xenia aren't pulsing, seem to be melting

[MarineTeng]

my xenia aren't pulsing anymore, for a bit after the flatworm exit they were and they've stopped, all other corals are fine, star polyps, kenya trees, frogspawn, mushroom, just xenia and sargassum, well almost all my sargassum is gone maybe it'll regrow, and the xenia isn't doing well, ph turned out about 8.2, never gotten much different results then that, pretty steady, and i've done probably 30 gallons of water change on my 70-80 gallon system, haven't been able to test nitrates but i always thought xenia liked a bit of nitrates, and my yellow tang is doing fine, any advice would be helpful

 

[MikeS]

could be a result of the medications....

They like high pH....try getting your pH up around 8.4 and see if this helps....

MikeS

 

[MarineTeng]

how would u propose raising it? i've got a 2 part calcium additive, iodine and that's about it, and salt,

 

[Blazer88]

They have Marine buffer that can help raise the PH. How long has the Xenia been in the tank? I have bought some Xenia that I swore was dead, but later started pulsing and has grown quite a bit. Xenia can be weird and the pulsing may or not not have anything to do with your tank parameters. Be sure to test your parameters (like PH) before you just start adding anything.

 

[MarineTeng]

it might be because of toxins from flatworm exit, been running carbon and skimmer for 2 weeks now, skimmer is normal but never used carbon in the past, i just used some from my basement, should i use higherquality, the carbon i used doesn't even have labels, plus some fell in the tank, just 2 pieces, i have some marineland or something like that, that i could use, i've also done more then the suggested 25% and siphoned the vast majority out within 10 mins of them dying, and most that i saw over the first hour, xenia's been in the tank, well over 6 months, probably closer to 8 but don't remember exactly

 

[WaterDogs]

Running carbon is known for putting down xenia, I would stop it's use.

 

[plack]

did your salinity stay constant?

 

[MarineTeng]

ya it's been at 1.025 the entire time

 

[steve-s]

Xeniids do very poorly in a nitrate rich environment as a rule, I would definately suggest checking that and getting it down if so. Agreed on the pH suggested by Mike above. 8.3-8.5 and as steady a day/night level as you can (drip kalk). A slightly higher 3-3.5 alk can help with that as well...

FWIW, carbon use will not hinder this coral in the least. Given your recent treatment, the carbon is very much needed. If all was fine before hand, I would suspect flatworms toxins, lowered pH and elevated nitrogens.

Cheers
Steve

 

[MarineTeng]

in the past i've never had nitrates, so much algae but i'll get it tested anyways, and what does FWIW stand for? nothing else besides the xenia has been affected, so maybe it is carbon, i've been running carbon for 2 weeks so i think posions should be fine, plus my carbon was old, with ash so that may be different then urs, supposedly it messes with pH, so maybe i'll try my new carbon if other corals show signs of stress

 

[steve-s]

FWIW = for what it's worth

I'm a lazy acronym user... LOL

Cheers
Steve