unhealthy pulsing xenia...

[petermai]

i don't know why but in the last two days my pulsing xenia started to close up more often now. it was brought to my attention that there may be a lot of toxin in the tank due to my softies. so last night i put about a cup of activaterd carbon into a little bag then tossed it into my diatom bag.

all of the other coral seems happy including my frogspawn, kenya trees, zoos, waving hand xenia, open brain, and that's about it i believe.

tank param:

55gal
30 gal sump/fuge w/chaeto
temp.........79-82
ph.............8.0-8.1
amm.........0
nitrite.......0
nitrate......20ppm
calc...........460
alk............?
lighting.....4 54watt T5...2 daylight and 2 actinic blue

any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Shark Bait100]

check alk, when my corals are droopy, the alk is dropping. If it low, just be sure to raise it slowly, and not shock them with a sudden increase

 

[petermai]

i don't have a test for alk yet but i'll definitely look into that. thanks.

 

[llewoh05]

ive just picked up 3 branches of this stuff on the same small rock. all three will ball up like a tight fist for a couple min. but they alternate. only 1 branch of them will do it at a time? anyone seen this before.

 

[The steven liu]

I used to keep my tank temp at 80-82 and I could never keep xenia. After reading an article regarding xenia and ocean current/temp interaction I cool my tank down to 76 and suddenly xenia is thriving in my tank! I am confident that was the only factor in my tank as all other variables has been constant. So maybe you can give it a try to cool down a bit, it won't hurt anyone in the tank.

 

[CaptainCoral]

I've not had any problems with xenia's and higher reef temps (84). I suggest looking at your magnesium and alk levels.

 

[petermai]

i have a little problem with the temp reading...my alcohol thermometer reads 79, my coralife digital one reads 77, and my neptune aquacontroller Jr reads 82, so i'm not exactly sure what the temp is. what do you guys think would be most reliable?

 

[llewoh05]

find the average of all 3

 

[ScarabIII]

I have a frag of xenia that looked as if it died. I left in tank and know it appears to be coming back.

I guess my question is this common with corals?

 

[mr pink floyd]

someitimes my xenia does that for a day, then it comes back bitgger and brighter!