haha i love xenia

[erikharrison]

ARG ok, I have some xenia, and some ICH...
I read an article that told me I could take my salinity down to 1.017 and I would be able to solve my issue if I left it there for about a month. WELL
it also said that XENIA would be an issue. Luckily for me I SKIMMED PAST THAT PART. So anyway, my xenia is skinny like a crackhead, and looks like it is hating me right now (thin, lifeless, looks like Kate Moss) and I was wondering if I should be uber worried about my precious xenia. I know everyone on maast has tons of xenia and they hate it cuz it grows like a madman, but I am not sure if I should let it set and see what it does, or if I should rip it out??? I raised my salinity back to 1.021 tonight and will raise it to 1.023 tomorrow. I am going to qt my burrfish and spotted boxfish and lower thier salinity to 1.012 hoping that with the abscence of these two fishers in my tank will alleviate my ICH looking for a host in my tank. My list of animals are as follows
Mandarin Goby (Dragonet)
Lionfish (found a new home for, leaving tomorrow)
Midas Blenny
Lawnmower Blenny
Blue Damsel
Spiny Boxfish (Striped Burrfish)
Yellow Spotted Boxfish (Cowfish)
True Clown
Maroon Clown
Sebae Anenome
Bulb Anenome
oh yeah, and an orange linkia (which at times seems fuzzy and pourous, feeding?)
The only two that show ANY signs of ICH are the afformentioned....
besides the two I am going to qt, are there any others that I should qt?
Suggestions???

[erikharrison]

bump

[Ross]

what size tank is it? salinity of 017 or even .012 will not kill ich, it has to be .009 and you will need a refractometer to measure.

[erikharrison]

47 gallon column....

[Ross]

you probably already know then you have too many fish. the blennies are fine, i'd get rid of the damsel and make sure you have tons of live rock for the mandarin unless he eats frozen.

[erikharrison]

the mandarin eats like a champ, the damsel is tiny as they get and hasnt grown, my boxfishes are both small. My bioload seems to be ok, & my levels are low to non-existent.

[Ross]

keep on on the water changes but when the fish get bigger just know you may have problems.

[erikharrison]

I am getting a wet/dry today, from which I hear that they are great for overstocked aquariums, and my lionfish is going as part of the trade... I have been keeping up with my water changes, and I do have a reefer that lives close and has a tank similar to mine in volume, so he kinda feeds me ideas (ty Ernest btw), other than that I was really wondering about my ICH and xenia. I do give my burrfish freshwater dips, until I come up with something better.

[erikharrison]

I will keep my bio balls clean if the nitrates start getting high!

[erikharrison]

so whats my best bet? I have alot of live rock and I have some big base rocks that I have not added to my setup yet. Those rocks are from a riverbed outside of san antonio, of which I have used around 20# already in my tank with no issues. how close of proximity are we talking here?

[Ross]

I wouldnt even use bioballs, just put a piece of lr in the bottom and some filter floss to collect detritus. You will enough biological filtration in your rock and sand, you need some mechanical filtration to get rid of all the fish waste.

[erikharrison]

i do have a filsatr xp2 which has some of that pourous kinda brillo padish pads in it... it does its thing thats for sure! I am having small air bubble issues though.