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Is my xenia dying???


JGon

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I need to know what's going on with my xenia. It started yesterday and has continued through today. Before yesterday it was perfectly fine. Full bloomage I guess you could say. And now it's been shriveled up like this for two days. Water parameters are good. They are all within range and everything else in the tank is doing perfectly fine. I haven't changed anything. Haven't added anything other than RO for top off. It's been in the tank for a month and never looked like this until just yesterday.post-3953-142983939612_thumb.jpeg Thoughts???

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Chemical warfare? What else do you have in the tank? Are you running carbon? Flow change? By the way, the picture doesn't look horrible. Sometimes Xenia retracts for a few days then opens back up with no apparent cause. Some people say dosing iodine helps with pulsation.

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I have giniopora, a torch, fox coral, a tree coral (can't remember what it is called), a small three polyp zoa, pistol shrimp, watchman goby, greenbanded goby, firefish, anemone crab, yellow clown goby, and three snails. I have the carbon that's in the filter cartridges. Other than that that's it. I have a penguin 350 hob filter. I haven't changed the flow. My koralia 240 has been sitting in the same spot since I put it in the tank.

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My tree coral seems to be not extending out as much anymore either now that I remember. It doesn't look as bad. But you can tell there's a difference in appearance on that as well.

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Way too little info to go on.

Last water change and percnetage?

Ro/DI? Store bought? where?

Specific params ? (esp salt, Ca, Mg, and Alk and what you tested with)

Age of tank

feeding schedule

lights

etc

etc

etc

I don't mean to be an a$$ but with only four posts you're selling yourself short on what this small community is willing to offer when the right info is provided. We don't have enough back ground info to provide accurate input. Please detail a post with as much info as you can think of. This isn't done because we don't think you're a capable reefer, but because we don't run your system everyday so need to know what normal is for that system.

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It was a 10% water change two weeks ago. I bought my xenia at a lfs. My water was tested at a different lfs with salifert test kits.

Ca- 400

Alk- 8.3

Mg- 1320

Phos- the guy said they were pretty much zero

Nitrates- same thing as phos

pH- 8.2

Sg- 1.025

Temp- 79°

Livestock- what's mentioned above.

Tank is a month and a half old. 20g long. Feed frozen mysis once a day. Lighting is the fluval sea marine and reef led light with an actinic blue led strip. HOB marineland penguin 350. Nano koralia 240. Nothing fancy really. Just the basics of a nano.

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I don't know how well you can see the xenia on the top left corner. But that's what it looked like just the day before it started looking the way it does now.

post-3953-142996108664_thumb.jpg

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I can see a little spot where your Xenia looked ticked but overall... to me it looks fine and the FTS everything looks healthy and happy.

I'm just going to assume that it's probably fine and just being xenia... sometimes mine would just randomly not inflate all the way one day but a couple days later it was happy again. I would just observe it and if it gets worse, then worry about it. If it totally dies, I can almost guarantee you that someone in the club will be trimming their Xenia too and you could probably get another stall for free from them.

I will say that the goniopora is probably a goner and will probably die in 6 months-year. The green variety is notoriously hard to keep alive. They have microfoods these days that are helpful to maintain it but it's usually a slow death and the over feeding of the microfood to try to keep it alive will probably ruin your water quality even of if you try.

Besides the goniopora feedback, the tank looks great and everything looks happy and healthy. Kudos!

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Ca and MG are a bit low for 1.025salt, but depending on what salt you use, that could be normal. Should be fine for softies.

Your feeding SHOUDLN'T realy be the issue, but it is possible. Once a day Mysis only is fine for fish ( a bit minimal IMO for thriving fish, but it should suffice) but not for a reef tank, consider switching to at least a mix food such as Dr G's or Rod's as you add corals and more fish. I was fallow for 8 weeks not too long ago and I was surprised at how much food the tank wanted with NO fish; I was still adding about half a cube of Rods per day, plus 5 ml of artic pods, plus Reef Energy A+B @ 5 ml each per day. Anything less than this and softies showed various signs of displeasure. I add extra Mysis and Oysetrfeast when fish are in the tank, and up the feeding to twice a day.I think a lot of people underfeed in an effort to keep N and Po low and don't realize they are actually hurting thier systems.

The second input I have is placement. I am not familiar with your lights, and am not the type to go research them just to have accurate input on this one thread; What I can say is that I haven't seen xenia placed at the top of the tank often if ever. 20 long is a pretty shallow tank, which is great becase you won't need super strong lights, but is bad because you don't have much light gradient.

I would probably try moving the rock down (I know you probably don't want to) to not higher than half way mark....give it a week to see full results.

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I can see a little spot where your Xenia looked ticked but overall... to me it looks fine and the FTS everything looks healthy and happy.

I'm just going to assume that it's probably fine and just being xenia... sometimes mine would just randomly not inflate all the way one day but a couple days later it was happy again. I would just observe it and if it gets worse, then worry about it. If it totally dies, I can almost guarantee you that someone in the club will be trimming their Xenia too and you could probably get another stall for free from them.

I will say that the goniopora is probably a goner and will probably die in 6 months-year. The green variety is notoriously hard to keep alive. They have microfoods these days that are helpful to maintain it but it's usually a slow death and the over feeding of the microfood to try to keep it alive will probably ruin your water quality even of if you try.

Besides the goniopora feedback, the tank looks great and everything looks happy and healthy. Kudos!

