Xenia is dying?

[jc24]

Hi everyone, just cycled my tank and started to put some softies in it. Did my first water change (25%) yesterday since my tank cycled. The next day my Xenia shrinks and one of my zoa isn’t opening as well. I have one other zoa that is doing just fine, even growing a new baby. I’ve had them in my tank for a week, they were all doing fine until the water change. Any possible reason that they are doing this? Ammonia, nitrite and nitrate level are 0, ph is 7.8, salinity is 1.026. Looks like I’m starting to see some diatom on the sand bed as well.

 

[bluemon]

Xenia can sometimes be tough for newer tanks despite sometimes growing like a weed.

That being said, definitely want higher nutrient levels (nitrate)

 

[jc24]

Xenia can sometimes be tough for newer tanks despite sometimes growing like a weed.

That being said, definitely want higher nutrient levels (nitrate)

I guess I shouldn’t have done the water change, cuz everything was doing fine until I did that

 

[Common Blevil]

Hi everyone, just cycled my tank and started to put some softies in it. Did my first water change (25%) yesterday since my tank cycled. The next day my Xenia shrinks and one of my zoa isn’t opening as well. I have one other zoa that is doing just fine, even growing a new baby. I’ve had them in my tank for a week, they were all doing fine until the water change. Any possible reason that they are doing this? Ammonia, nitrite and nitrate level are 0, ph is 7.8, salinity is 1.026. Looks like I’m starting to see some diatom on the sand bed as well.

Xenia needs high nitrate and high phosphate. 0 of both in any tank except fish only is bad and causes dinos. The only difference is sps need low nitrate and phosphate to help calcification, softies like high(10-30 nitrate and even 1 phosphate, but 0.1-0.5 is better). Start dosing nitrates, feed your tank or get a small fish that you will be able to feed. I recommend clown gobies, clowns, tailspot blenny. Do not wait, because i lost my zoas when i was starting. I had 2 small fish i fed live food(so almost no nitrates and phosphates), had a lot of corals and algae planted , the most needy algae and corals started dying first, i lost 3 colours of zoas. Better to have hair algae (food for animals) or cyano (bad but easy to remove) than dead corals and lots of dinoflagellates.

Tank at the start

Tank when i had 0 nitrates and phosphates (dino outbreak, lost some coral and algae species, everything suffered for a month, started feeding lot's of frozen)

Tank now, nitrate 30+, phosphate ... I dunno, 0.2? 0.5? I measured it like 3 months ago.

 

[RabidDragon]

Putting coral in a freshly cycled tank is generally against recomendations. The tank needs to be more established prior to this.

 

[Common Blevil]

I guess I shouldn’t have done the water change, cuz everything was doing fine until I did that

Water change is always stress. I did a waterchange yesterday and my gsp was closed today and opened only in the evening. It happens more often with salt that has high alkalinity.

 

[jc24]

Xenia needs high nitrate and high phosphate. 0 of both in any tank except fish only is bad and causes dinos. The only difference is sps need low nitrate and phosphate to help calcification, softies like high(10-30 nitrate and even 1 phosphate, but 0.1-0.5 is better). Start dosing nitrates, feed your tank or get a small fish that you will be able to feed. I recommend clown gobies, clowns, tailspot blenny. Do not wait, because i lost my zoas when i was starting. I had 2 small fish i fed live food(so almost no nitrates and phosphates), had a lot of corals and algae planted , the most needy algae and corals started dying first, i lost 3 colours of zoas. Better to have hair algae (food for animals) or cyano (bad but easy to remove) than dead corals and lots of dinoflagellates.

Tank at the start

Tank when i had 0 nitrates and phosphates (dino outbreak, lost some coral and algae species, everything suffered for a month, started feeding lot's of frozen)

Tank now, nitrate 30+, phosphate ... I dunno, 0.2? 0.5? I measured it like 3 months ago.

I have two clowns in there because i did the fish in cycle with live bacteria dosing.

 

[Common Blevil]

Putting coral in a freshly cycled tank is generally against recomendations. The tank needs to be more established prior to this.

You can put coral in tank at day one, especially softies and anemones, i did it and they do fine. They just need some nitrates and phosphates.

 

[jc24]

Water change is always stress. I did a waterchange yesterday and my gsp was closed today and opened only in the evening. It happens more often with salt that has high alkalinity.

That’s what I am thinking, they’ve been fine before water change.

 

[Common Blevil]

I have two clowns in there because i did the fish in cycle with live bacteria dosing.

Feed them more

 

[jc24]

You can put coral in tank at day one, especially softies and anemones, i did it and they do fine. They just need some nitrates and phosphates.

Yep, this is my second tank. I put a Xenia on my first tank on day 1 and never had a problem with it.

 

[Common Blevil]

You can put coral in tank at day one, especially softies and anemones, i did it and they do fine. They just need some nitrates and phosphates.

I can say more, i put water from a fresh waterchange and water from a waterchange that was in bottles for months in 10 gallon plastic tub with sand and they pulsed the next day. Even palythoa wasn't fully opened and xenia were pulsing. They need dirty water, overly sanitized sterile tanks that are popular now are the reason a lot of people struggle with a literal weed of coral nowadays.

 

[chip shop]

How did you add the fresh water to the tank

 

[Common Blevil]

I can say more, i put water from a fresh waterchange and water from a waterchange that was in bottles for months in 10 gallon plastic tub with sand and they pulsed the next day. Even palythoa wasn't fully opened and xenia were pulsing. They need dirty water, overly sanitized sterile tanks that are popular now are the reason a lot of people struggle with a literal weed of coral nowadays.

But dirty doesn't mean full of poop amd detritus. It means full of nitrates and phosphates. Full of crap and detritus is what cyano likes, i can tell you from experience...

 

[Common Blevil]

How did you add the fresh water to the tank

I mean water from water change that i did right before putting it in the tub. New waterchange water and old from bottles. No fresh water, xenia will die there

 

[chip shop]

I don’t think there can ever be a tank with fish in that truly would be zero

 

[chip shop]

I mean water from water change that i did right before putting it in the tub. New waterchange water and old from bottles. No fresh water, xenia will die there

No I mean how do you add your fresh saltwater to the tank

 

[bluemon]

No I mean how do you add your fresh saltwater to the tank

Unless your fresh saltwater is drastically different in parameters to your existing water, this should not matter much. Unless you are pouring a literal bucket into the sand and creating a cloudy mess and blasting corals that is.

 

[Common Blevil]

No I mean how do you add your fresh saltwater to the tank

Waterchange??? Gradually add to a hang on the back and it flows into the tank? I only have corals shocked when using reef crystals which has high alkalinity, when i use aquaforest reef salt i see 0 reaction from corals.