First Corals. Pulsing Xenia not looking too hot.

Hi everyone.

So here is the scoop... I've been running a FOWLR tank for 3 years now. About 4 months ago, I upgraded from my 30g to a 90g. All my livestock made it over, and everything has been doing great.

Last night, I purchased my first 4 coral frags, and got one free! It was 9:30 at night when I placed the corals in my tank.

I got 1 decent sized pulsing xenia, a hammer coral, an eagle eye zoa, and a radio active dragon eye zoa, and a free shelf coral frag of some sort.

So I placed the frags in my tank, and within 30 minutes, the zoa's had opened right up, and the hammer coral was looking pretty good (not as great as when I picked him up at the store). The pulsing xenia was about 1/2 the size it was when I got it, but was slowly pulsing nonetheless.

I was instructed to place the frags all at the bottom of the tank, and move them up slowly over time to allow them to acclimate to the lighting, so that's what I did. I placed everything on the sandbed, except the xenia. I read they light more intense light, so I placed him about 1/3 way up the tank on some LR.

When I woke up this morning, a large hermit was pretty much sitting ontop of him, and had pushed him over in such a way that one of his branches had buckled over. I kicked the hermit off, and when I went to straighten the xenia, it was like snowflakes came off it as I moved it. It is also weeping some sort of mucous like substance. It is now 1/4 the size it was when I bought it, and quite plainly looks like crap. The pompoms or w/e they're called are so small they're almost impossible to make out at this point.

Also, the hammer coral is not opening up much today. (I know it takes time to acclimate, but he's just not as full as he was last night)

Is it just in shock from being traumatized? I've read they're hardy, which is why i wanted to start with one.

Find pictures attached.

Other info on the tank:

90 Gallon
Aquaticlife T5 4 bulb (2 pure actinic, 1 purpleblue, 1 white)
Sump with protein skimmer running (undersized, but doing well)
2, Koralia 2 powerheads, and a good amount of flow from return pump.
Decent coraline growth over the past month. (Urchin eats it all)


Inhabitants:
Numerous hermits, snails.
2 Urchins
1 Pajama Cardinal
Mated Pair Perc. Clowns
3 Green chromis

Chem / Water Params:

Water temp: 80
Ammonia: 0
Nitrates: 0
Nitrites: 0
Ca: 460
Alk: 9 / 161.1
pH: 7.8
Phosphate : 0

The only thing that is a little high is my salinity at 1.028. I didn't realize how much water had evaporated. I'm working on bringing it down over the next 4 hours. But is that enough to stop the hammer from opening up?

Does the xenia look like it's dead?

Thanks in advance for your time, and constructive criticism.

View youtube vid in HD for a quick tank tour and some footage of each of the corals, including the xenia.

I've also attached a pic of what the hammer looked like last night for comparison to how it looks in the vid.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvvF4gQfpN8 <----------------------------VIDEO LINK HERE!

 

The video is not available to view for me.

Xenia is hardy once established, but sensitive to acclimation and transport. Not to much you can really do about it. It either melts or it does not, unfortunately. If there is even a small piece of tissue on it, there is always a decent chance it will grow back.

 

Hmm. Not sure why. Here is a direct link to it. Please take a look. Be sure to change it to HD.

‪IMG 1651‬&rlm; - YouTube

It is, at this point in time, looking horrible. I put it in a quarantine box and raised it to a higher level in the tank, so nothing can get to it. It is still receiving moderate flow and a good amount of light.

I'll just have to see how it looks over the next few days I guess. Not much else I can do.

 

28 views, and 1 comment.

That tells me I'm probably either worried about something I shouldn't be, or that there is no hope for this guy whatsoever. :-/

 

The thing is, a lot of folks here consider Xenia to be a borderline pest coral. haha..

Good luck though, waiting around for things to happen is the name of the saltwater game.

 

As long as there is a peace of Xenia on the rock there is a chance for it to grow back, the ones i see in your video look rough but are far from dead. they do slime when they get messed with or injured.
with that being said your sg. should be closer to 1.024 and ph should be around 8.2
also you might try to dose a little reef plus by sea chem as they do like a little iodine they also don't like to clean of water conditions.

 

I'd just give them a few days to settle into the new tank. Try not to touch or move them around a lot right away.

 

I agree that 1.028 is too high. However 1.024 might be a little too low. I'd suggest meeting in the middle at 1.026.

 

only passing on what has worked for me for 30 years :-X

 

Either way, it probably isn't the SG that is the problem, if there even is one.