Zenia dying?

[Slyguy00]

So Iv had my xenias for about 2 months. They came attatched to a bubble coral and have been doing great since I added them. It even started to multiply. My water conditions are prety good and everything else appears to be healthy. About a week ago, one of my bubble coral branches started to die and since 2 of the bubbles are gone. Now all 0f a sudden the xenia that is attatched to my bubble coral is starting to die. Has anybody ever seen this or know whats happening? Any help would be appreciated.

[Proteus]

How old is your tank.

What are params

[tang daddy]

Something could be off in your tank, Xenia while thought one of the easiest coral to keep can sometimes be a challenge. A few years back I couldn't keep it for the life of me, tried several times and finally gave up. Then 1 yr ago I got a frag of white Xenia and had it ever since, even after chopping and selling it several times it always comes back from a skin flap.

Lps coral can sometimes get brown jelly disease which will slowly kill the Lps coral and spread in the tank. I can't tell from your pics what is happening to your bubble coral, but Xenia likes medium alk. I keep the Xenia on purpose for this reason, if your alk is good they will pulse if its low they won't. Check your params and make sure everything is where it should be. If it dies you can always get a frag later as the lowermainland has lots. Good luck!

[Slyguy00]

Thanks for the input guys. My tank is about 4 months old now, water perimeters are all within specified range. (ph=8.2 nitrates/trites=0 or very low amonia=0 KH=170 Calcium=420 phosphates=0) I havnt added anything for about a month now. Like I said everything else appears to be happy and healthy except my bubble coral and the one of the 2 xenias that are attatched to it. I attached a pic of the bubble coral. The ones that died off had a brownish slime where the bubble would have been but has since disolved. The other xenia on the same coral pulses like crazy

[tang daddy]

What is alk and mg?

One word of advice, next time a coral is dying or you see brown slime, remove the coral out of your tank and with a old toothbrush clean the brown slime off it, if the heads are dying on the branching bubble whatever is causing it to melt could spread to the other heads.

[Slyguy00]

Well i could be wrong, but i thought KH is the same as alk? And if it is it is at 170 KH. As far as mag goes i dont have a mag tester yet. Just the hagen master test set. Is that something maybe I should look into?

[tang daddy]

I only measure alk so I don't know what 170 kh would equal, and mg to me is very important. Basically the basic 3 I test for alk,ca and mg. but more importantly watch your coral closely especially clean the brown slime off outside your tank so it doesn't spread.

[Slyguy00]

Thanks for the input tang. What should I watch for? It appears the "dying" xenia has some like yellowish stuff starting to form on it and its like its almost starting to separate the xenia. If it does come down to me removing this coral how would I go about detatching the healthy xenia from the rest of it?

[tang daddy]

I don't know about the yellow stuff on the dying Xenia, you can use coral cutters to shear off the dying Xenia or if you want to remove the good Xenia the same thing, cut the skeleton not the coral to remove it. If I were you I'd remove the dying Xenia and try to carefully clean the rest of the coral with a tooth brush. Especially if you see the brown slime.

[Proteus]

170 ppm is 9.5 dkh

[canadianbudz604]

If urs dies and u want more ill give u some fresh cut frags spreads like wildfire in my tank

[Slyguy00]

thanks alot guys. Tang what do you mean the skeleton? with the xenias I have it all just appears to be soft tissue attatched to the bubble corals skeleton. and titus, is 9.5 a good alk? or shud i increase that?

[Slyguy00]

canadian buds that would be awesome! I love the xenia and had a real hard time finding any. Finally found these at king eds, and i have heard there quality isnt that good

[Seth81]

From what I understand, Xenia can not live in prestine water conditions, it likes dirtier water. I use to have tons of Xenia, and then it just slowly melted away as my water conditions improved.

[Proteus]

9.5 is a little high. I aim 7.5 to 8

[Slyguy00]

o ok well any recommendations on how to lower that a bit? I just did a water change a few days ago. My nutrafin KH booklet says that "ideal range for saltwater conditions is 150-190" If im at 170 should I even worry?

[Proteus]

o ok well any recommendations on how to lower that a bit? I just did a water change a few days ago. My nutrafin KH booklet says that "ideal range for saltwater conditions is 150-190" If im at 170 should I even worry?

Natural sea water on reef surface is 7dkh. I do read that 7-11 is ok but you may want to lower. Are you adding alk to you water or is that straight from salt bucket. What salt you use

[Slyguy00]

I have not added any buffers, its purely from my water changes. I have been using Instant ocean sea salt. I do about 10-15% water changes once a week and clean filter once a week as well. I should add, i have a 50 gallon bowfront with a fluval 304 external ( and yes i know some people dont like them) but as long as I keep it clean it seems to do a very good job. It has carbon, phosphate remover, and fluval biomax medias, as well as the sponge filters.

[tang daddy]

I would ditch the sponge filters unless you are rinsing them weekly, when I say cut the skeleton I meant the skeleton that the Xenia is sitting on, loose Xenia can sometimes attach fast other times not.

[Slyguy00]

yea i clean them about once every 3 days, but the longest ill let them go is a week. They seem to collect alot of crap out of the water. And ok understood. Thanks again for your input.