what is wrong with my (non)pulsing xenias w/ pics?

Question

Today, My xenias just stopped pulsing and got small. They are not closed up but look like they have all the sudden gone limp.   The main stalks still look good but the polyps appear to have problems.

I did a fairly large water change this morning.... before all my coral and livestock were fully awake.  Only the actinics were on.  The whites come on an hour later.  The water change was roughly 30-35% PH buffed to 8.3, salinity was increased in the tank from 1.022 to 1.024 using new water that was 1.025.   This is a small increase, I felt my tank PH was being a bit to low for coral at the 1.022.   The temp of the new water was 80 degree (heater in the bucket) to match the tank.  This seemed like a great water change,  I'm having a hard time thinging it could be a problem in any way.

I did move the rock around, thinking of repositioning it cause I don't want the xenia to spread to other rock.  I've done this many times though.  I don't know of anything else that could have possible changed other than adding a new frag last night.  This was a small neon green star polyp stuck to a dead branch of coral.

The tank is a 12 gallon cube.

Photo of xenia in action  http://img263.imageshack.us/f/xenia1.jpg/
Photo of xenia lacking action  http://img820.imageshack.us/f/xenia2.jpg/

Anyone have this issue and what can I expect of my xenia?  Thanx

topaz · Accepted Answer

Maybe just getting used to the different water conditions.  This includes the flow pattern in the water, since they were moved.  They get used to a certain flow rate and direction to bring them food, and maybe it was more of a change than you realized.  Unless it was extreme, or there was an extreme change in something in the water chemistry, they could just be sulking now.  Give them a day or two and see if they go back to their normal selves.

Has anything else in the tank acted like something was wrong?

Since you mention adding a star polyp, these can release chemicals into the water, and it may be irritating the Xenia.  At the very least, try to keep the star polyp downcurrent froom the Xenia, and keep fresh carbon in your filter to remove the chemicals it makes.  But it seems unlikely to me that a small star polyp would have that much of an effect.  I had put a small colony of green star polyps in my own tank, and not much seemed to be affected except when a snail pushed another frag into them.

what is wrong with my (non)pulsing xenias w/ pics?

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