Is my Xenia ok?

[bigfalcon36]

It was like this 3 days ago:
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y47/bigfalcon36/P1010013.jpg

now like this:
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y47/bigfalcon36/P1010033.jpg

Is it on it way out, or do these do that after the lights are turned out?

[redpyro]

that doesnt look good. mine doesnt look like that after lights out. mine shrinks a little but doesnt fall over like that.

[bigfalcon36]

what am I supposed to do Red??

[bigfalcon36]

Is there anyway that it could still be getting adjusted from the move? also, what have you been feeding yours?

[Slicktrax]

did you happen to pinch or smash it while moving rocks around? I have roughed up some of mine from moving rocks and it shrivels up like your picture, but it came back just fine with time.

[bigfalcon36]

yeah and I think that couldve happened. Also the water is around 75 so I am going to go and pick up another heater right now and put it in the tank

[redpyro]

get your temp up, needs to be at least 78 if no 80 or 81. I keep mine at 81. could still be accalmating

[bigfalcon36]

Yeah Meijer in englewood has 150 watt heaters on sale for $7.99, just to let everyone know! Now i have one heater in my tank and 2 in my sump, I'm frickin stressing out here, I hope that thing doesnt die.

[Slicktrax]

yeah get your temps up, my tank stays between 80.5 and 81.9. if it doesnt pull through, i have plenty of xenia to share

[bigfalcon36]

ok, I hope it does though!

[dhoch]

Biggest things that affect xenia (in my experience):

1) Physically disturbing it
2) Temperature (to low or to high)
3) Lights (not enough or old bulbs)
4) Ph (to high or to low, large swings)
5) Water conditions (ammonia, nitrites, nitrates too high).

Thats where I would start go through that list and make sure each of those thigns is up to snuff.

Dave

[bigfalcon36]

ok thanks a lot! Let me know what the parameters should be for each

[redpyro]

instead of lots of heaters i would get one big one will work better. i recommend the stainless steel heaters like this Pro-Heat Titanium IC Heaters

http://www.marinedepot.com/aquarium_heaters_won_brothers_pro-heat_titanium.asp?CartId=

[bigfalcon36]

Any LFS sell those??

[Slicktrax]

I have a pro heat like that, it works great. Jacks in englewood might have them.

[bigfalcon36]

Yeah when I get back from Texas I'll have to go and grab one of those and just return the one I got at Meijer

[dhoch]

I really don't like the 1 big heater theory. I would prefer 2 heaters (that way if one fails you are not without a heater).

As for those 5 issues:

1) Don't disturb it - none
2) Temp, varies depending on who you talk to... I shoot for 80
3) Light (what kind of light do you have on the tank?... How old are the bulbs)
4) Ph - You are shooting for somewhere in the range 7.9-8.4
5) Water Conditions (amonia needs to be 0, nitrite should be 0, nitrates you want low, but it can be just above 0... I'm running at approximately 2-5)

Dave

[bigfalcon36]

Dave -

thanks for the quick reply!

1) I have been moving it a lot because It is new to my tank..well I guess I AM new to the tank (i bought the whole set-up for someone on the RC)
2) I am running 6x54 watt t5 (3 blue, 3 regular) I need 2 Actinic to complete the set-up because they were burnt out
3) pH wen i tested it before I went to work this morning, this was just a quick test, it was 7.8-8.0 range (I let my buddy borrow my digital pH reader)
4)the others were unnoticable

How do I raise the pH??

[dhoch]

Well your lighting should be more than enough (I'm running T5 as well on my tank)

Do each of the bulbs have their own reflector? or is it one overall reflector? (not super relevent, more curiosity than anything else).

How big is the tank? How much flow?

Your ph is probably not that low for early morning. I don't know if I would go about trying to raise the Ph just yet.

How do the other corals look?

Also you mention that you are "new" to the tank...(I'm wondering if moving the tank may have disturbed the substrate releasing potentially harmful sutff into the water).

What kind of substrate (if any) is there?

How long have you had the tank?

When you moved it to where it is how was it moved (how far, and how did you dissasemble reassemble).

Dave

[bigfalcon36]

Dave here are the pictures that I have of my tank.

http://photobucket.com/albums/y47/bigfalcon36/

The T5 have a single reflector over the whole thing not individual...I am going to put individual on eventually.

the tank is a 75 and has the usual over flow into a Life reef sump and a little Giant 4 for the return pump. I would consider it a high flow tank.

As far as corals, this is the only one i have, thats why I am flipping about it. I have some zoos and a few individual mushrooms too and they seem to be doing ok, but like I said I am at work and haven't been able to look at them since 9:30. I just want to get this under control because I have to go to dallas for a couple of days and the wife is going to have the rains :( ha

I have a really nice skimmer Aqua C 150ev with mag7 supply, it took some tweaking but its working really well now.

my substrate is crushed coral and I just moved the tank in on Saturday, I was able to save about 60 gallons of the water that was originally in it the rest I had to put in. Let me know if you need any more info to help me

Travis

[dhoch]

That link requires me to log in (so I can't see pictures).

I'm guessing based on what you said that the moving the tank stressed the poor coral out. (moving the substrate can really stir up some nasty stuff).

Your best bet is probably just wait, and realize that the coral may not make it.

Don't sweat it though (allthough I know, first coral, don't want to loose it... I was the same way with my first one). You can replace it, and it's actually pretty hardy stuff and if you get stuff stable again it will probably come back (even if it almost totally goes away).

I think time is what you need more than anything. Let your system stabelize (I would definitly be checking ammonia, nitrates and nitrites with a good quality test kit though).

