Dehydrated xenia

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Fierro Nights

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Aug 9, 2008
Messages
211
Location
Texas
Hello everyone, i just got my internet back since hurrican Ike hit, i was out of power a couple of days but everything in my tank made it just fine.

my xenia coral ive had for a while now had been doing great but just a couple of days ago after a water change, it now looks dehydrated.

the only thing thats changed in my tank is the salinity, from .24 to .26 which i brought back down to 24 and trying to keep it that way again, did my xenia just loose some water?

it does not pulse anymore, its trunk, and branches look very skinny, it used to be fat and plump and pulsing non stop.

on a side note it has recently spawned some new ' pups ' all around its base, there are little xenia polyps covering the main rock.

the only thing that i can think of is the high salinity or the recent addition of an epoxy i placed in the tank to cover a hole where some aptasia was growing.

good news though is that my yellow polyps are splitting and i have some new full boom polyps in just the past few days.

one last thing, i have been watching my damsel fish and my blenny eat copapods off my glass, now i dont see pods anywhere, not even in my fuge where im having a red slime probem, does red slime kill copapods ?
 
Glad to hear everything pulled thru.

I assume you mean 1.024 and 1.026. Actually, natural sea water is 1.026 so that's not a problem. What kind of epoxy did you use?

Red slime, aka cyanobacteria won't kill pods. Your fish probably ate what stayed out in the open and the rest got smart and hide now. Cyano is cause by high nutrients. It probably wouldn't hurt to do a couple big water changes to help freshen everything up.
 
the epoxy i used is steel epoxy putty by Devcon. ive used it before on some aptasia, i just found where the aptasia would hide in the rock, then get a small amount of the putty and cover the hole the aptasia hid in so it cant get out or ever see light again. it turns the same color as the live rock in a few days so it works great.

im not sure if the expoxy leached something into the water during the 30 seconds it took to become hard as steel.
 
the epoxy i used is steel epoxy putty by Devcon. ive used it before on some aptasia, i just found where the aptasia would hide in the rock, then get a small amount of the putty and cover the hole the aptasia hid in so it cant get out or ever see light again. it turns the same color as the live rock in a few days so it works great.

im not sure if the expoxy leached something into the water during the 30 seconds it took to become hard as steel.

If this is not intended for aquarium use I would stop using it.

Xenia is one of those corals that either likes your tank or it doesn't. I wish it didn't like mine. It will go through periods where it is inflated and looks great and others where it looks like wilted lettuce. I would stop using the epoxy and do some PWCs.
 
When i transferred my tank my xenia did this as well. The "trunk" got really skinny and deflated looking. eventually the heads broke off. Luckily xenia is almost indestructible. If they break off just take a piece of mesh or netting and loosely cover them over a piece of rock. As long as your water quality is good they will reattach in a few days and grow back.
 
I don't know exactly what kind of epoxy that is, but you should use something that's NSF certified for use in potable water applications, like Plumber's Epoxy. I get it from HomeDepot.
 
the epoxy from devcon is for patch jobs on broken pipes. its water proof.

i did a water change, roughly 75% iv not done one so large to my tank since i added corals, the red slime is showing up in some spots, im siphoning it out daily, hopefully my macro will continue to grow.

i was going to attempt to construct a better nitrate reactor but i went out to dinner w/ my g/f and that took out a huge chunk of my pocket.

it seems when i get rid of something in my tank, another ' something ' shows up to take its place.
 
What are your water parameters? Do you have test kits? How long has this tank been set up? What size tank is it? How much LR do you have? What kind of filtration are you using? Lighting? Flow?
 
yes i have test kits, reef master, laborret, and some 5 or so in one strips.

waters great, calciums a bit high, i think it was 26 of those drops before the color changed, i dont remember the amount but it was high.

the tanks been set up for in guess in a few days maybe 4-5 months?

i have 8 lbs live rock. 13 lbs texas holy rock, 2-4 inch sand bed, i have it at a slope. and a fuge w/ some macro, mineral mud covered w/ sand.

Coralife super skimmer 65, brand new home made filter installed yesterday. along w/ a new large media back full of some carbon. and a biological/nitrate filter.

lighting is 65watt pc 10k/ 450nm

20 gallon tall w/ im guessing 10 gallon sump/fuge.

and as for the flow i have a nano power head i dont remember the name but it starts w/ a ' K ' i tried putting another one in there but its too much for my polyps. ill have to play w/ it some more.
 
This can be quite normal if after a water change, the pH, Ca, or Alk have changed. Even the slightest of changes can affect Xenia negatively and moreso an element that affects pH. Do you have a pre-water/after-water pH reading by chance? I believe the powerhead you are referring to is by Koralia? Just some thoughts...

On the Devcon, I would consider this Underwater Repair Putty a standard in the aquarium industry. At work we use the 11800 (UW) and is what I would recommend for a long-term bond.
 
no i dont have those readings, but my ph for a while now, i cannot get it to the 8's, its stuck at 7.8 or so, its hard to tell, i have to use color charts which dont give much of a difference in color.

i dont like color charts.

my kh stays around 12, and i try to keep calcium around 400, it keeps rising though on its own.

i dont know why my ph will not go up.

the xenia is starting to get its pulse back though. all my other corals are doing great and growing/multiplying.
 
Not sure what the details of your tank are but if you have a closed lid it will prevent proper gas exchange and can keep your Ph low.
 
i dont have a top, i do however have to add a half gallon a day to keep the water level in my sump due to a large amount of evaporation.
 
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