xenia problem

[runningrandy04]

Hey guys, thursday I got a frag of pulsing xenia. It was extend and pulsing for the first few hours in my tank. Then it retracted, and hasn't extended since. Today it stopped pulsing. My parameters are:
ph 8.2
alk was 2.5 but brought it back up to 3.5 last night
(coralline growth is insane, it pulled down my alk more than 1meq/liter and pulled my calcium down 80 ppm in 5 days)
calcium 420
sg 1.026
ammonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate 10
Tomorrow i'm gonna get a kh test kit, along with an iodine and magnesium.

Anyone have any ideas? Anything I could do to help? Move them into shade? Move them into low flow? Opposite?

 

[cgoodman381]

You may have brought your alk up too quickly. Other then that, all your levels seem fine.

What type of lighting was it under and what type do you have? You may need to adjust it to your lighting... Also not all pulsing xenia pulses. Sometimes it may, sometimes it may not. Give it some time and see how it does. :)

 

[runningrandy04]

I'm not sure, it was in a 75 gal with 24" 4 bulb t5 on one side and a mh on the other. it was on the bottom on the t5 side. I'm guessing it had about 100 watts t5 for that half of the tank. Would the extra 64 watts that I have make such a problem. I also got a rock with gsp and it's doing great. Thats whats confusing me. Sorry about the newb curiosity.
I have the nova extreme pro, so 324 watts with semi-individual reflectors.

 

[Bifferwine]

It may not be anything you can do anything about. Xenia is a coral that either seems to thrive in people's tanks, or shrivel up and die. It's 50/50 and I don't really know why. In my old 55 gallon tank, I could not keep xenia alive to save my life. I tried everything, it would always die within a week. In my 240, it grows out of control. Some people just can't keep it for some reason.

 

[runningrandy04]

Blast!!! I really hope it comes back. Pulsing xenia is one of the reasons i got into saltwater. I love the stuff.

 

[Bifferwine]

Just set up a second tank. Chances are good it'd do just fine in a different tank :)

 

[daugherty]

mine quit pulsing for about a month and then cam back but now it it my colt coral that will not come to life i think it is because my nitrate levels are 0. but i just dont know

 

[daugherty]

dammit biff

 

[runningrandy04]

Yea...I've only gotten half way in setting up this tank. Don't even have a sump yet. Tank fund got destroyed by medical bills. I'm now depending on the generosity of the st louis club, and whether anyone has extra stuff laying around i could buy for cheap. that hasn't stopped me from planning the 700 gal reef i want when i design my own house.

 

[dustin_P74]

those are some big dreams

 

[runningrandy04]

Oh,but it looks so freaking awesome in my head. 8ftx4ftx3ft deep. Center room display with 3 sides showing, leaving a 4ft side for overflow. Octagon dry shaft coming up the middle for return lines and a bunch of those new vortec powerheads. Lighting is gonna be a lot of 4ft t5s across the short width of the tank. Have them set up so in an array matching the suns wavelengths and angles. Also have a bunch of MHs to penetrate. In the basement below the tank, I want (in this order of flow):
skimmer, fuge,foam block, pod farm, remote dsb,foam block, frag tank, back to display
I'll stop there. I could go on forever.

 

[dustin_P74]

wow, you have planed this out i can see

 

[cgoodman381]

I know this isnt your planning thread for the big tank, but I wouldn't use the foam blocks. Pretty much they are detrius traps. Yea, you could replace them, but why the hassle... Just do a good ol' bubble trap instead. Unless you have some other reason for it? 2c

 

[runningrandy04]

Yea..did a lot of research on remote dsbs and protein skimmers. I found a bunch of threads where people explained how they improved remote dsbs for commercial frag tanks. Found a good article on protien skimming but still don't know how to overcome the problem of forcing air into deep water. http://www.hawkfish.org/snailman/skimmer101.htm

 

[runningrandy04]

that is kinda what i was going for. the important part of a remote dsb is that no detrius can get to it. I was hoping the skimmer and the fuge loaded with detrius consumers would grab it before it got to the foam block. anyway, how does the bubble trap work?

 

[cgoodman381]

With a RDSB, most people will just have about 2 inch's of water flowing over it for exactly that reason, no detruis settling.

Basically a bubble trap is a section of three or more baffles through which water must flow and the water flow. I would just google it, it will be a lot easier then explaining! :D

 

[runningrandy04]

Ahh, I was gonna have the foam block incorporated into the last UP section of the bubble trap. To perfect it, I wanted only mechanically filtered water to flow over the dsb. Although not much detrius will settle in that 2 inches of water, I just wanted to take every precaution with the dsb. Also there is no harm in a little nitrate factory when it is about to go over a huge remote dsb.

 

[djkorte]

We got a frag of pulsing xenia not too long ago as well. We talked to a very well-known aquatic store owner, and he said that xenias are very sensitive, they either love your water or hate it. With xenias, its either they live and prosper or they dont make it that long. Thats really all I can tell you, but maybe someone else will give you a better answer. Oh, and our xenias survived but they dont look as beautiful as they did in the store tank :(

 

[daugherty]

our xenias survived but they dont look as beautiful as they did in the store tank :(

give it time and you will hate them mine started out with one frag and now they are everywere