Xenia vanishing

o2zen

o2zen

New member
Ok nothing has changed in my tank and my levels are still right on but my Xenia is vanishing off on me. It is still slowly pulsing but they are slowly going bye bye. So what could it be? The water is changed out weekly at about 5gal of 30gal. I test my water at least once a week here and then also stop by some LFS and get them to test as well just to be sure.

I am new at this still so I am looking for help.

I have half my Xenia at the top of the tank and other other half at the middle. One is in high flow than the other. They are both vanishing at the same rate, pulsing the same, etc. So I assume this means its in my water not lighting/flow related.

Any ideas?

PS I think my leather is also looking sad and the stem is not as fat as it was a week ago. Something is going on for sure but what?
 
82-78 roughly. I am using a small heater to help keep it regulated. We keep the house at 72 so it works out well.
 
i've had the same problem before, are you dosing with Iodine? back when i had my 50 gal, xenia thrived when i dosed iodine, then i stopped when i moved to my 125, and then they started dropping like flies. I started dosing iodine again and within a week they were growing back with a vengence. I would either test for your iodine levels or just dosing some and see what happens.
 
I'll vouch gimplar on using iodine. I lost a huge colony I got from a member here. I then began to dose iodine after doing some research and bought another. Now it's doing great!
 
i've found my xenia colonies to be sensetive to PH and hardness fluctuations( i spell that right?)
Iodine is also another key. Softies like it.
PH at 8.0 Xenia slowly pulses.
Check the water you are using for water changes also. Make sure the PH and hardness are acceptable. Most salt mixes will only give you a PH of roughly 8.0 when mixed with RO.
Best of luck to ya.
 
what salt do you use? I use IO, have no skimmer or filter of an kind, and dont add anything and mine does great. I have grown it under an 18 watt N/O bulb with great results as well. Once you get it under control, you can get some more from me :-)
 
That happened to me over a period of a few weeks despite nothing being different in the tank, my having kept xenia for a year, and no other coral beign distressed. I researched and tried adding iodine - all I get was a buch of diatoms. I tried uping my ph but that didn't do anything.

I don't know if this was the cause but the only thing I was dosing was buffer and calcium chloride (like in those little Kent turbo calcium bottles) and I was adding more than usual to fix my Calcium / Alk issues. All my parameters were always fine though. Now I use kalk and I have some absolutely thriving xenia. Before I switched to kalk my yellow polyps weren't very happy either but after my first 20% water change they perked up and have been happy ever since.

Do you dose anything? If so i'd try doing a 20% water change without it.

If you do lose it all I'd be happy to donate some Xenia frags to get you started again =)
 
Thanks guys,. I have not been dosing anything at all. Tonight I will do another 5gal-10gal water change on the tank. I picked up some part A/B to dose since I do have some corals now and added my first dose last night. 3ml per 10gal so I added 9ml of each, I forget the name of the A/B right now.

I do have a Flame Angel in the tank but other than knocking snails over and chomping on the LR I have not seen him pick on anything fleshy yet.

I have a set of Clowns, a Firefish, and a Sleeper Goby as well as 2 Cleaners and a Bristle Star in the tank with roughly 20Hermits of various types and 20Snails of various types.

I am really worried because my leather is looking bad now as well. I do not have R/O water but I use the best Filtered Water I can get but maybe my filter is dead and I am getting regular bad water. I will change the filter tonight and dump the water I have mixed up now.

Hmmm.. I can stop and pick up some Iodine and a test kit maybe as well. If Softies like it then maybe I should get some.
 
both xenia and leather consume alot of iodine. i met a guy who had a doser add .2ml of iodine per hour to his 110 and his xenia was exploding on rocks and glass alike.
 
Wow! ok picking some up on the way home. Now the next big question. Is Iodine bad for anything else in the tank?
 
Crustaceans store Iodine and use it in the molting process, I have had peppermint shrimp die after molting and was told it was due to elevated Iodine. Some say that too much will cause excessive molting and weak shells.
 
If anyone wants some free Xenia or Anthelia come to the meeting in March. As of now, the stuff is taking over ( I don't dose iodine). First come, first serve.
 
O2,

I have the plumbing at 90% complete and just finished the hood except hanging the doors. still more to do on the stand.

Check out the pics on my build thread.
 
When you have too much iodine you get diatoms on your sand first... I don't know what happens beyond that.

If you've done a recent sizable water change with a major brand of salt I really doubt you have iodine shortage enough to cause visible problems. Most people never test iodine and it's not common to have these problems.

Here's a page with a ton of example problems with xenia:
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/xeniiddisfaqs.htm

If you're not using at least RO water I'd say that's where I'd be suspicious. Tampa water has chloramine in it and just using anti-chlorine chemicals doesn't work for it... you'll have left over ammonia. And if that's not it who knows what else might be getting throuh. I'd try filling a 5 gallon bucket with water from the grocery store RO "Glacier" machines (I did that for years) and see if that helps. Or if you're in around downtown you're welcome to a bucket of my RODI water and to test yours with my TDS meter.

Also, in general what are your basic water parameters: pH, ammonia/nitrates/nitrite?
 
Iodine, like Ah64av8tor said, is important to crustaceans and it indeed does help with the molting process. if you are dosing Iodine, either dose as the bottle prescribes or do 3/4 of what the bottle describes or even 1/2 if you're a little paranoid/always have bad luck like me :P. And in my experience iodine definitely helps with keeping soft corals such as xenia and anthelia, as well as leathers. For example, if you come see my tank, i have anthelia and xenia all over my tank and i also have a 8+inch yellow fiji leather thats doing awesome. i got behind my iodine dosing for a few weeks and he started to shrivel a little and even a tip started to die.

Oh and i use oceans blend if that helps, i originally got it at finz back when Chris Meckley was working there (sorry if i misspelled his last name). I think John carries it as well, and most likely cheaper.
 
I picked up some Lugol's and I am using Oceans Blend 2part. I also mixed up some new salt last night and will be doing a series of water changes in the next few days to change out my water.

I have to admit that after the 2part and the iodine the Xenia are standing taller and pulsing more. I also checked my PH before my lights came on and it had dropped to 7.8 during the night so I need to get my PH back up some so it does not crash at night.
 
Gimplar - I've seen your tank and it's awesome so what ever you're doing is right for your tank =) But... if he's doing a weekly 15% water change do you think he's using up the iodine in the salt mix that quickly? I do 10% weekly at most and my tank's doing well without dosing.... doesn't improve when I try it. I don't have an Iodine test though. What's your water change routine?

o2zen - If you had a small refugium on a reverse light cycle that'll help your night-time ph from dropping. From what I understand Xenia are more sensitive to low pH that most other corals.
 
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