Ty - that pic was BEFORE the Xenia was looking poor

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I can see a little spot where your Xenia looked ticked but overall... to me it looks fine and the FTS everything looks healthy and happy.

I'm just going to assume that it's probably fine and just being xenia... sometimes mine would just randomly not inflate all the way one day but a couple days later it was happy again. I would just observe it and if it gets worse, then worry about it. If it totally dies, I can almost guarantee you that someone in the club will be trimming their Xenia too and you could probably get another stall for free from them.

I will say that the goniopora is probably a goner and will probably die in 6 months-year. The green variety is notoriously hard to keep alive. They have microfoods these days that are helpful to maintain it but it's usually a slow death and the over feeding of the microfood to try to keep it alive will probably ruin your water quality even of if you try.

Besides the goniopora feedback, the tank looks great and everything looks happy and healthy. Kudos!

Ty - that pic was BEFORE the Xenia was looking poor
Yeah, I realized that. The xenia still doesn't look terrible to me... I know it doesn't look like its full glory in the FTS but it's not terrible enough for me to worry if it was my own tank. I was mentioning the FTS to observe the health of the other corals in the tank... and they look fine.

I'd heed Nvrenuf's advice on trying to lower the xenia for a bit to see how it does. For feeding, NvrEnuf hit the nail on the head as far as feeding your system... I just worry about nutrient issues on a tank that size running only a hang on the back filter. You'll want to combine heavy feeding with heavy export of nutrients as well... something he employs with an algal turf scrubber very efficiently and I do the same with a skimmer and various reactors.

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Agreed, it doesn't look terrible at all, but I rarely if ever see it pissed..kinda like my Toadstool and my GSP island...a few softies I keep mainly because they tell me something about what's going on in the system. Generally if my toadstool stays closed for a day or more I've had a KH swing....GSP closed all day and my scrubber needs cleaning because it's become overly effecient and Nutrients are TOO LOW! Etc Etc.Notice here, The Toadstool slimes AFTER a KH swing...it took me FOREVER to figgure that one out! So, sometimes what pissed something off is no longer measurable without historic data.

Ya, Nutrient import/export was by far a bigger challange in my smaller tanks than my 90. But again, evenwith only softies (esp the ones pictured) Straight Rods or G's at once a day shouldn't be a problem and has the mysis he is already feeding. My Biocube runs on that with no fish, about the same amount of softies pictured, no skimmer or scrubber, only one medium size rock; and water changes when I feel like it. Now, it's a QT tank, so it isn't exactly puuuurdy, but it goes to show a tank even at 6 months can handle more bioload than what I think a lot of people realize. Will it eventually max out and crash? If I don't do water changes and aren't paying attention to detail of course it will!

Ty I agree, I don't think there is a REAL issue at all with this coral, even if it is too much light it is very probable Xenia would eventually just adjust to it and continue to grow. That being said it seems to me every pissed coral is an opportunity to learn, Heck, now that I think about it when 100% of my coral are happy 100% of the time I usually run out and buy something to piss off!

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Ugh, I am currently emptying my frag tank to put my one and only fish BACK in QT. Not sure if it's Ich or Velvet, but it's gonna be THREE MONTHS FALLOW this effing time!

Not to derail this thread but chloroquine phosphate treats both very effectively and can be bought in this form. Out of display tank only treatment though.

f95bf837194afab559a37060a1764dc4.jpg

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Oh man. That's alot of info. Thanks alot guys. I really appreciate the help and advice. I'm gonna look into the mixed foods and get some going. Now,the mixed foods would be for everything in the tank?? Fish AND corals???

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Oh man. That's alot of info. Thanks alot guys. I really appreciate the help and advice. I'm gonna look into the mixed foods and get some going. Now,the mixed foods would be for everything in the tank?? Fish AND corals???

I'm of the thought that feeding your fish is enough... and the rest gets passed down the food chain.

If you want to try to keep the goniopora alive though, I've heard TLF gonipower has had great results.

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Both are available at all the LFS.

http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_viewitem.aspx?idproduct=RF1113&child=RF1113&utm_source=adwordsfroogle&utm_medium=cse&utm_campaign=adwordsfroogle&utm_content=RF1113&gclid=CLDki8_pkcUCFcRgfgodVZ4AEA

I use a mix of Rod's, Dr G's Parasite

I beleive Nikos uses all three Dr G's mixed together....Travis? David?

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Both are available at all the LFS.

http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_viewitem.aspx?idproduct=RF1113&child=RF1113&utm_source=adwordsfroogle&utm_medium=cse&utm_campaign=adwordsfroogle&utm_content=RF1113&gclid=CLDki8_pkcUCFcRgfgodVZ4AEA

I use a mix of Rod's, Dr G's Parasite

I beleive Nikos uses all three Dr G's mixed together....Travis? David?

Which three are you talking about?? Because I've been looking at the website and they've got alot of stuff in there.
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I wouldn't shock the system too much. I feed twice a day or more, but it took weeks to get there.

Since you've never fed a mix before, keep feeding what you always have (maybe a little less) and add the mix. Then, over the course of a few weeks, increase amount and fequency.

If you have little to no hair halgea growing now, then when you see some pop up you've found your current high point in feeding; level out or even back off just a bit for a month or so. Once all that is done you should be back to stable. You'll need to decide then if you want to increase nutrient export, back off fedding a bit, etc. Never forget that most corals are in essence filters. The more you have the more you can feed the tank (provided PO4 is in check) but like everything else we do...it's a balancing act!

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