Mixed reef question???

[Smitty]

Hey guys and gals...I have a question about my mixed reef. As you all may know, it seems all my lps corals(duncans,trumpets,candy canes,hammers,galaxea,alveapora) don't seem to do well, and end up slowly dying. I've been doing a lot of reading on mixed reefs, and I've come to the impression that all of the soft corals that I have, especially my long polyp leather and the tons of xenia, are letting off toxins that are killing my lps's:frustrat:. All of my parameters are pretty much perfect, and I have great lighting, so I think my leather and xenia is slowly killing my lps's. So my question to you all is should I start removing those particular corals, because my goal is to have a dominated lps tank with a few sps's down the road.:dunno:

 

[AdeptMrSniffles]

I'd get rid of the xenia. I didn't know leathers produce toxins though.

 

[Smitty]

Yep, I'm more worried that the leather is causing the most damage since he is kinda big, about 5in in diameter, but the xenia is taking up about 25% of my tank, so it's covering a lot of rock.

 

[dcantucson]

Yeah, I would get rid of the xenia too. I plan on getting mine out soon. As for the Leathers, do you run any Carbon?

 

[Bifferwine]

Xenias release a lot of crap into the water. I'd say they are the main culprit.

 

[dcantucson]

Xenias release a lot of crap into the water. I'd say they are the main culprit.

That does it! Mine are coming out for sure. It's not even pretty. When it was tiny it was at least interesting with its pulsing arms. Now it's just ugly pinkish brown and looks like a weed. :(

 

[Smitty]

I really thank you all for your advise, I'll get rid of the large colony I have...is it safe to keep the leather also, or should he go too?

 

[yote]

I'm betting on the xenia to.
But good luck getting it all out :wink:

 

[yote]

See how everything does without the xenia first.Then you can start looking at the leather.

 

[Bifferwine]

It would be a shame to get rid of a nice, big leather. If you take all the xenia out and it seems to help, leave it in!

 

[Smitty]

I'm betting on the xenia to.
But good luck getting it all out :wink:

I'm gonna just take the whole rock out and try to get a nice credit for it...I have a 5-7lb rock, fully covered with xenia, and a few small loose rocks with xenia on it also, that I had fragged.

 

[Smitty]

Ok...we'll do. I'll see how it goes, I'm tired of losing my lps's for no reason, and this is the only conclusion I could come up with.

 

[SonicGT02]

What exactly does the xenia put out that effect the other corals? I just added my xenia about a month ago. Should I look into getting rid of it already? Don't want it to effect my lobo or candy canes! Would this be why my ricordia seems to have shrunk down?

 

[yote]

Sonic,The xenia releases some kind of chemical to help it fight for space.Some times it causes problems in our tanks,but a lot of times it dont.
But you usually wont have any problems with it,unless you got a big bunch growing.

 

[dcantucson]

I'm gonna just take the whole rock out and try to get a nice credit for it...I have a 5-7lb rock, fully covered with xenia, and a few small loose rocks with xenia on it also, that I had fragged.

Guess that's not gonna happen now! :shock:

 

[Smitty]

Lol...yeah, that idea is dead! Literally!!!