How often do you change your carbon?

 

What are your nutrient levels at?

 

 

[Lypto]

they're getting a fair bit of flow, but I can make it better, I thought Xenia preferred low flow? light wise they might be receiving too much, I've got a kessil a80 tuna about 5 inches above them at 100% blue/white. Nutrient wise I'll test tomorrow, just did a water change. I change the carbon maybe once every 2 months, It's only 2.5 g so there's not a lot of water to filter.

[Tamberav]

Check temp and salinity, Xenia can be pretty pissy about both (they dont like high temps).

 

Otherwise 2g isn't much and carbon removes organic matter which trace elements bind to and so on....

 

High light shouldn't be an issue... Xenia can handle pretty high light. I had mine growing not far from a kessil 160. Unless there was a sudden change/swap of lights?

 

 

[Clown79]

4 hours ago, Tamberav said:

Check temp and salinity, Xenia can be pretty pissy about both (they dont like high temps).

 

Otherwise 2g isn't much and carbon removes organic matter which trace elements bind to and so on....

 

High light shouldn't be an issue... Xenia can handle pretty high light. I had mine growing not far from a kessil 160. Unless there was a sudden change/swap of lights?

 

 

Every xenia I had loved high light and did much better under it then low light.

 

I think they tolerate low light and low flow but prefer the opposite, from my experience with xenia

[Lypto]

Salinity was a little low actually and the pump was pretty gunked up, I'll clean them and do a water change to bring it back up. Should I just take the carbon out? 

[Clown79]

7 hours ago, Lypto said:

Salinity was a little low actually and the pump was pretty gunked up, I'll clean them and do a water change to bring it back up. Should I just take the carbon out? 

I run small amounts of carbon but its changed every 3 weeks. Carbon exhausts after a certain amount of use.

[Rabb.D]

check light volume, intensity and amount of water column nutrients, lack of volume doesn't mean there's enough intensity, intensity doesn't mean there's enough volume and salinity doesn't refer to the amount of nutrient available in the water column 

 

also most corals reefs in the ocean can just survive on light alone, and color temperature doesn't also means there is enough volume or intensity

 

 

[Lypto]

More water changes seems to help give it something, as does frequent feedings.

Ammonia: less than .10

Nitrite .1 ppm

Nitrate : .14-16 ppm after a heavy feeding, nearly 

PH 7.8

 

I have a theory that my macros are sucking up all the iron, iodine  and magnesium, so I'm trimming them back to only the very healthy bits. It's so small and I have maybe 13 mangroves and a fair bit of macros, so it makes perfect sense everything is getting sucked up. My macros are looking a little starved too. I'll be moving soon so hopefully a bigger tank and a dosing capacity will be in the cards. 

[Pjanssen]

Be careful what you wish for

[mcarroll]

On 3/12/2020 at 10:47 PM, Lypto said:

Ammonia: less than .10

Nitrite .1 ppm

Are these artifacts of testing, or are those good (non-expired) tests on a new tank that's still not processing nitrite all that way?  (How old is this tank?)

 

On 3/12/2020 at 10:47 PM, Lypto said:

Nitrate : .14-16 ppm after a heavy feeding, nearly 

That is effectively zero when considering the accuracy rate of the test kit.

 

Can you test phosphates too?

 

On 3/12/2020 at 10:47 PM, Lypto said:

I have a theory that my macros are sucking up all the

....essential macro nutrients like nitrate and phosphate.  Yes they are...just need to verify the phosphate reading.  Trace elements are unlikely to be an issue.

 

But clearly there's no reason to be growing macro algae in this tank.  Pull it out and let your corals use up the nutrients instead!

 

On 3/12/2020 at 10:47 PM, Lypto said:

It's so small and I have maybe 13 mangroves

???

I'm guessing you do not garden or grow houseplants.  😉 

 

You either need to decide that this is really a coral reef and ditch all the extra greens (<- my recommendation), or turn your research lens on finding out what it takes to grow massive amounts of green plants.

 

Right now your tank is conflicted and isn't doing well as a result.  Simplify!  Don't try to do so much at once.  👍

 

 

[Lypto]

36 minutes ago, mcarroll said:

But clearly there's no reason to be growing macro algae in this tank.  Pull it out and let your corals use up the nutrients instead!

It's a macro focused tank actually. My main focus is mangroves and macros. I have a few easy soft corals as more of an afterthought. 

 

38 minutes ago, mcarroll said:

I'm guessing you do not garden or grow houseplants.

I've kept a large garden and hydroponic systems for almost 10 years now, specializing in unusual and difficult to keep plants. Mangroves and macros are a new frontier for me and are growing very happily. Soft corals are not unfamiliar. 

 

This tank is about 1.8 years old and has been fairly stable for a pico. 

 

Phosphate tests as near zero, but my test kits are old so I may need new ones. This is also an issue, it gets sucked up so fast it's impractical to keep them high enough for the algae. i've added iron in the past and it helped but I ran out a few months ago.

 

The mangroves are in there as I needed to sprout and keep a few saltwater raised propagules as preparation for a 20 gallon lagoon system I've been planning. I've got 35 more in brackish and in fresh, and three in a gecko enclosure. 

 

Heavier feeding and the addition of a fertilizer will likely help and I'll be visiting a shop soon if I can, there's some concerns in my area and I'd prefer not to travel.

 

 

 

[mcarroll]

2 minutes ago, Lypto said:

Heavier feeding and the addition of a fertilizer will likely help and I'll be visiting a shop soon if I can,

You've already got the ticket then! 

 

Can't grow much with no essential nutrients available.   And you have a TON of plants in there, presuming you expect them all to grow. 

 

It's going to take a lot of nutrients!  👍 

 

Consider looking into some of the more current planted tank methods for ideas on how to keep them fed over the long term.   

 

I've adopted a few minor planted tank methods in battling dino's (see my R2R thread)....but the the idea is that you basically maintain nutrient levels similarly to how reefers have traditionally maintained alkalinity -- test and dose.  Some planted folks take it even further though with 100% water chages....something that's not too uncommon in pico's anyway....so it's well-worth reading up on.

 

Seachem makes the right stuff too if that would be more available for any reason.  (I think Brightwell does too.)