I recently recieved a very healthy Xenia frag and it has completely laid down and closed up on me. I picked it up last friday and drip acclimated it for about two hours, at first it seemed like it was going to be fine, but by sunday it completely laid down and withdrew. I tested the basic stuff I have tests for, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, PH, and the only thing I could find was that my PH was 8.0 instead of 8.2-8.4 where it should be. Could that have caused it to die on me, and is there any hope that it might still come back? Any help would be greatly apprceieated. Sean
Just about everytime I would get xenia it would look just as you have discribed and in a few days it was doing fine. I have noticed that xenia don't handle salinty changes very well and that could be a possible cause.
That may be it, I don't have a refractometer just a hydrometer and it shows to be just a tad salty out of the green area.
A 8.0 PH is just fine, anything between 7.8 to 8.6 is fine, run a calc reactor and it is hard to get PH much above 8.0 or 8.2. Like Sam says give it a few days, it could be a salinity change or it could just be being moved, Zenia are pretty hard to kill, pretty soon you;ll be wondering how to control it. Give it a week or so. They do also like indirect flow.
I would suggest that everyone who has a saltwater tank have a refractometer. Salinity is one of the key issues in your system and this needs to be consistent with many of the reef inhabitants including Xenia. The around $50.00 for a good one is a small price to pay when you consider the cost of your livestock and corals.
