Kenya tree help please!!

[tuanp]

I have a Kenya for about 2-3 months now and it's been doing great, until a couple days ago when it stopped opening up. At night when the lights are off it droops, as it does normally, but now, when the lights are on, it straightens up but does not open at all; it's just shrivelled up into stubs.

A few days earlier I added some more Kenya trees (the problem tree had been the only one 'til then). The were rescued from a neglected tank, and now they seem to be healthy, but my first tree is going downhills.

Could the new trees be doing something? Another thing is that at night, I saw a couple of nudibranchs on the glass. I didn't see any on the Kenya itself; but could the nudibranchs be hurting it?

My params are good, and everything else in the tank (xenias, zoos, buttons, mushrooms, GSP, leather, etc) are doing fine too.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks,

tuan

 

[FraggleRock]

I understand your situation. Did you change your waterflow? They like it moderate. My colt did the same thing and now all I have left of it is a frag!
Its frustrating to have one die on you. I also will use a DIP when something seems to be gong down hill. Good Luck buddy

 

[tuanp]

Thanks for the reply. Come to think of it, I did change the flow and it became weaker at the tree. I just increased it again. Hope it'll recover. It seems to be hanging in there - still standing, not drooped over, just closed up like a tight fist

I understand your situation. Did you change your waterflow? They like it moderate. My colt did the same thing and now all I have left of it is a frag!
Its frustrating to have one die on you. I also will use a DIP when something seems to be gong down hill. Good Luck buddy

 

[burning2nd]

cool..... i have a k tree... i added about a year ago... and i was told that they spread fast....

you probly dont need to add that 2nd tree... it will split off in a few months with out a doubt.

ive seen what your talking about...

what are you water stats? if you have some flow. and your water is good... it is closed up cause its gonna shed some skin... (like cleaning itself) ive found that right are this... (it will open in a few days) i will frag it self.

ive had hermits siting in side the middle of the k tree. causeing it not 2 open..

its a really hardy coral... unless your water is fubar you shouldnt have a problem...



im banking on it recovering, ive yanked k tree frags... and tossed them in other tanks..

i have k trees all over the place that i cant get rid of.. this thing grew faster then yellow start pylops

 

[The Apprentice]

Kenya advice

Hi Tuan the only advice i would add is if the coral fails to open up inflate itself in the next day or 2 please get some carbon in the tank to absorb some if any coral toxins that could possibly be in your tank. I have had Kenya Tree's / Colt corals for years and when they act like what you describe I run some carbon for 2 weeks and they seem to like this quite allot I too have Xenia's, zoos, buttons, mushrooms, LPS, and leathers in this tank and i feel they will sometimes fight each other. How big is your tank? how far apart is the next adjacent coral? what kind of lighting are you using? how old is/are your bulbs? check these items as well...I wish you the best of luck...Jeff

I have a Kenya for about 2-3 months now and it's been doing great, until a couple days ago when it stopped opening up. At night when the lights are off it droops, as it does normally, but now, when the lights are on, it straightens up but does not open at all; it's just shrivelled up into stubs.

A few days earlier I added some more Kenya trees (the problem tree had been the only one 'til then). The were rescued from a neglected tank, and now they seem to be healthy, but my first tree is going downhills.

Could the new trees be doing something? Another thing is that at night, I saw a couple of nudibranchs on the glass. I didn't see any on the Kenya itself; but could the nudibranchs be hurting it?

My params are good, and everything else in the tank (xenias, zoos, buttons, mushrooms, GSP, leather, etc) are doing fine too.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks,

tuan

 

[burning2nd]

 

[tuanp]

That's an awesome tree. Thanks for all the helpful advice. My basic params (ph, ammo, trite & trate) are all zero. Until the tree wilted, I thought everything was hunky-dory; nothing to suggest problems. Hopefully it's shedding.

My is a 72g bow front. The K tree was pretty isolated on a rock. It's front & center in the pic here: http://pets.webshots.com/photo/2892202390038644454iPXyVn?vhost=pets
That was taken just 5 days ago, right before I added more K trees.

I had 440w of VHOs. Just last night my MH bulbs came and now I'm running 2x250s. I had been doing 30% water changes every two weeks, until I was told I can get away with 1/month. So it's been closer to 3 weeks since my last water change. Should I do 25% or so? or would that add more stress to it? At least, I'm gonna hook up a filter with carbons.

Thanks again for all the help.

 

[burning2nd]

just a thought... i would remove the sponge from the pump of the left... and incresse your flow..... i doesnt seem to be movieng much


have you thought about a sump? you could add one eazly.. and it might make things eazyer for you...

the new light could be causeing it to stay closed up.... if you start to see a slime on it, you need to blow it off till it reopen's


i do 5g water changes sometimes all day long.... 25-35g worth... so

insteed of one 30% try like 5-7& twice a week. if you can.

 

[tuanp]

The sponge is actually on the pump for my skimmer. I didn't think about it before but it probably traps a little nitrate in there. At least it restricts flow to the skimmer. I probably don't need it.

The nozzle at the right of the tank is actually part of my DYI fuge; I used a biowheel filter with all filters removed and filled it with cheato and sandbed. I keep thinking about a sump, but have worries about the overflow flooding (it'd mean the end of this hobby).

I just repositioned the pheads to point more towards the k tree, and it's now fluttering whereas before it was pretty still. Hopefully this'll help.

I think I'll just go back to bi-weekly water changes. Seems a little safer. Thanks again.

tuan

just a thought... i would remove the sponge from the pump of the left... and incresse your flow..... i doesnt seem to be movieng much


have you thought about a sump? you could add one eazly.. and it might make things eazyer for you...

the new light could be causeing it to stay closed up.... if you start to see a slime on it, you need to blow it off till it reopen's


i do 5g water changes sometimes all day long.... 25-35g worth... so

insteed of one 30% try like 5-7& twice a week. if you can.

 

[tuanp]

Just wanna update that my K tree is doing fine now, and is back to its former glory. After all the great advice here, I did a 25% wc and it opened up a day later.

I don't think it was shedding anything, I guess it was just more finicky about water changes. Thanks again for everyone's help.

tuan

 

[burning2nd]

now you know...

you can look at your tank and tell if its in need of a waterchange..

i bang out 25% and 50% wc every weekend.. sometimes 100%'s