any tips for me aquaculturing xenia, ?

[marinerules]

right now I have about 6 stalks of xenia in a 10 gallon , they are very healthy , however dont grow as fast as I have heard of some peoples on here.


here is what I do


its just a 10 gallon tank ,, .5 inch layer of live sand,
2 snails
1 crab
and xenia

the little polyps coming up on the rock grow about 1/8 inch every 2 or 3 days ,

is this good , or is there something I can add that will make the coral grow faster , such as coral growth accelerator???


right now , I do a 2 gallon water change once a week , on the 10 gallon tank , using instant ocean salt

 

[graveyardworm]

I've found they like alot of light, somewhat low flow, and regular fish feeding. Plus stabil water parameters.

 

[reefNetWork]

the best way i have seen xenia being grown was like this. i bought them from a guy off the internet and he had a 15 gallon tank with a 2 inch sand bed (live sand), probably 20 lbs of live rock, and a small power compact light. no filtration except the sand and rock. he only had a little powerhead in the corner of the tank and his xenia grew like weeds. he had small pieces of rock everywhere and had at least 20 different frags. he sold them for 5 and 7.50 a stock depending on the size. i would like to try this also and sell them as well.

 

[masterqaz]

iodide, nutrient rich water, high light, low/mod turbulant flow.

 

[marinerules]

i have a shop light fixture over it, lol a 4 foot one , its not that pretty but it puts out 80 watts of light

when you say nutrient rich water, what type of nutrients are you talking about

my xenia did not do good in my big tank with all my fish , this is why I moved it to a 10 gallon tank


I did cut my first frad today , ive leaned it against my back glass in hopes of some growing on my glass, so far it still looks like crap and wont open , how long does it take for them to start looking good again

 

[rsxs1212]

mine i found it didnt do well if alkalinity was low.. i raised mine up and its growing good again!.. i wouldnt frag off it if you only have 6 polyps to start with thats just my opinion.. let it get bigger though and then frag it off.. if it isnt healthy in the first place fraggin it wont help

 

[kass03]

Yes it has to be healthy and growing well before you can frag it.

Mine is in my 55 along with fish and alot of corals.
That tank is 23 yrs old so does have nitrates ranging from 10-20 but ive fragged it alot in the 3 yrs I had it and it does well in everyones tanks Ive sold it to.

I have the pink pulsing (I also have elongata/bar but the pink grows faster for me). I grew it from 3 polyps in the bottom of the bag of one I ordered that arrived dead (polyps not stalks).
Mine did better once I started using reef plus which has iodine.

My method now for fragging is I just cut the stalk off close to the base and drop the cut stalk on the bottom of my tank on some rubble where theres lower flow so it don't blow away. In a few days it's attached already to the rubble. The place where I cut it from grows a new stalk.

I have T5's on that tank now but had PC's when I first started the xenia. I do think it grows a little faster with the T5's as they are brighter. It also is'nt as long and reaching for light like it was with PC's.

Good Luck!

kass

 

[SPSFiend]

Definately found that they thrive in nutrient rich water. I would put a bunch of rock rubble and they would grow all over it. Small rocks are easy to sell

 

[marinerules]

everyone keeps sayng nutrient rich water


are you guys talkinga bout additives such as marine snow , or phytoplankton

or nitrate watetr

 

[graveyardworm]

Talking about dissolved organics. Food which hasnt been broken down into the more basic forms yet - ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate

 

[snarfe]

i've always had better luck growing xenia in a tank with a little bit higher strontium levels