PDA

View Full Version : Does xenia not like 20k?


Midknightjoker
06/16/2006, 05:26 PM
Hello, My xenia is still not perking up, it stays shriveled up and has ever since I bought this new pendant with balast from ice cap..... it is a new 250/400 pendant with a 400 w ballast, it has a 400 w 20k light in it.... i used to have 3 compact fl. lighting the tank they were all 96w one was a actinic, one a 50/50, and one a 10k.... ever since I changed lights my green star polyp has not been doing so well either... I have a 58 gal oceanic tank, two protien skimmers (one prism pro deluxe, and one muliti 1000) which are turned off b/c i thought that this was the first problem by over skimming the water for the xenia since they like kind of dirty water... temp of tank is 80, the bottom of the pendant is 12 inches from top of water, for filtration I have an filstar xp3, a water pump that cycles the tank with 1200 g.p.h., and a powerhead... I also have the 4 in sandbed for biological filtration... all measurments of ammonia, nitrate, nitrite are 0... when i did the calcuim test i had to drop 50 drops in the 5ml pipette for it to turn violet... and the specific gravity is 1.023... i think i gave you guys all I needed to give you, please help

GreyHawk1968
06/16/2006, 05:31 PM
Sometimes a sudden lighting change can affect corals. My Xenia are doing great and growing like weeds under my 10K MH bulbs.
Try diffusing the light in the area they are in. I had to do that with my Colt when I moved it into a tank with MH and it had been in a tank with PC's for a year. They may just be unhappy about the light change.

reefnewbie54321
06/16/2006, 07:20 PM
a 400w 20k is much more intense then 4 96w PC's ... your xenia hasnt ajusted to the light. I would try to diffuse the light as suggested above.

fishgirlheather
06/16/2006, 09:12 PM
Try running the metal halide for a shorter time period, start with about 5 hours a day. Then increase the photo period by about 15 minutes per day until they are fully acclimated. My Xenia and Star Polyps do best at the very bottom of my 55G with dual 250W 14K metal halides.

Midknightjoker
06/17/2006, 09:32 AM
Thanks guys, I will try the acclimation to the light starting with five hours , don't know how I would diffuse the light on the first two suggestions... I'll let you guys know how it goes.... thanks again