zenias dieing

[goulding.c]

My zenias have been my best coral. The last several weeks 2 of them started to move, but once they detached they shriveled up and the little fell off completely and I assome is dead lieing on the bottom. The big one is all shrunk up the size of a marbel. The other two giant ones next to it are fine. Any suggestions? Should i change anything for the suffering right now. My water is as follows

ph 8.2
alk 4 meg/litre
salinity 1.03
trates trites amonia 0
temp 82
125 gallon
9 watts/gal lights mh and pc

I added another power head to try and give them more water flow. Thanks

CG

[Large Polyp Dave]

did any fish die or anything? maybe it's an ammonia spike.

[toscano]

Is there a 2 missing from that salinity reading?

[reefshadow]

Hi, goulding-

I've gone through several mysterious xenia "cycles" over the years... at times they will be spreading and pumping like mad, then mysteriously they will almost all die... shriveling and melting away, only to have the tiny remnents of them start to grow and multiply like mad again. I have never been able to pinpoint any cause or change that causes this, it seems to just happen, and all other fish and corals will be doing as great as ever.

Fwiw, my xenia does its absolute best under low flow and bright light. They don't seem to like much current at all, and will stop pumping and not grow as fast.

Good luck! :)

[skippysmind]

you should have a 1.25 to 1.26 salinity reading for a reef.

[speccialj922]

a lot of people, (including myself), do not have very good luck with xenia. i dontknow how long you have had it, but ive had stalks for a month+, and then all of a sudden it will dissapear. its very frustrating, especially when you read from everyone else how easy this coral is. from what i hear, xenias like high alkalinity, and does like the presence of nutrients in the system (hence why many people use it for nutrient export to rid the system of nitrates, etc). try not to get too discouraged, youre not the only one...

[mbbuna]

Originally posted by skippysmind
you should have a 1.25 to 1.26 salinity reading for a reef.

you mean 1.025

[jer77]

I have Xenias and they have always grown perfusily. They like the higher temps so thats no problem. They like higher salinity than most. I find they need a high alk, so this may be a problem. I dose with Kalk in doses higher than normal and they seem to love it. Also whenever I clean the water they seem to shrink up more than for anything else, so I think they like the water full of nutrients, so dose nutrients and phytoplankton. The main thing for Xenias is really the pH. Dosing with Kalkwasser raises my alk and pH. They will shrink quickly in a pH less than 8.2-8.3.
I think that some animal actually detached the two colony halfs like a crab or something. It shouldn't be a problem though to save the half that fell, because xenia is hardy and easily propagated. I've sliced 100's of xenia colonies into frags with very few failures.

[Herbert T. Kornfeld]

I have also noticed that Xenia prefer skimmerless systems with alot of organics to soak up. Skimmers that leave pristine water conditions are good for SPS and the like, but Xenia like a little crud in the system. Same with GSP.

[Sheldon337]

Your salinity is out of wack

[speccialj922]

"so I think they like the water full of nutrients, so dose nutrients and phytoplankton"

you dont "dose" nutrients. nutrients in the water are a sign of lesser water quality resulting from water that is not RODI and also the result of overfeeding. my ammo, nitrites, nitrates read 0 across the board, xenia is one of the very few corals that do not like clean water.