Xenia

PrevieAriz · Jun 23, 2020

Well, I messed up and when I did a 10% water change in my 13 gallon nano tank, I replaced it with straight RO water instead of salt water. The salinity dropped to 1.015. Shockingly, everything--fish, crabs, shrimp--didn't flinch EXCEPT my beautiful xenia is all wilted and breaking off. I have been trying to bring the salinit up slowly to avoid any more shocks, it is 10.21 as of this morning (has been 2 days). Can I expect my xenia to revive or are they dead soldiers? I have read that xenia are pretty hardy and to just wait it out. Obviously, the parts I find floating I have been removing but should I just clean off my rock and start over?

PicassoClown04 · Jun 23, 2020

If any pieces broke off, they are definitely able to reattach themselves. I frag Xenia to sell it and occasionally they come off the plugs and suddenly I find it growing and multiplying somewhere in my rocks! It should be okay, just no more shocks.

PrevieAriz · Jun 23, 2020

Doing my best! I could kick myself!

PrevieAriz · Jun 23, 2020

My poor Xenia....

PicassoClown04 · Jun 23, 2020

Awww he looks so sad. Spot feeding with reefroids or similar may help with recovery. I think mostly it just needs time and stability to help recover. Here’s a pic of my xenia when I first got it. Bought a nasty, abused tank off of criagslist and he was barely clinging to life.

I repositioned him, fed him, and made sure the perams were stable and light was good. Here’s my colony today! About 4 months difference.

Uncle99 · Jun 23, 2020

Xenia is really hard to permanently kill.
You can safely raise salinity by .002 day.
Nutrients in the water are important, so Nitrate maybe 2-15ppm and phosphates 0.5-.2ppm.

PrevieAriz · Jun 23, 2020

I have Reefroids (or close) so I will add those and continue creeping up my salinity. Hopefully, in a few weeks I can post a better picture!

PrevieAriz · Jun 27, 2020

My salinity was 2.023 yesterday!! And some of my Xenia are looking better!

Uncle99 · Jun 27, 2020

PrevieAriz said:
My salinity was 2.023 yesterday!! And some of my Xenia are looking better!

I’m sure you mean 1.023, yup, keep moving salinity to target.
The next step is to keep it there, an ATO is an excellent way to keep salinity on point, and reduce daily work.
When all parameters are in the ranges AND, you can keep them there with little flux, everything you throw in will do very well.

Because your water is small, changes happen fast.
It’s a challenge to keep your chemistry stable, but, the stability is the key to great looking corals.