PWC and now corals/fish are mad/sick.

[rsigler]

Hey Gang,

I have a 28g reef tank. I have a three yellow-tailed damsels, two clowns, a frog spawn, a hammer coral, a sun coral, and a frag of xenias.

Yesterday I did a 5 gallon water change. Almost instantly the corals closed. The frog and hammer came back out after a few hours, but the xenia has shrunk to very small, but is keeping it's color.

Here is the xenia yesterday before the water change...

and today...

Are they dead? The frog and hammer seem back to normal, BUT...

My damsel fish are hiding. They aren't even eating.

I did a water test, and everything looks good....

SG 1.023
Ammonia, nitrites, nitrates all 0
PH 8.2
dKh 12
Calcium 440
Phosphates .5

I know the dkh is high.

Suggestions? Help! What is going on? I don't want to loose my system....

Thanks!

Rob

 

[dmatt88]

How was the sg of the wc water? Xenia is not tolerant of less than pristine water. Its certainly grumpy. Worst thing to do is mess with them. Just check ur tank parameters n next wc make sure temp n sg are the same.

.......thanks for listening.

 

[rsigler]

The temp and SG of the new water was the same as the tank. Why would the fish be hiding? Only my clowns are happy.

 

[dmatt88]

My xenia look like that with bad water or weak lighting however since u just did a wc looks like their just being grumpy.

.......thanks for listening.

 

[steved13]

Mine do that right after a water change, I think mostly due to the bubble blast when the pumps come back on.

 

[brandon]

Zenias can be finicky. Fine one day and the next they can melt away. I bet they perk up in the next day or two

 

[gbose]

rsigler,

Your SG looks a bit low at 1.023 I think it should be more like 1.026 or so... not sure if that has anything to do with the problem you're looking at...

GB