xenia fading away

[af_hall14]

Xenia is supposed to be so hardy and I had about 5 good stalks of it and now I'm down to 2. All of a sudden, the stalks just shriveled up and it looks like the heads have fallen off of them and they died. They were fine for so long. What could make them do this all of the sudden? All water parameters are excellent - tested the other day and everything was at zero. I don't remember the figures for my calcium and alkalinity but it was definitely in normal range when tested. The tank is a 120 tall with plenty of water flow, brand new power compacts and actinics.

 

[reefamily]

I would be interested in the responses you get. You see, i had a huge xenia in my 180 g and one small (about an inch) in my smaller one 55g. The larger aquarium has mostly zoos, and sps, and within the matter of a week, xenia shrivelled up and smoked out. The 55 g Xenia is now 2 months old, but it is not growing, and shrivelling up. the smaller tank is full of lps. Interestingly all my other corals seems do just fine. There is no change worth mentioning which happened during its lifespan. Nothing new was introduced to the tank either.

 

[shallowreef]

Have you ever done Xenias before?
Where are they located in your tank?
Are they in high water flow?
What type are they?
How long have you had them?
Get back to me on this. I had a problem like this before.

 

[shallowreef]

Also whats your tank temp range?

 

[af_hall14]

Ok here is a picture that was taken Sept. 19th. As you can see there are 4 xenia frags in this picture... all spread out. Number 2 split and a piece of it fell onto the sand and is now in location number 5 (where you see nothing). Numbers 4 & 5 are living and doing well. The other 3 just gone... withered away. I just don't get it.

You might have to right-click on this and save it and then enlarge... my computer is acting dumb and I can't seem to get it any bigger.
I've had them for several months at least. They are pulsing but I'm not sure of the exact name....looks like waving hand xenia to me.

Oh and my temperature in the tank stays right around 80-81.

 

[shallowreef]

Ok
I used to run 4 110 VHO'S over my 75 (2 actinic & 2 50/50) With these lights i could never keep Xenias, any other soft coral no problem.
I now have MH and my Xenias are taking over my tank
The temp should be good enough but if you want try dropping it to 77-78
The way your tank is set up it doesn't look like they are getting hammered with flow which is good. the ones in my tank now don't like a lot of flow but more of a gentle current.
If its possible try moving them almost directly below the surface.
I'm trying to think of what else but nothings coming to mind.

 

[af_hall14]

directly below the surface of the water flow? this really sucks b/c i would love to see some of it start growing on the walls and rocks...

 

[Woodstock]

Xenia is one of my favorite soft corals. I love it. I have had several types including the pompom and elongata. I have never had a problem with growing it with either PC lighting or MH lighting. In the photo below, you can see the large colony of pompom on the back wall... well, I lost all but 2 tiny stalks of the pompom (the elongata was not affected) It all started melting away when I switched from using TAP water to using ro/di water on all water changes. I can only sumise that the tap water had something really important in it? I have since started dosing iron, iodide, strontium and molybedum (sp?). I now have it growing again but not near as fast as before. So, I can only assume that xenia require a lot of a certain mineral.. I'm just not certain which. I also believe that they are very prone to bacterial infections... but that's just a hunch.

In this recent photo, you can see a few stalks on the back center wall just behind the green candy cane.

 

[af_hall14]

Interesting and beautiful tank by the way. It looks like 2 different tanks? Did you just rearrange from the 1st pic to the 2nd? We use tap water (shock, shock) because all of our parameters (with the exception of a slightly elevated nitrate level) have ALWAYS been good. We have very little algae growth and we went with the opinion that "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". We also dose with iodine, stront. & molyb., calcium, and essential elements. Everytime I test my calcium and alkalinity, it is fine. I haven't lost any other corals. I would love some pom pom xenia, too. I have one piece of my xenia propped up against the back of my tank in hope of it "grabbing" on.

 

[Woodstock]

Thanks It is the same tank. Total reaquascaping job on the second pic (I had to remove 2 pistol shrimps..another long story ). The second also has a higher kelvin bulb of 15k instead of the 10k used in the first pic.

I used tap water for years also and never had a problem... humm.. why did I switch to ro/di???

Good luck with your xenia.

 

[tacocat]

Xenia disappears sometimes when the nutrients in a tank get low and the flow is high. Dosing iodine might help.

 

[shallowreef]

Yeah i knew i forgot something. Iodine is like a main supplement for xenias. Try adding some and see what happens.

Woodstock sorry to hear about your loss. Those pictures of xenias on the wall were crazy. I'm trying to do that now with mine.How did you get them to take to the wall?
I've heard of people super gluing them to the tank. I would like to do more of a natural approach

 

[WaterDogs]

I keep xenia also; you must drop your temp to 77-78, one of the best ways to get rid of xenia is raising the temp. If you are running carbon or similar you should stop doing that, many systems have xenia failure when carbon is used; skimming and water changes are enough. Sometimes tap water has stuff xenia don't like.

 

[Woodstock]

I would consider the flow in my tank to be medium - med-high with about 13x turnover rate. I tweak the flow to remove most of the linear flow possible and create more of a back and forth current.

The best way is to prop the rock they are attached to against the area that you want them to spread onto. They will naturally spread in an upward direction. Super glue doesn't work well with xenia since they slime so much.

 

[Woodstock]

I keep xenia also; you must drop your temp to 77-78, one of the best ways to get rid of xenia is raising the temp. If you are running carbon or similar you should stop doing that, many systems have xenia failure when carbon is used; skimming and water changes are enough. Sometimes tap water has stuff xenia don't like.

Hummm... my temp is 78-82 and I use a polyfilter 24/7, occassionally carbon, and have my skimmer adjusted 'wet'.

Maybe it's not so much the rise in temperature but rather the lack of oxygen that usually occompanies higher temps that the xenia are sensitive too? I have strong flow and a mag 7 on my skimmer; both of which would help supply oxygen to the water.

 

[af_hall14]

Yeah i knew i forgot something. Iodine is like a main supplement for xenias. Try adding some and see what happens.

I already dose iodine!! Once a week... how often should I dose?

As for the temperature, will lowering it 2-3 degrees affect any of my other corals?

 

[shallowreef]

Thanks Woodstock

 

[shallowreef]

It shouldn't. usually anything over three degrees at once affects things. If you have to adjust the temp to drop anymore than three degrees i would suggest dropping the temp in the tank slowly like 2 degrees a week.

 

[af_hall14]

thanks shallowreef... i'll drop it 2 degrees tonight and see if that helps!!

 

[af_hall14]

Everyone, here is a piece of xenia that is disappearing.... thought I'd show a picture.

And BTW, that red mushroom was not there when it started to die. The red mushroom jumped ship and decided it wanted a new location yesterday.