Xenia troubles??

[LionfishFinatic]

well I got a new frag of xenia yesterday, looked great , healthy, was pulsing. I acclimated to my tank fro about 40 min (too short??) and they retracted ( looked normal). Today I found that one of my pwerheads fell down (crappy suction cups :mad2:) and the xenia were slumped ofer. Came home today from school and they were retracted, look really bad and their polyps are closed up. It looks like someone came and squished them (don't know how else to describe it). I will try to get some pictures but I don't have much hope left for them. I need to get a new test kit so I have no params for you except salinity 1.024......

Edit: noticed that they also had green algae stuff growing on them (only been in the tank for less than 24 hours!!!!) and stringy mucous coming from the polyps. Any way I can save them???

[DanInSD]

Xenia tends to bounce back as fast as it dies. It is particularly sensitive to low pH and alkalinity, likes lots of light, moderate (but not really heavy) flow, and good, clean water. It is very sensitive to chemical competition from other corals, so use of carbon is probably recommended.

Dan

[LionfishFinatic]

Well i don't have any other corals in there atm as i am still recovering from an algae outbreak that killed all of the corals in my tank. I have 250w MH on my tank so lighting isn't an issue. I think the problem must be PH. How high a flow are we talking about really? just enough to make it toss around in the current?? I guess I will have to go out and buy some test kits tonight lol.

[DanInSD]

Xenia can tolerate anything from practically no current to current that tosses it around a bit without "battering" it. If it looks like it's about to be pulled off of the rocks, it's probably too strong.

I find it remarkable that an algae outbreak would kill corals. I've never heard of this. If they produced something that noxious, it might still be around?

Dan

[LionfishFinatic]

Well it was more the facet that I wnt on vacation, cyano bacteria COVERED the entire tank and litteraly suffocated the corals. mainly gsp and button polyps. I hate going away for long periods of time w/o someone reputable watching the tanks.....

[reef rico]

lol same here thats why i hate going on holidays for more than 3 days and im only 16 lol.

[LionfishFinatic]

ya im only 14 so, welcome to my world lol