My 10 gallon xenia forest

[Joe Pusdesris]

I borrowed my room mate's camera and got a few decent pictures.

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There are some diatoms growing on the glass, never had that issue before, could be worse.
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[Lyfey]

Its looking better than ever IMO Congrats on the save! Is your clown still healthy?

 

[Joe Pusdesris]

Yep, she is just scared of the camera. Will eat out of my hand, that's fine, but oh no, not the camera.

I can't get in the very back to clean the glass, and of course that's where she hides:

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[haus]

Take it back to the way it was

 

[Joe Pusdesris]

From the size the xenia are now, it takes about four months for the bali xenia to get the trunk 1" diameter, such as those three in the origional picture.

Another four months, and they look like this:
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Then they get even bigger, but they don't tend to look quite so nice when they get bigger than that. They really seem to fall under their own weight. The xenia in that picture spawned all the time for me. Then it started looking too ugly as it got big, so I cut it up. I got 7 big stalks fragging that colony, the 3 big stalks in the origional picture where from from those 7. ^^

I don't have any big stalks left anywhere in any of my tanks, so it will take a while to get back how it was.

 

[mfd574]

Couldn't believe it all died. What a heck of a time. How long did it take for your big stalks to grow in the first picture. The new ones seem to be going really good now.

 

[Joe Pusdesris]

I expect it to take ~4 months until I have stalks the size of those three in the first picture. It is really hard to estimate though.

The three from the first picture did not grow from small 1 polyp frags as these did, they grew from huge hunks of a massive xenia, so they are not a good refence.

 

[mfd574]

Oh, I see. Well should be fun to watch the little guys grow.

 

[Joe Pusdesris]

<table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/gbca8OrhFHpGfRB9Hsk77Q?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_xXnKvgKPgX4/Swh4eF7pB1I/AAAAAAAAA6s/LeHU1q4t6r4/s400/xenia1.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/deformative0/10Gallon?feat=embedwebsite">10 gallon</a></td></tr></table>

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Full tank shot:
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[Joe Pusdesris]

<table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/1b3ShwXovNQitQ0ZVBsruQ?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_xXnKvgKPgX4/SxRN-iEsEhI/AAAAAAAAA8U/0dqZFoKEhAc/s800/dscf0018.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/deformative0/10Gallon?feat=embedwebsite">10 gallon</a></td></tr></table>

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[jchase1970]

it is nice and clear now, are you still running the UV? I think I will add one too.

 

[Joe Pusdesris]

I turned it off today to save the life of the bulb, but I will probably put it back in.

 

[jeff1225]

Does your clown host in the Xenia?

 

[Sardaukar]

I'm impressed that you managed to kill xenia

All kidding aside, Xenia really is an amazing coral - I think some people don't keep it because non-reefers who view your tank are always more impressive by pulsing and waving action of a 5 dollar stalk of wildfire spreading Xenia than a hard to grow, expensive SPS

Have you thought about including more varieties of xenia in there?

 

[Joe Pusdesris]

Does your clown host in the Xenia?

No.

I'm impressed that you managed to kill xenia

Welp, I suppose low oxygen does it in, that's why they ship so bad I assume.

All kidding aside, Xenia really is an amazing coral - I think some people don't keep it because non-reefers who view your tank are always more impressive by pulsing and waving action of a 5 dollar stalk of wildfire spreading Xenia than a hard to grow, expensive SPS

I don't know about others, but xenia is my favorite coral. I really like corals that move and/or have bright colors. Especially if I don't need to supplement calcium. I suppose people just get wrapped up in the challenge or something, been there done that.

Have you thought about including more varieties of xenia in there?

Not a chance.

 

[wrudge]

Great job bringing the tank back to life.

 

[Ddanaher]

Love it, may have to do something like this in my 4yr old boy's room he'd dig it..

 

[104]

new to rc i have been trying to find out if 6500k would support softy like and from the looks of things i dose very well

 

[Joe Pusdesris]

Well, I had to bring the tank home from the dorm for winter break. Moving reefs is never fun. I will probably take more pictures in early January when I have it setup at the dorm again.

 

[MrineLfRlz]

hmmm, I wonder how a xenia fuge would handle nutrient export from a larger reef tank. That could be a fun experiment to try seeing as how you already have everything setup.

~Will.

im already doing that
but before i tried this i had a lot of chaeto down there now that my xenia are taking over the chaeto are dying off so i guess the coral are doing the job of absorbing the nitrates i also have some of my kenya growing in there now
it started out as a place to throw my frags and now its a mess!
my system is 171 gal water volume now with a 240 gal or bigger DT coming as soon as i have the dough