Just how hardy are xenias?

[FishAreFriends2]

My water quality is not top notch and my lighting isnt all that great, but I was reading around and alot of people suggested xenias being easy. So how easy are they? How much flow do they need? I have a 55 gallon with some low lighting pcs. Water quality isnt all that good. So how hardy are they?

 

[theatrus]

Xenias are one of those corals that like dirtier nitrate-laden (to a point ) water. Some people have major problems with them though. It wouldn't hurt trying some Xenia.

 

[FishAreFriends2]

What about crappy lighting say a 96watt pc light? I once got a banged up frag of xenias where the rock was crushing it in the bag and after two days it melted. Could it be the rock crushing it?

 

[siropa]

I kept a wide variety of corals over the years, almost all with huge success. the one that never lives for me is xenia. I like to think its that my water is too clean but you see people with awesome tanks that have it. i've given up on it after the last one I had. had a piece that I had for maybe 5 months and it was thriving and growing. it had probably gotten 4x the size when I had it. one day it looked a bit off and the next day it was melted away. I hate that coral.

 

[vessxpress1]

Xenias are hit and miss. As has been said a thousand times on here, they will either take over your tank or do poorly and melt away. And nobody knows why.
I have four 4x39 w T-5s, 0 nitrates, 0.008 phosphate, and my xenia are on the bottom of the tank with moderate to heavy flow and they're doing great. IME, they will thrive in any flow. Less flow and you can see them pulse better.

I've had mine for a long time and have made good money selling and trading frags in. They are absolutely unkillable in my tank and I just recently got them under control. I have one colony isolated on the bottom now so they don't take over again. I usually put a rock or two by them and within a couple months have new, large clusters of xenia to trade in. HTH

 

[The Reefer91]

i think it is a hit or miss. i originally got two pieces of xenia, but one of them melted away for no apparent reason, yet the other stalks has no multiplied abundantly. just remember they can get out of control. in the coarse of 5 months, my 1 stalk of xenia has turned to 34!

 

[mwwhite]

They are absolutely unkillable in my tank


Ditto

 

[Yinepu]

I've found that if the dkh goes below 7 it will cause them to melt. they also start to suffer when the ph drops below 8.3