xenia dying help

[nick063]

so my xenia started to get all wilty on me, now i'm down to 1 stalk or frag if you will, i just tested my water parameters:

ph- 8.2
nitrate-10 ppm
nitrite- less than .2
ammonia-0
alk-2.75 mg/l
temp-79-82

i'm running two 175 w 20k bulbs, any advice on what i can do? thanks!!

 

[downhillbiker]

xenia are a good indicator species as they quickly deteriorate under poor water conditions. i would do a water change to get your nitrates to 0. other than that, you may just have a bad xenia. often they can turn south and nobody knows why. they are an easy, but sometimes finnacky species.

 

[israelnajar]

I would be more worried about the nitrites than the nitrates. My reef has trates around 20 all the time and my xenia is doing great, as well as my other corals.

Or like downhillbiker said you may just have some bad xenia.

 

[saltprincess]

CHECK FOR PHOSPHATES.THAT CAN KILL XENIA REAL QUICK IF TOO HIGH. I WENT THROUGH THAT BEFORE WHERE ALL CHECKED OUT WELL BUT MY RO STARTED TO PRODUCE PHOSOHATES AND XENIA STARTED TO MELT.

 

[Michael]

i would not worry too much about the nitrite, obviously 0 is best but its not a killer at those levels, check your phophate out of interest and hopefully it is getting some decent flow, i keep hearing views about softies not needing flow but my xenia is always being blown about and has probably doubled in size since its been in my tank, suggest checking water flow as well

 

[downhillbiker]

yeah i forgot flow is very important. keep them in medium flow area, and a medium light area. i say this for my tank, with SPS and 500w of metal halide, so adjust from there.

 

[nick063]

yeah i have a koralia 3 pointed right at it, so its not violent flow but a good constant flow

 

[downhillbiker]

i would say point away from them with the koralia. i have a koralia 4 that is very close, but it is above the xenia and about even with the output of the xenia and 2" above. great flow.

if your xenia dont pulse it is too much flow, assuming they are a pulsing species.

 

[Playa-1]

I've got an Xenia that I can't kill. It had some Aptasia on the rock so I pulled it out of the tank and negleted it for several days in a specimen cup of unheated water with no flow. Then I injected the Aptasia with Kalk and did 100% water change and the Aptasia and the Xenia both survived.
I've got most of the Aptasia under control now and I've noticed that the Xenia seems to like Medium flow and High lighting conditions.

 

[nick063]

ok so i got a phosban reactor today so hopefully this helps, only time will tell