Xenia Shrinking

[georgeortiz]

Hi,
Over the weekend I added my first corals. (Xenia) Which were suggested to me a couple of months ago when I asked what type of Corals I could start my tank off with.
My xenia are not doing so well after only 3 days in the Tank. The xenia have all shrunk but, I still see the ends moving randomly. The stalks that were drooping have straightened but, have also shrunk.

I have been testing daily in a log for about 2 weeks now and these are the parameters:
ph 8.2-8.3 morning lower than evening
temp 81.9- 82.4
ammonia 0
nitrite 0
salinity 1.022
Top off 1 gallon daily. I have a lot of evaporation
lighting: placed under a 250 watt iwasaki bulb and morning/dusk under 2 no flourescent 50/50 and actinic bulbs.

The tank is a 110 with a 20 gallon sump and 20 gallon Refugium. The Calupera in the fuge is growing, and I have microstars and worms in my sand. I guess they are spaghetti worms.
Skimmer is DIY running well getting plenty of dry dark skimmate

I have a 3 serpent stars,a yellow tang,snails,hermits all doing well
1 small musroom doing well

2 small zoos doing well

There is sufficient water flow in the tank and I even added 3 powerheads to add extra offsetting currents when I added the Xenia Sunday.

I am going to purchase a nitrate,calcium,and alkalinity test over the next few days to add to my testing regimen

Do you have any suggestions? I really do not want to lose these corals. I know they are nice looking when they are healthy.

[ryanrichter]

It has been a while, but it seems to me that the xenia did the same thing in my tank. Now I have so many of them, I cnat get rid of them fast enough. I know xenia's like extra iodine. You may want to check your iodine levels and carefully add if needed. Not too much because iodine in large amounts can cause more harm than good.

[georgeortiz]

I added some a Monday evening when I noticed they had started to struggle. This did not seem to help.
I have researched my problem and have noticed that there is some debate as to whether this is of some help. It seems that my spec gravity is suspect and could be higher and I guess that would also affect my Alkalinity as well. I am really not sure. I am still just a Newbie at Reef keeping. Maybe someone can straighten me out with that assumption.

[georgeortiz]

I guess I must of been mistaken. I thought I should keep the temp of my system between 80 and 82 degrees. I am going to work on lowering it to between 78 and 80 degrees. I am also going to pick up and alkalinity test tonight to see where I am at with alk. What is a good additive for managining alkalinity.

[georgeortiz]

Well,
I have the parameters of my tank listed above. How do they compare to yours? Are they in an acceptable range?

[TAXMAN]

You should be fine with your tank conditions. Mybe get your salt up a bit. But my Xenias do this from time to time then come right back. Remember that they feed on the bad stuff in your tank. So they are a great fighter of Ammonia and Nitrates. They act like a skimmer just like Clams. But they should come back without a problem. They do like a lot of light. Mine look thier best when the 400W MH is on. They are all about 12 Inches below a 3 bulb 660W VHO and about 24" below my 400W MH 6500k...

[georgeortiz]

My alkalinity is at 4.5 and calcium is at 375. I am going to retest my alkalinity because that seems extremely high!

[GaryP]

George,

Don't worry, the Xenia are probably just a little shocky. I did a quick FW dip on them before I left the house to make sure there were no flatworms on the Xenia. They should be OK. Just make sure they are getting a lot of light.

Gary

[dan]

ya my tank right now is at 82 and my xenia are so big it looks like they are screaming at me ''GIVE ME MORE''

[georgeortiz]

Ok,
My alkalinity is at 4.5 and calcium is at 375. I am going to retest my alkalinity because that seems extremely high! I retested my alkalinity and it came out to be 4.0. I bought a seatest which is all Alamo Aquatics had and it turns from blue to yellow or yellow green on the eighth drop on the ninth it turns a little more yellow so I am between 4.0 and 4.5 I guess. This seems pretty high doesn't it? What should I do about that?

[alexwolf]

i have a brand new salifert alkalinity test kit in the box if you need it.

[GaryP]

What units of alkalinity are you using? meq or dkH?

Gary

[georgeortiz]

I am using meq.