Xenia Death!

[The Shark]

My tank has been running for about 9 months now, and everything has been going great. 100 gallon tank, 4 48" VHO's, 100lbs live rock (5 years old), 100lbs live sand.

I have now tried Xenia 3 times, and each time, the stalks have started fine, and then just melt over the next three weeks!
I have 3 leathers, 1 RBTA, 1 open brain, frogspawn, 4 types of mushrooms, 2 types of Zoas, couple sponges. Everything else, including my fish, are doing great.

Why are my xenia dying? I have tried moving them to different flow amounts, different lighting amounts, and I have made sure my tang is not bothering them.

THANKS!

 

[Brenden]

How often do you do water changes? How large? Reason I am asking is iodine. I have personally seen people with great tanks unable to grow it for no apparent reason. I could not get rid of it fast enough in my tank until my Flame angel took a liking to it.

 

[The Shark]

I do 5 gallon water changes every week and use instant ocean salt. I was thinking about dosing Iodine, but everything else has been doing so well, I don't want to screw it up.

I will keep an eye on my Flame Angel also. It doesn't seem like they are getting nipped though...they just shrink!

 

[Brenden]

I experimented with iodine and never saw a difference in it. Be sure you test before you dose. Regular water changes should supply all the iodine you need. I also use IO so I think that has nothing to do with it. If the flame was after it you would know. Lots of "hands" missing so you just have waving nubs. My angel loves the silver stalk but will not touch the pink.

 

[shallowreef]

Okay,

I have found that lighting plays a big part in xenia growth. I only have really had good luck at growing xenia under Halides. I tried many times with VHO and i never got it to work for me. Another thing that could be the problem is how warm is your tank? Xenia like cooler water (77-80). Any warmer and you could be slowly cooking them. Although both of these methods i mentioned to you worked for me they may not work for you. I just wanted to suggest these ideas to you. A lot of people have trouble getting xenia to spread like crazy. I consider those people lucky!

Nick

 

[bobt2]

my xenia grows like crazy under t-5s. in my other tank under p/c it barely thrivs

 

[Ocean Drive]

I am to acquaintance that corals like xenia and anthelya needs of a minimum of PO4 and and just a little of NO3 beyond that iodine. Have you never measured the precise level of phosphates?
Ciao

 

[flugelnuss]

Dan,

Sorry to hear about the xenia. I have grown it and grown it very well under not only halides, but with PCs and VHOs. The tank that the last frag that you got from me came from PCs. I had an incident in the past when my Coral Beauty angel would eat it and thus create :

"Lots of "hands" missing so you just have waving nubs. My angel loves the silver stalk but will not touch the pink"

My angels also have never touched the pink stuff.

Glad to hear that everything else is looking good. I should have more pink xenia in the next couple of months. Right now, it's about frag size though...

Jeff

 

[Brenden]

How much pink you want?

 

[JasonD]

What Temp is your tank at, any spikes?

 

[The Shark]

Tank ranges from 78-82 during the day. I had a heat spike a few weeks ago and lost some fish and corals. My most recent xenia death occurred after the fact though.

 

[Anthony Calfo]

my guess is that your pH and/or Alkalinity crossed a low threshold that stressed the colony. If your daytime pH does not exceed 8.3, your nighttime pH may well be below 8.0 (yikes!). Over time, that will kill many Xeniid colonies. 8.3 should be your minimum nighttime pH (Alk of 10 dKH min ideally)

 

[shallowreef]

That explains why mine have been doing so crappy. My ph with the lights on was 7.8. Well hopefully in the next few weeks i will see an improvement.

Thanks for the tip Anthony. I'll remeber to tell other people about that in the future.

 

[Anthony Calfo]

very good, my friend... and it's an old/reliable indicator. Experienced aquarists often use Xeniids as a beacon for when their tank is getting "sour." Xenia is one of the more sensitive corals to falling pH and flat Alk.

 

[shallowreef]

Well my old 90 which used to have SPS in it use to grow Xenia like crazy. I would have to crop every two months to keep it in control!