Dave

[BigJosh]

looks like it is melting down. I would get it out of there before it crashes the whole tank. they shrivel up at night, but the stalk is still standing up. Let me know if it crashes, I will try to get you some more.

Joshua

[bigfalcon36]

ok, when I moved it I didnt take the substrate out. i left it in the tank with a little water in it, when I poured the water back in I layed trash bags down to make sure I didnt get a sand storm. The water "cleared up" in about 3 hours after I turned the little giant on

[bigfalcon36]

tank shot

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y47/bigfalcon36/d3db1a84.jpg

[dhoch]

It's hard to tell from your picture, but the only thing in the tank other than the rock and the substrate is xenia, some shrooms and zoos?

I don't know if that little bit of xenia would crash a whole tank if it died.

Again I would not do anything but check Ammonia, Nitrites and Nitrates (with good test kits) when i got home.

When you added the aditional water did you make sure it was close to the existing waters salinity? (if so using what kind of measurement)

What brand of salt?

Dave

[redpyro]

jacks sells those heaters...they are expensive there, probably cheaper to order

[bigfalcon36]

they were like 300 watts for $37, so thats about right with shipping from marine depot.

[bigfalcon36]

dave-

I added RO water then it was mixed with instant ocean and measured with a specific gravity meter. I dont have a refract. The original water was added back into the tank and then it was topped off with RO water. When I picked it up, the needed topped off, so the salinity was a little high already. With the specific gravity meter it says its in the target zone.

[dhoch]

You are definitly going to want to get a refractometer...

The salinity swings could also affect your xenia.

As I said before the best thing you can do is get you params to a stabe set as possible and then think about adding to it.

It's good that you have RO water.

Make sure you don't mix your water in your tank (I'm assuming you didn't do this). Mix water and bring up to temp outside tank and then add it. (You want it to be realtively close in both temp and salinity to the water in your tank).

Dave

[redpyro]

i disapree with the refractometer...i have been mixing water for 3 years using a hydrometer keeping lots of corals with no issues.

[bigfalcon36]

I mixed everything the way you guys are saying. i dont know what to do, I dont know if I should say F it and cut my losses and pull it when i get home or just wait it out. I just dont want anything drastic to happen. I know over the next couple of days my wife is going to be watching the tank and she knows nothing about this type of stuff. I just dont want to lose everything

[dhoch]

If you are worried about the xenia then yank it.

I don't think it should kill your tank if it dies, but I'm not guaranteeing anything.

As for refractometers, I and most others here would say it's a really good idea. It's not absolutely necessary, but a really good idea.

For me the biggest thing was (and I'm begining to sound like a broken record) stabel parameters and able to hold them steady for a long period of time... That I believe is what has give me the most sucess.

Dave

[redpyro]

if you have a skimmer running and i know you do and its a pretty good one, i would leave it and see if it recovers. any decay should be removed by the skimmer. and xenia is hardy and may recover with no problems. You just set up a weekago...give it time

[bigfalcon36]

thanks Red...I just feel like crap about the whole situation. Makes me feel like I shouldnt be doing this, because...just like all of you...I dont want to put in the time to see the whole tank go to SH*T. I want everything to spread and do really well. I just hope it all works out. I see at your site that you have Xenia do you have it in a high flow area or in a low flow??? Also, how long are you running your lights a day??

[redpyro]

mine is in a lower flow are...it gets a lilttle water movement but nothing major. with alot of flow its hard to see the pulsing which i loke so a lower flow is for me and the xenia seems to like it. My dawn lights come on at 10am, halides at 1030 am, halides off at 10pm, dusk lights out at 1030pm

[bigfalcon36]

Thanks for the info Red, sorry to keep asking so much, but what do you feed all of the Filter Feeders in your tank? I got some Marine snow, but i was wondering if there was anything better, well, other than live food? Let me know.

[redpyro]

i used marine snow when i first started and have tried several other things...right now i am really liking the frozen cyclopeze bars from Gerbers. Like $10 a bar. have had it for like 5 months and not even 1/2 gone. really good deal and i am getting good results.

[bigfalcon36]

Nice! I may ahave to go and try some of that. for $10 thats half of the caost of Marine snow..nice work

[Slicktrax]

whats in the cyclopeze, is it plankton or chopped up miscellaneous?

[Slicktrax]

ps: dont give up on the xenia yet, give it some time and let your water stabilize. they are fairly hardy specimens

[bigfalcon36]

thanks... I'm just gonna leave it and see what happens...i guess its not the only Xenia that there is, I can get more! Thanks for your help and support everyone!

[redpyro]

plankton i do believe...i will go check the package

[redpyro]

yes zooplankton

[Slicktrax]

i will have to add it to my mix of ingredients for homemade feeding cubes

[bigfalcon36]

It's completely dead now! In fact it has detatched its self from the rock and become food for whatever.

[redpyro]

get it out of there will rot and cause a cycle from bacteria

[Slicktrax]

that sucks, i will keep you mind for my next round of xenia frags

[bigfalcon36]

thanks! yeah i just get in from teh airport and the first thing I did was went do wn there to check it out. THere was a hermit crab mauling it, so I took it out. On a lighter note...any place that you guys know of that sells snails for cheap? getting some algea building on the glass, want to get that under control before theres a problem.

Travis

[Whaledriver]

Have you tested your alk? They are very sensitive to it. Also test your calcium to see if it is out of wack. I wouldnt pull it even if it looks bad they do come back.

[bigfalcon36]

dude this thing got eaten, there was nothing left of it on the rock, there are 3 little "starts" on there though...so I left those.