Dying Xenia

Kinds still new to the Salt Tank System. I have a Xenia that is dying. Its turning dark purple on the base and very few arms are extending during the daylight cycle. I have checked all my basic water tests. It has moved from rock it came on and onto main rocks. i did 20% water change last night. this is my first water change since tank started 8 months ago. i hope this helps and im not too late. my rose's have also been hiding out and not their usual large splender during the day. I think i really need to get skimmer asap. i use my own r/o water system (spectrapure) and is in 50 gal food safe barrel from soda factory. it was cleaned with water and bleach and left to dry for several days before using. when i did water change i shut down refugium and removed 3-5gal buckets of water and then added 3 back after adding salt and adjusting ph with buffer due to the low ph of r/o water. hope im doing thing right. tis the best way i could come up with. any suggestions welcome.

:-[

 

first water change in 8 months? well, no wonder your corals aren't doing well. You should do them weekly or biweekly ...

But my xenia is dead too :/
It was doing so great, and this morning the rock lay on the ground and the xenia looked like eaten off. I don't think it'll come back. And now I have to look and find the mean creature.

 

I was told by the lfs that i wouldnt need water change for the first 8 months. but i suppose i have added quite a bio load to it since. gonna have to save my duckies up for a remora skimmer. sorry to hear about your Xenia recent fate. i dont have anything that would eat mine (i dont think). i do have some red legs that like to eat my turbo snails though. wouldnt put it past them to eat anything else they could take advantage of.

 

wow, if I don't do a water change at least every other week, I'd have a 75 gal swamp. I would read more online and probably not take that guys advice much more.

And a skimmer will do wonders, I've heard alot of good about the remora's too...

I'd do the water chagne and maybe look into some reef additives, perhaps their starving to death...(iodine, things like that)

good luck all....

Scoffer

 

If it was me, I would just run some carbon

John

 

Hello Obie1, and Welcome to 3 Reef!

If your fish store guy told you that, he is an idiot. Sorry!

IMO, the first couple of months are when you may need the most water changes, what with cycling and all. And I am not a big water change fan, but I have been doing them monthly since I set my system back up in Sept.

When you say your water check fine, what are you testing and what are the results? Minimum tests include, ammonia, nitrite, pH, Alkalinity, and Nitrate (which is what I am thinking part of the problem may be) Nitrates can be deadly to inverts, ...perhaps your snails are dying and the red hermits are just "cleaning them up". I have not know red hermits to be problems really.

You may want to follow those tests with Calcium, and Iodine. Iodine is a biggie with the xenia. Test first, then supplement if necessary.

Keep us posted and we will try to help you out here! I would do a larger water change as well., say 20%.

BTW, nice avatar!

 

Water tests were ph 8.3, ammonia 0mg, no2 less than 0.3mg, the rock i bought was already cycled from lfs. i did wait 1 month before adding anything other than the cleaner crew of red and blue legs as well as turbo and (cant think of the other type of snails, mexican maybe) and 2 peppermint shrimp. one of the shrimp i put in the refugium 2 months ago and he died 3-4 weeks later. dont ask why i put him down there ? i also use aragamilk for added calcium and trace elements(once every two weeks 50 drops). also using lugio sp? iodine drops(was doing once a week 3 drops but the lfs guys said to kick that back abit).i feed the corals freeze dried cyclop-eeze once a week. i feed the clowns and dragon with O.S.I spirulina flake food. the roses i feed pieces of freeze dried jumbo once a week or two. i havnt seen the clowns take them to the rose's so i feed them directly. i hate to think the lfs guys dont know what they are talking about. maybe i will make an effort to ask some of the other employees. ii had my r/o water tested and it was real low in the ppm test, cant remember the real number. ii aslo take my water up the the lfs every week as of late. with all passing results. my salineity was down to .22 though which i have since fixed over a weeks time and back up to .24. i'm hoping my prob is skimmer fixable. will keep you all up to date.

thx for all the fast responses.

any other tests i could maybe request from the lfs or by kit.

all before mentioned basic tests done with tetra all in one kit.

btw, i'm not complete novice (just with salt). i have been mantaining 120gal chiclid tank with 3 yellow lab babies as of the last 3 weeks (i know the easiest fish to take care of ) and also 46 gal mixed tank (neons, swordtails, molly's, and other tetra's) . the fresh water tanks are 10 years going. though i'd try the salt now. 1200 dollars later , i'd hate to see it go south.

i am also running small whisper 170 filter for carbon and large material removal. not quite large enough for system by any means but better than nothing for the time being.

sorry to drag on soooo long.

thx again folks

 

OK...NO2 less that .3...that is nitrite correct? My chem stinks...

What about nitrates? NO3? They are the invert killers.

You are adding trace elements? What are you adding and do you test first? Lugols is very strong. I NEVER add that without testing first.

RO water under 50 ppm is good. Feeding looks good. Altho, I use frozen instead of freeze dried. Freeze dried floats too much for me LOL!

Salinity sounds a bit low still. Natural Sea Water is 35

 

well, that all sounds strange. First, aragemilk you should add daily. (I don't like it anymore, but if you use it, it's supposed to be used daily)
then, 3 drops of iodine a week sound very strange too. I add 6 ml twice a week. I really don't understand why this guy sais that.
What kind of store is that?

And birdlady is right, you should test nitrates.
You should test first:

Ph
Ammonia
Nitrite
Nitrate
Calcium (It's probably very low since you are barely adding anything)

Alkalinity
Magnesium

Then phosphates wouldn't be a bad idea

 

well not to sound well...different i have a 55 reef system and the last time i did a "real" water change...more than like a few gallons was...well....lol i dont remember...i go with the more relaxed way...reefs r better, in my opinion to stay the same as much as possible and adding new water can change the chem of the tank...lol but u know...i am also lazy ...im sry all i am so lazy...i am lucky i add all my supps and test everything once a month...hell everything just seems to click and nothing is over or under what is it supposed to be...i hope u all dont hate me now