So yesterday my pulsing Xenia patch was noticeably "smaller." I ran tests, 0 on all three nitrogens, pH 8.2, Phos -0, KH 179, Calcium 400-420 (this was about an hour after turning on lights.) SG was 1.025 and temp was 79.
I did a 20% water change this morning with no improvement. The only thing I did out of the ordinary was add a package of Chemi-pure. It's so shrunken that the "hands" barely pulse.
One other thing that might be a factor is my longhorn cow was stuck to the bottom of a powerhead on Tuesday of last week. I moved him to a hospital tank immediately, and am aware that they can release toxins when stressed, but other inhabitants look great. And the Xenia did until Saturday morning. I've added Poly-Filters and activated carbon, the other inverts look happy as a clam (no pun intended), but the Xenia still looks like I just turned the lights on all the time.
A REALLY unlikely factor is I have been coating my new stand with polyurethane in another room in the house and the odor is noticeable in every room inside. But I've polyed my hardwood floors throughout the entire house and not had an issue in my tanks. Any ideas or advice appreciated.

Seems like xenia is just one of those things. Every piece I've put in my 120 has slowly shrunk away to nothing (although everything else is doing fine), but it's growing nearly out of control in my 12g nano. I've already had to prune it back twice.

Just one of those things!? I have such a tough time accepting that, true it may be. Any ideas on parameters that Xenia thrives/suffers in?
It's done well in the tank for two or three months, I'd say. There has to be a factor, right?

The only thing I ever noticed in my DT was that it would look a lot better when I dosed iodine. Of course, it still didn't make it, but it always looked a lot better after a little iodine. I stoped dosing it because I don't have (or want to buy, really) an iodine test kit.

It thrives in your Nano, though... a 12 gallon tank in which evaporation, heat fluctuations and such vary so much more quickly. I knew the species was fussy, and ships poorly - but once it began to spread, I thought the worries were surely over. I have LPS, SPS, a clam, several things that would seem to be more particular to water quality, lighting, flow rate, etc. ad nauseum. Should I stick that rock in another tank (only one not treated is a FOwLR) and see if it recovers? I loved those little guys grasping at the water while I watched the tank.

Well, if it's going to die in your reef, no harm in trying.... Ive always wondered if there's too much flow in my 120. Beating up on it, keeping it from expanding all the way and getting enough light/food.

i've heard that xenia is used in many tanks to help filter out phosphates. This is just my $0.02, but maybe the zenia needs a little bit of phosphates in the water coloumn to thrive. Following the same idea, it may be one of those corals that thrives in a "dirty" system, such as a nano tank, where the params and "dirt" are much more concentrated.

Shrinkage?

Is the water cold?

:p

Shrinkage?

Is the water cold?

:p

LOL, im surprised noone jumped on that one (ESPECIALLY ME).
Again, LOL

http://i18.tinypic.com/4ztemf5.gif

Twice now I checked this thread hoping I had some advice. I added the temp of the tank to my water parameters just to avoid this very obvious (and lame) joke. Damn kids these days.

i have also noticed that xenia seems to like Iodine added the water, HOWEVER, it is also one of the FEW things that i can NOT keep in my system. i have not tried it since i moved, maybe it is time for a test frag.

I have the luxury of having Scripps water top do changes with, so all of the trace elements etc. are in the 10% biweekly changes. My Xenia is growing like a weed. Literally. Try dosing with iodine before it is too late. Also, they are fosfties who do like the water a little "dirty." They like a little phosphate, and the like. Just my experience, in my ALL softie 125.

What other corals do you have in there? Do you run carbon? What is upstream from it?

I have SPS, tons of coralimorphs, a couple of hammers and colts, and zooanthids thriving in the tank. Upstream from it are some zoos and a small patch of green star polyps. As for carbon, I run it off and on.

Your tank is pretty aggressive so I'm going to guess it's allelopathy. Colts and GSP are very noxious.... top of the bunch. Carbon helps as well as frequent water changes and some placement rearranging so noxious corals are not close to or upstream from the corals most affected.

IMO Xenia like ( not so good water quality ) thats what I have found. in my reef tank they live but don't grow. in my horse tank they are out of control. I believe its all the extra nutrients in the tank that you wont or hopefully wont have in a reef tank.

How fast has your Xenia been growing recently? It might not be a recent change in your tank that's affecting them, I've kept a very small-scale Xenia farm tank for the past 8 months and have found that they'll often (but not always) slow or stop growing long before they ever start actually looking bad.

For what it's worth, I'll also note that I've never noticed iodine make a lick of difference other than making me paranoid about not owning a decent iodine test kit!
Mucus-shedding leather corals, on the other hand, do seem to make my Xenia happy. This is a purely anecdotal observation, though, and the species I've been using (Lobophytum pauciflorum or Devil's Hand) certainly isn't something you'd wanna to toss into a tank with stony corals unless you're willing to put in a lot of effort finessing your water flow and regular 24/7 carbon usage to keep the stony specimens from being constantly irritated.

I threw the xenia in my predator tank since it had almost disappeared. It's still alive, but not doing well. I'd had it for 6-8 months. We'll see if it comes back at all or is done. It's under good lights in there, just a "dirtier" tank.

After studying my Xenia shrinkage I strongly suspect it is related to flow. The lower the flow the better for Xenia. You may have noticed that they first stopped pulsing? Then their arms got shorter and the trunk fatter? Then the bases started to shrivel? Put it in a QT with only an air stone and good light and see what happens. I bet within days you will see the pulsing come back and within a week the arms lengthen.

After studying my Xenia shrinkage I strongly suspect it is related to flow. The lower the flow the better for Xenia.

:huh: Odd... I have massive amounts of flow (~800gph in a 37g tank) going through my Xenia sp. tank (no idea on the exact taxo cuz I don't have access to a decent microscope). I try to keep it quite turbulent with very little linear or laminar flow and I've never seen any shrinkage when they're getting whipped around a lot.

I also keep that tank quite "dirty" in terms of dissolved organics since Xenia lack a developed mouth and appear to get their nutrients mostly through absorption - and light, but the species I've got right now is not even close to being autotrophic, even using natural sunlight. Perhaps a low level of dissolved organics combined with a high flow rate resulted in your Xenia not getting a chance to grab as much food and led to the shrinking of the colony?

I'm pretty sure my Xenia tank would starve if it had to compete with a combo of Chemi-pure, Poly-Filters, and activated carbon like Russel P (http://www.talkingreef.com/forums/member.php?u=1453) mentioned he had tried on his system.

species = male
temp = cold
conclusion = shrinkage:cool:

So yesterday my pulsing Xenia patch was noticeably "smaller." I ran tests, 0 on all three nitrogens, pH 8.2, Phos -0, KH 179, Calcium 400-420 (this was about an hour after turning on lights.)


I should have caught this earlier, probably a little late now but I'll mention it for the benefit of anyone else reading this thread in the future ... your pH is a little low for keeping Xenia. One of the few facts about Xenia that has been often repeated by many successful aquarists and coral farmers is that they prefer a pH of 8.3 or higher (as in, 8.3 should be as low as the pH of your tank gets at night). I remember Anthony Calfo mentioning that when he was running his coral farm he'd see entire tanks of Xenia frags stop pulsing when the digital pH meter hit 8.2.