[GoinSalt]

I'm almost ashamed of this post, but my rock of Ricordea (I believe Yuma) is slowly "melting" -- for lack of a better word.

The rock originally had six or seven "heads" on it, but they are slowly withering away. They bleach out at night, cup up during the day and generally look unhealthy.

I've had it for about 3 weeks. After the first couple of days, I moved it around a bit and also rearranged my aquascaping looking for a carcass. I also noticed my pep shrimp was yanking at it, so I got rid of shrimp.

It's been in the same place now for about 2 weeks -- near the bottom of rock structure in 100g tank, about 15" from four 140w VHOs. I don't think the water flow is too heavy. I have a Rio 1700 set to flow behind the LR, it bounces off the far wall of the tank and circulates to the front of the tank.

I do 15% water changes weekly with regular tap water.
am 0
Trite 0
Ph 8.0
Trate 10-15
cal approx. 500

To be completely honest, I bought the Ricordea as basically a test to see if I could keep it alive. I eventually want to turn my FOWLR into a reef tank, but want to make sure I have everything else dialed in before jumping headlong into it. I have a pretty serious brown algae problem right now. I have an RO/DI unti on order -- should be here any day -- to help in battle with algae.

other livestock include about 40 snails (astrea, cerith, nasarrius), one emerald crab (noticed last night the other one had died), yellow tang, coral beauty, bar goby and six chromis.

Any ideas about what I did wrong or why the ricordea might be dying?

Nate

[GoinSalt]

Anyone?

[Reefland]

What is your salinity and temp? Where did you get the Rics from and do youknow the salinity and temp of the water there?

[GoinSalt]

I forgot to check my salinity the last time I did my water change, but my SG is usually around 1.025 and salinity is 34-35. Temp. is between 80 and 84 (it warms up during the day).

I don't know what those numbers were at the LFS.

[Reefland]

Did you acclimate the Rics?

[GoinSalt]

I think so. I did it like any other livestock -- float and add system water slowly over the course of an hour or so.

If not acclimated properly, would it take this long for them to begin dying off? Wouldn't it be more rapid?

Just to clarify -- I feel horrible about what's happening. Like most everyone else, I want to provide the best possible environment for my lifestock and when something dies, I feel bad.

[Poseidon]

I lost almost all my Red mushrooms, while SPS in the tank were THRIVING! Before I had success with SPS, the XENIA was thriving... I couldn't give the Xenia away fast enough. Now I have Ricordia growing and SPS Thriving, but my XENIA is fading away... I think it boils down to each species requires different things and by placing them all together in the same tank we can't "make everyone happy all the time".

So while I don't know the answer to your problem, I hope I can encourage you to keep trying!

[GoinSalt]

I don't think this will disuade me from continuing. I did as much research as could and everyone said Rics -- and soft corals in general -- were hardier than the stoney corals.

I wanted to try my hand at something "easy" before getting into some of the harder things.

[SeaMe]

Hi GoinSalt,

Keep the temp at 77-78*F and the pH high at 8.3, those two things are needed for the success of xenia. Also you don't want a 4* F swing in a 24 hour period, not stable enough.