melting xenia

[Afish4u]

Alright some if not all might be familar with xenia melting at some point in the tank. To me I'm fine with that..... Until its the blue... Yes mines in the process of melting. I had 2 pieces. One started to melt and the other looked fine (it was only 1/4" in size and starting to grow hands). well the little one is now gone in the tank. the bigger one still has hands but has shrunk in size. Has anyone figured anyway to reverse this? In the past I usully just some of the pinks and they would come back. Obviously this one I don't want to loose.

[Jrmass]

How are your nitrates Aaron? As I'm sure you know xenia loves Nitrates so if you do not have much in your tank it's going to melt on ya.

Jason

[Afish4u]

I'm usually reading zero. My pinks are doing fine though.

[Jrmass]

I just know what I'm been told on Xenia... A buddy of mine who lives in CA used to run a SW fish/coral distribution business and xenia is what they used to use FOR NITRATE Removal. They had one tank of Pink, one of Blue. It'd be worth a shot to try and get one of your tanks with maybe 10-20 nitrate and put the piece in there... Hate to see you lose it so I'm just trying to help.

Jas

[Afish4u]

yeah I'm down to one tank for now. I did turn off my skimmer. I'll try that for a day.

[taminate]

my nitrates are 0 as well... n my pink and brown (silver pumping) are growing and doing great

[Afish4u]

I and 2 others that I know of have run into the pinks melting atleast once a year. Usually around the same time. I don't know if its the strain we have, coincidence or what but Thats what I'm hopeing is just happeneing to the metalic blue.

[garry]

are you jokeing , my nitrateswas running at 50 to 75.and every time i put some in they last a day or two. you have to have a large level of organics i your tank water to let them feed on.

[Jrmass]

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...readid=1585664

http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums...hp/t-1388.html

Not sure if that'll help or not Aaron but it's stuff that I happened to stumble across maybe you'll get some idea from it. I don't have any luck with xenia and I'm not much of a softie guy to begin with. But, I know for a fact that xenia does indeed export nitrates and plenty of people do use it to accomplish just that task!

Jason

[taminate]

as they stated on there, your tank cannot be too warm. and my nitrates are not high at all, they are a perfect 0---i also direct feed sometimes, but not often. idk, mystery, but i know they do not have to have a dirty tank...atleast not the pink or silver pumping xenia

[jumpman420]

I am/was one of the people who could never grow xenia. The blue would do good, then fade. The pink would do good, then fade. I have a piece of pink on a shell that has grown.....not fast.......but is still alive in the past 6 months. The ONLY thing that I have physically changed from before to now is put a fan over the tank. It never got REAL warm over 80 usually, but keeping the fan on now when the halides are on has appeared to help keep my one piece alive thusfar.......

Good luck on the xenia!!!

[Loverotties]

They like the water a little dirty.When I had a Remora Aqua C Pro they grew crazy,then I bought a better skimmer(Coralife)and it skims so much better and then my Xenia started to die and did.

[ReefLuvR]

Bummer Aaron. Is there enough to frag? I could put a piece in my tank and see if we can't save it. My nitrates were about 20 when I tested over the weekend. Just a thought.

[Afish4u]

thats why I shut off the skimmer for a day. I don't know if it will help. But I would have thought all my xenia should be diying. the blue was killing the pink. now the pink is doing great and the blue is dieing. I would much rather have the blue then the pink.... ah the joys of reefing. Thanks Jason for your link also.

[Kyuss]

grrr, I have lost colonies of Pink for no apparent reason, the two things that changed in my tank were, water changes in my old 12 gallon nano which prolly removed tons of organics, and the other was my temps spiked over 80 degrees. I know that xenia is particularly vulnerable to temp spikes. From my understanding they also die back at a certain time of year and then grow back, apparently natures way of keeping it from overtaking the reefs.

Jason, I have been debating growing xenia in my sump for organic removal so thanks for the links!

Aaron, I hope you can reverse the process, as you know keep tghe rock in the tank as it could spontaneously grow back later on. of course it has to tbe the blue I need to get some of mine to you so that I have a back up jic.