White xenia is changing to brown one!!!

[aeroreefs]

Hello, everyone.
Fiji white xenia's color is changing to brown. Why!!!!!!!
It's 2 months or so old in my 90gal 6 months old reef tank. Others seem to be good.
parameters
sw 1.024
ca 450
no3 10
dkh 9-10
ph 8.2-8.4
temp 80-84

TIA
* ps : lighting - metal halide 2* 150watt/ 7hrs a day

[ September 28, 2001: Message edited by: aeroreefs ]

 

[chris_h]

Its algea is growing inside of it. It was probaly bleached to start with. White coral=bleached coral. Brown coral=healthy coral.

 

[Carpentersreef]

I agree with chirs_h. Keep doing what ever it is that you are doing. I bought a white SPS and a heliopora that were white, and now the heliopora is brown and growing, and the SPS is brownish/pinkish and growing. I've even fragged them both to local reefers, and they're going strong.

Mitch

 

[aeroreefs]

brown = healthy

really???
I hope so.

 

[Emperator]

my belief is that the your xenia is not getting as much light as it was used to therefore it is producing more xooanthelle (sp?) to gather light in order to produce enough nutrients through photosynthesis.

 

[chris_h]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Emperator:
<STRONG>my belief is that the your xenia is not getting as much light as it was used to therefore it is producing more xooanthelle (sp?) to gather light in order to produce enough nutrients through photosynthesis.</STRONG><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I disagree. THe xenia was probaly brown in the ocean and recieving light similar to his tank's. THen the xenia was put in a box and shipped, and recieved no lighting for a good while. So when it arrived in the USA it was white, its adaption to zero lighting. When put in its tank it turned brown, but becouse he had more light not less.

 

[sub trate]

Hmmmmmmmm...Ok

 

[Yam]

IME with all types of xenia, low lighting causes xenia to pulse slower, turn a dark brown, and cause the polyps to be real long. OTOH, high lighting gives a xenia a white, lighter cream color, real stubby polyps, and a fast pulser. JME

yam

 

[chris_h]

What do you consider low lighting. In my 75, I have 2 250 watt halides and my xenias are pulsing fast and are a brown color.

 

[chris_h]

It seems to me that the pulsing speed and polyp lenght is effected by current not lighting. If you have a constant strong current it will have short polyps and not pulse as much. If you have a iregular current the polyps will be long and pulsing.

 

[THillson]

Just FYI, I've been culturing xenia for about four years now, both brown and white varieties. White xenia is not bleached out brown xenia. When a xenia goes it just becomes goo.

Why yours is turning brown (probably not really brown just a darker shade like allot of cream in coffee) is not known. I have one LFS that has an incredible display tank (250 gallons) lit with four 400 W 10K, and about 500 W of actinic that can't keep white xenia white, it always darkens up on him. This tank can grow anything else when it comes to SPS, softies and clams.

Personally, I've never had it darken up in my main tank. I have had it do this in my prop tanks though. These were 15" below 400W 65K MH, and have been for six months before they changed. Luckily, I keep some in all my tanks so I can get the pure white color xenia back.

My thoughts on why this occurs run with what has been said above. The darkening of the xenia might be related to zooxanthellae densities. Meaning that the coral is responding to lower lighting conditions by hosting more zooxanthellae, and they are predominately brown in color. This doesn't fit with what happens in the LFS tank though, there is plenty of light there. He does skim heavily and this may be the reason. From what I've read all corals can just barely get by (metabolically speaking) on zooxanthellae alone. They need to eat as well. It has been reported that up to 90% of a corals body is related in some way to feeding (mouths, guts, stinging cells, etc.), nature wouldn't let that happen if these parts weren't needed. I also just added a Bullet skimmer to my propagation tanks (two months ago). This change may be the reason that mine in those tanks darkened up. My main tank also has a Bullet skimmer but the organic load, feeding from the DSB/refugium, and fish feed added are much higher in this system. I'm going to start feeding the prop tanks heavier and see what this does to the xenia already in there. If you aren't already you may want to try adding some of the phyto-plankton diets to your tank.

 

[Yam]

I agree with everything above. Basically, everything plays a role in defining features of coral. One other observation I've made is that a high alkalinity keeps the xenia pulsing fast.

yam

 

[fishfarmer]

I agree with Todd Hillson. Here's my two cents on ALK and Xenia elongata and Xenia umbellata in MY tank. My tank has been having a low alk problem for a couple of months, lowest was 1.7!! Calcium 400+, pH 8.2. Xenia didn't seen too affected by it, still pulsed, maybe a little slower BUT not enough for me to notice any problems. I've been adding Seachem Reef Builder for a couple of weeks, getting my readings around 2.3. Xenia still doing it's xenia thing, pulsing and growing. The one thing that seems not to like the low alk is two sinularias. They almost open up when the alk gets around 2.5.

 

[fragman]

I have noticed that mine really color morphs based on position and lighting. when I bought it it was more of a greenish blue, the stuff that is high up in my tank has morphed to white, the stuff that is in my refugium is more brown, and the stuff that is partially shaded is blueish. I think it is a combination of light levels, lighting color and nutrients!

 

[nadz]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by chris_h:
<STRONG>Its algea is growing inside of it. It was probaly bleached to start with. White coral=bleached coral. Brown coral=healthy coral.</STRONG><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

if that is true than this SPS of mine is about dead. but about xenia i believe that the pulsing/polyp length is a product of current not light IME. turn off your return pumps and PH and watch the xenia pulse away. lots of current means that it does not have to pump the water itself for respiration. when the water goes stagnant it will start to pump itself to compensate for loss of circulation. try it. it is quite beautiful if you have a large patch. Admin: sorry for the large file size delete if you want.