Xenia meltdown

[Samper]

When I purchased my huge blue Xenia patch it was so large that I thought I should cut it in two and place them in two different areas of the tank. The ones I placed on the right side are doing awesome and are already attached to the rocks. They open full and look nice IMO. The ones on the left aren't doing as good. A day or so ago one of the stalks was turning a light brown color and was wilted. I've kept an eye on it for the past couple days and the situation has gotten worse. The infection or whatever it is has spread to another stalk and both are starting to melt. I cut both stalks out with some scissors, did a 25 percent water change and added a ton of carbon to my system tonight in hopes of stopping the spread. One thing I noticed when I cut them out is that there is a ricordia polyp on the rock they were attached to and the first stalk to go was definately touching the polyp. I'm hoping that it was just the ricordia that killed the stalk and that by me trimming them back I've stopped the problem. The rest of the patch looks unaffected and I hope it stays this way. What do you guys think?

[Poseidon]

I think you are exactly right. I watched one of my stalks of Xenia get overtaken by Ricordia... Killed it just as you described.

[Samper]

Well I lost two stalks but still have a huge amount that are doing well. They will be moved to my sump and refugium at some point in time.