Xenia Coral Closing Up

[Ollie67]

Hello all. Since last night, my Xenia frag has not opened back up for some reason. I am trying to figure out what could be the reason. The day before, I adjusted my powerhead and pointed it towards the back glass instead of straight. I did this in order to improve circulation in the tank but also to move the flow as it was blasting the Xenia a little on one side. After adjusting flow, it was more subtle flow and the Xenia seemed happy.

In the evening, I fed my clowns with my frozen shrimp as usual, but this time I added Selcon to the shrimp. I added a squirt over the shrimp and let it thaw, and then poured it into my tank. It caused it to cloud my water a little but started to clear after a few hours (was clear this morning). However, upon adding the selcon, all my corals closed up including the Xenia. Could this be the cause? I was told by my LFS today that I should drain the Selcon juice and just feed the shrimp, which I did not know about. They said the excess selcon juice could harm my corals.

How should I go about fixing this? I just did a water change before feeding the selcon yesterday, so I can try and do a larger change today to try and see if my Xenia will improve. I just don't know if this is a good idea, as I don't want to stress the corals by doing back-to-back changes. As I mentioned, the water is not clouded anymore and my button polyp and GSP are fully open now, so I am not sure why the Xenia isn't opening. I also turned off my powerhead to see if it could've been the new flow, but still nothing... I will attach a before and after photo.

Thank you for reading and help would be appreciated!

 

[Ollie67]

My parameters have been ok too, nothing that is crazy concerning. My nitrate and phos have been reading high, my nitrate read 30ppm yesterday, after my change. Before it was 45ppm. Last week it read 9.7ppm, so not sure what is causing the spikes. Anyways, this kind of confuses me, as my other corals are fine but the Xenia (hard to kill and love dirty water) is not...

 

[Torch Town Reefer]

everything ive read about seldon claims its non-toxic, is a vitamin, and will "boost a healthy reef system".

theres a possibility that your xenia got some of this seldon and is feeding on it, taking it's time to absorb and digest it. that could be why the polyps arent extended and opening (since xenia is a mainly a filter feeder). your other corals could have just "ate" it faster and opened up sooner.

unless you start to see your xenia disintegrating and actually melting away (disappearing), i dont believe you've anything to worry about. cut your powerhead back on, and maybe do a small (5 gallon) water change, and just keep an eye on it. xenia are hardy, as you know. lol. they'll bounce back.

 

[Ollie67]

everything ive read about seldon claims its non-toxic, is a vitamin, and will "boost a healthy reef system".

theres a possibility that your xenia got some of this seldon and is feeding on it, taking it's time to absorb and digest it. that could be why the polyps arent extended and opening (since xenia is a mainly a filter feeder). your other corals could have just "ate" it faster and opened up sooner.

unless you start to see your xenia disintegrating and actually melting away (disappearing), i dont believe you've anything to worry about. cut your powerhead back on, and maybe do a small (5 gallon) water change, and just keep an eye on it. xenia are hardy, as you know. lol. they'll bounce back.

Thank you for your reply! I was initially worried as a few minutes after I added the selcon for the first time my Xenia closed up. I'm not sure if that's even the reason, but since my tank clouded up for a while it could have been the cause. I added too much selcon, it was my first time using it and I wasn't aware you should strain the excess juice and only feed what was absorbed into the food/shrimp.

My Xenia never melted thankfully, haha. It just shriveled up and closed up for a few days. It has been a month now and it's grown and opened up really nice! It even pulses when I turn down my flow. I guess it can be a little sensitive at times, but I am glad it gradually opened back up. Something just made it unhappy then.