Xenia

[penguinsix]

I got some last night for my 2.5 gallon nano, It was pumping all fine when I put it in, and when I woke up this morning. Now when I get home from school it is all limp like and closed and not pumping. I did a 3 hour acclimation. when I got home I checked trates and they were a little high so I did a 40% water change. I also have a trumpet coral and some snails in there and they are fine. Thanks for any help I can get. pH is 8.1 I will work on checking ammonia and nitrites now.

edit: temp is 75, trites are 0 ammonia is inbetween .5 and 1

 

[Hara]

the ammonia is a big issue. How long has the tank been set up? I sure would not be adding anything else until the ammonia and nitrites are at zero and stay that way.

 

[penguinsix]

It has been up since early december.

 

[Hara]

the general rule of thumb is that the smaller the tank, the harder to keep the water parameters stable. Could you possibly have a dead snail or something such
as that that would be bringing the ammonia up?

 

[revhtree]

The guy at the lfs told me that your sg has alot to do with keeping pulsating xenia happy. He said if your sg gets low they will quit pumping. How true this is, I do not know. I know he has a 120 FULL of it and the stuff he gave me pumps like crazy.

 

[penguinsix]

All 5 of my small snails are still fine and moving. Sg is at 1.022

 

[revhtree]

Oh yea, a snail or hermit or something could have brushed by it or climbed on it. They will shrink up for a while when that happens. Also I had some before in my tank and a crab, not a hermit, chopped it off. Crab is now gone.

 

[Clown Monarch]

Mine pulses maybe 1 day a week - with no correlation to any number of variables.

If you're going to pin your sanity on an equation that determines the pulsing behavior of xenia, you might as well check yourself into the loony bin right now.

 

[penguinsix]

Weall I guess we will have to see what happens. If it dies I will wait for all the params to be zero then I will get more. And hope it doesn't die.

 

[revhtree]

I guess it would not hurt to keep your sg in check anyway, right?

 

[Hara]

Just my thoughts, you might want to raise the ph a little and the salinity. I would think
ph around 8.3 and the salinity around 1.024 would be a bit closer to ideal. Also the temp could be a little warmer. Do you have decent water flow in the tank? Xenia does like some current. The other thing I do not see mentioned is your lighting. Maybe I missed it in some other post, but what type of light do you have?

 

[fishfreek]

Alkinity is also a factor with xenia.

 

[revhtree]

Also your iodine levels are a factor with xenia as well.