Pumping Xenia dissapearing?

[a1bummer]

Two things. First and formost. My Pumping Xenias are slowly getting smaller and smaller. Some of them have dissapeared alltogether. Everything else in my tank is going very well. Any ideas? Last but not least. Does anybody know how to get rid of hair algae in those delicate or hard to reach spots? I've gotten rid of almost of it by pulling it by hand and scrubbing thing with a toothbrush. But I have some that grows around my tiny Zoo's. Any tips?

[Nyles]

I'm interesting in the response too. I have the same problem, going to start searching forums for resolution. My ca, mag, alk, no3, PH and salinity are all in acceptable ranges and I am providing good current and 5 watt per gallon lighting.

It was opened fine doing very well, then split, I changed lighting down to 4 hours a day for a week to help reduce hair algae growth, then bumped back to 8 hour daylight over the course of a week after I noticed it receed.

I am adding Iodine and make up Kalk, but using no other suppliments. I did a 20% water change with no improvements to coral. Now my Pink leather has joined in on the receeded polyps.

I am using salifert test kits and everything still shows good ???

[tims]

you can try changing the carbon, there may be some chemical warfare goingon withthe Xenia.
Some people can get it to grow like weeds other s cannot at all.

the hair..try tweezers. not easy but will help.

[a1bummer]

Correct me if I'm wrong. But if there was something wrong with the carbon, wouldn't it show up in my tests? I change my carbon and such regularly. Though it is due to be changed real soon. My test results are as follows:Ammonia=1.2mg/L, Nitrite=0mg/L, Nitrate=5mg/L, PH High Range=8.2, Phosphate=.25mg/L, Copper=.10mg/L, Carbonate Hardness (KH)=120mg/L, Non-Chelated Iron=0mg/L, Chelated Iron=0mg/L. What kind of Suppliments, etc. should my Xenias be getting? I use Expert Series Lugol's Solution and ZooMax as well as LiquidLif's BioPlankton. What effect does lighting have on them? As in what type and for how long?

[DeltaChiNick]

Any Kind of ammonia is no good, find out what is causing the ammonia spike because you might loose more if you dont take care of it.

[Hardhead Cat]

I'm going to add a late post to this thread - - my 135-gallon had huge yellow polyps and xenia - all very healthy and happy until all of a sudden I noticed they were shrinking. Ammonia, nitrates/nitrites, pH, salinity, temp were all great and I do regular water changes too. Thinking it was something in the water I started doing massive water changes but the problem got worse. The corals just kept getting smaller, not extending and looked like they were all dying.

I finally got my logical thinking hat on and started at the beginning, my RO/DI unit. Come to find out (long story short) the RO/DI unit wasn't working well and was putting tons of phospates and Gosh-only-knows what else in the water. The corals were dying because of it.

I got carbon and phosphate sponge working right away on a canister filter and replaced every cartridge and the membrane in my RO/DI unit. The corals are going to be fine now, I think.

Big question - have you checked your phosphate levels?

HHC

[Nyles]

Originally Posted by Hardhead Cat

I'm going to add a late post to this thread - - my 135-gallon had huge yellow polyps and xenia - all very healthy and happy until all of a sudden I noticed they were shrinking. Ammonia, nitrates/nitrites, pH, salinity, temp were all great and I do regular water changes too. Thinking it was something in the water I started doing massive water changes but the problem got worse. The corals just kept getting smaller, not extending and looked like they were all dying.

I finally got my logical thinking hat on and started at the beginning, my RO/DI unit. Come to find out (long story short) the RO/DI unit wasn't working well and was putting tons of phospates and Gosh-only-knows what else in the water. The corals were dying because of it.

I got carbon and phosphate sponge working right away on a canister filter and replaced every cartridge and the membrane in my RO/DI unit. The corals are going to be fine now, I think.

Big question - have you checked your phosphate levels?

HHC

I too found the solution to mine, phosphates as well.

[Hardhead Cat]

Oh geez Nyles, I'm sorry - hope you can get the phosphate levels down quickly. It cost me a bit to replace all my RO canister parts, but it was worth it. I'm also running reef carbon and phosphate sponge until it all clears up - - but I can see a big difference (good) in the corals already. Whew, what a hard lesson - - - good luck!

HHC

[johnny505]

I asked my lfs why my zenia arent growing at a fast rate while everything else looks perfect in my tank. he told me that zenia will not grow as fast and may even die off in very good water quality. has anyone ever heard of this? this guy is usually right......

[BRI690]

Yeah, Xenia is kind of finiky. There are some tanks that even though have great water parameters just won't be able to support Xenia for some reason.

Also I tend to find that the Red Sea Xenia grows slower than other types.
If you want to sleed the process up, you can just cut off half a stalk and use a toothpick to stick it somewhere close by. The stalk that you cut from would then grow back.

[Nyles]

I'm pretty sure I hunted my phosphate problem down, when I purchased the tank the guy before had phosphate problems and the only thing I reused was the rock and part of the sand was dumped in new refugium. I cooked the rock when I got it so last night I removed the refugium sand and ran phosphate sponge. Keeping my fingers crossed as to the results.

Nyles-

[Hardhead Cat]

Nyles, unfortunately phosphate can leech out from LRs over a long period of time, so using a phosphate sponge is a great idea. I have to do that too to keep it at bay - :<

Good luck, keep us posted.

HHC

[Nyles]

I'm aware, thats why I posted I cooked my rock before I dropped it in my recently added tank. So I knew that wasn't my problem. I also knew the prvious owner had hair algae problems, so it is most likely one or the other IN MY CASE.

Originally Posted by Hardhead Cat

Nyles, unfortunately phosphate can leech out from LRs over a long period of time, so using a phosphate sponge is a great idea. I have to do that too to keep it at bay - :<

Good luck, keep us posted.

HHC

[mattmontano]

how long will live rock/sand leech phosphates back into the tank?

[Loverotties]

I use to grow it like weed.Now it has died and the reson for it was ,I got a better skimmer and the water is very clean.They like dirty water.