Best lighting for xenia

R

Rhinecanthus

In Memoriam
Looking for a light that will make xenia absolutely run wild!

I have a refugium bulb (24w 5700K) now...what do you think?
 
Xenia are light lovers, I have them growing/spreading very well under T5's, and in another tank under 250w MH. I also have them surviving under 80w NO flourescent just not thriving. From what I've read they are completely autotrophic ( meaning they dont have ability to capture food ) so they are completely reliant upon light for there nutritional requirements, but as I've found they are very adaptable.
 
I have a 125 gallon with 768 watts of Power Compact lighting and my Xenia doesn't seem to want to grow much at all.
 
I have a 96W PC on a 16g nano-reef, and my xenia (placed in the center of the tank, about mid-column) grows like the weed that it is! It grew higher in the tank as the PC bulb aged. When I replaced the PC bulb, the Xenia colonies shrank back, as would be expected.

Xenia seem to also like good water flow. I have about 160 gph flow directly on a colony and it doesn't pulse and bloom like the other colonies that are not inline with that flow. When I shutdown my pumps, the xenia go flacid.
 
We've got a colony of xenia exploding in growth in the bottom of our 150 right under a 400W XM 10K halide. It gets pretty good flow over it as well.
 
I've never posted a "contrary" post, but here goes. I've got a pico tank (0.4 gallon) with a 9W PC a couple of inches over the tank. On a tall rock I've got a Xenia colony that's within an inch of the surface and has been there for three months. It's not stretching toward the light or shrinking and is pulsing like mad. Maybe it'll die tomorrow, but it looks great right now!
As a counter balance, I've got a colony that I've been unable to eradicate in the top of my 150, directly under a 250W DE 10000K. I snip and scrub and it keeps coming back.
 
I would seem to think that 786 watts of power compact lighting would be enough for xenia that is about 14" away from the light would grow pretty fast. I have had the xenia for about 3 months and it has only gotten a little bit fatter than when i got it. When they split will they drop babies or do the stems just fork off from the main stem?
 
Mine just split down the trunk and then move away from eachother. It is possible that there may need to be a certain number of polyps before it will split, perhaps genetically coded just a guess. From my experience xenia also prefer water which is a little dirty, basically a well fed tank.

Xenia also from what I've heard can be slow at acclimating then all of a sudden they just really start to grow.
 
they love high lighting with moderate flow. My silver tips are growing wild under my 250HQI 10K. Looks extremely healthy and pulse all day and night. I start to notice growth every two to three days by observing the splitting of the branches.
 
Mine grew from one stalk almost two years ago. Now my pink pom pom xenias cover a good portion of the back wall of my sps tank with 2x 250 watts of metal halides. They love lots of current and lights and spread quickly.
 
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