Xenia in distress? Need advice

[ragc]

I lost a xenia a few months ago, so I'm sensitive to any sign of distress with them now. For a few days my current xenia has been curling the end of it's fingers (they stay curled). It does not pulse, but until now had stayed stretched out. Today I saw it contract several arms and "ball up" several hands. My parameters are as follow:
Temp: 76F
pH: 8.0 (no refugium-early AM reading at "lights up")
Alk: "normal" (Red Sea test has no values, but reads slightly higher than perfect center)
Phos: 0.25 mg/L
NO2: 0
NO3: 0.05
Salinity: 30PPT or 1.0225 SG

No other signs of distress in the other corals or other inhabitants (but...this was what happened before...)

My tank and inhabitants are listed in my signature. A photo taken a few minutes ago is attached.

[skippy2]

Your temp. needs to be raised to 80*. You need to do that slowly though. Also ph needs to be at 8.3. Other than that, I am not sure what is going on with your xenia.

[Pineapple]

When ever I see this curling action I do a large water change.

How long have you had this xenia?

[ragc]

I've had this one for about a month and a half. It has grown twice the size it was when I got it in that time, and has been doing great until now.

I did bring the temp back up to 80F over the course of the day yesterday, and dosed the tank with Kent Marine pH Buffer to try restore my pH to 8.3.

The only change I have made that would affect the xenia is that I am using RO water since Christmas. Before that I used bottled water. I am careful to provide trace elements, iron and iodine. I am careful with the invert foods, feeding a little twice a week...could I be starving it? I think it gets most it's nutrients from simbiotic photosynthetic bacteria anyway...

Thanks for the replies!

[vaperix]

My xenia's only do this for 3 reasons.

1. There tired, It’s late in the evening or the lights are off.

2. Xenia really thrive on zooplankton. Which the individual hands will close for 30 seconds or so as they move there catch to there mouth and feed. But I noticed when I feed too much ZooPlex they stop opening up as much and will not pulsate. I guess they get full and have no need to. When I slowed my feeding down they became much more active.
(The higher feeding had no change in my nitrates or amonias.)

3. Its time for a water change. They will tell you when to change the water. Do a 20% water change and they will open up fully and actively pulsate right away.

[skippy2]

How are you providing the trace elelments? If you are dosing iron and iodine, are you testing for it first? Any chemical you add needs to be tested for first. What type of salt are you using? Consistent water changes will give the correct amount of trace elements. The key word is consistent.

[vaperix]

You also might try switching salts. When I changed to Tropic marin reef salts, wich has loads of trace elements and required minerals in it. All my corals opened up more. This is what my local fish store had been telling me as well.

[ragc]

I will try different salt. I use Instant Ocean for a 10% change every other Sunday (did it this AM). I don't test for trace elements but I add 3 drops on Saturdays and Wednesdays (Kent Strontium and Molybdenum, Kent Iodine and Kent Iron) in my 10 gallon. I top off water every day - my tank is covered and I have an aereating snorkel on my rotating powerhead. In addition I have a surface skimmer where I will add additional filtration if the water ever clouds up (has not happened since I switched to RO) and a power filter with charcoal and Poly-Filter.

The xenia is in a location where it gets moderate turbulence, not enough to force it to bend, but enough to move it's hands a bit when they are extended.

I had noticed the "tired" effect on the xenia before. I run lights 7 hours a day and on weekends this gets extended because of morning tank maintenance...maybe I should not do this on the weekends...

Thanks for the good responses...any other clues?

[BadRoma1]

i'm new in this hobby and didn't know that i need to use iron with my corals, i do use iron with my freshwater plants. do you use it for saltwater plants? do you use calcium? i'm sorry i can't help. i do have xenia, for few months now. but it didn't grow at all. :dog:

[vaperix]

Everyone has a different opinion, but I run power compact lights 12 hours a day. Mostly because my corals love it and grow much faster. Especially my frogspawn (light hog). Also if you’re going to do water changes every other week you might consider doing a 20%-25% change or better yet a 10%-15% every week. This will greatly improve your situation.

And yes BadRoma1, you MUST USE CALCIUM. Hard corals will not survive without it and many soft coral will not grow well if its too low (keep it in the 400-450ppm range for success). To do this I use B-Ionic calcium buffer system. Its a two part system that buffers your tank and supplies calcium. You also have to use Strontium, Molybdenum, Iodine, and trace element. As for iron, its a nutrient for macroalgae and the symbiotic algae in corals. I have never dosed it. If you use a good salt all the iron you need will already be in it. The same for the trace element. I hardly ever add any because the salt (tropic marin) and B-Ionic supplies enough each time I do my weekly water change.

Hope this helps :)

[ragc]

Yes...forgot to mention it, but I do add Seachem Reef Complex (calcium) twice a week, on same schedule.

[sinder255248]

Some reef salts contain high amounts of Calcium etc, so dosing is not necessary depending on the amount of corals. Check with a test kit before adding anything. I use Reef Crystals which is working out great, the SPS are doing well and I don't have to dose, after a 25% water change (every 2 weeks) my calcium is between 450 - 500ppm. I think Reef Crystals has 500ppm of calcium in it. The lfs that I goto got a batch of IO instead of Reef Crystals (made by same manufacturer) and hit the roof, sent all the tubs back. Says there's no comparison between the two.

[Germanman]

i have had xenias in my tank for the past 4 months and they are doing great. your flow sounds good but i would recomend keeping your temp no less than 79. also i have my light on for 12 hours(its a 24 hr lighting system). i have a heavy load of corals and fish in the tank but i add all the right things. i use kent; coral vite, coral accel, essential eliments, tech-i, and iron. I also use the b-ionc calcium and alkalinity buffers. And alternate feeding my corals zooplex, phytoplex, micovert,chromoplex, and marine snow. i feed my corals dialy and my clam, cucumber, and flame scalop twice a day, but i have a top of the line skimmer and filtersystem. my best recomendation is go online and read about care for them, its the best way to find out, peopel always come into my store wanting to set up a tank but expect to be able to do it without reasurch. i have always strongly beleved that if u want to be sucessful you need to read up.

[ragc]

Well...one thing about the Xenia... after bringing the temp up and the water change, etc...it still curls its "fingers" in a little (it's getting looser now), but...IT HAS GROWN INCREDIBLY FAST!... :joe: Maybe the curl is part of a growing spurt? Last night it was twice the length as before...very stretched out. Looks happy except for the finger tips curling in... I will try read more on them. Info I have found is not very deep.