New Pulsing Xenia!

P

protossdisaster

New member
Bought these labeled as leather polyps they were mis labeled at my LFS and the staff member didnt know. Any tips for taking care of them?
Tanks a 46 bow front
aquamana 160w dimmable LED
coralife 65 protein skimmer
hob penguin with poly and a couple black stars for organic filtration
30 lbs of live rock
2 clowns
1 arrow crab
3 snails,
10 hermits
1 anemone

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/641FK_nBnYY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
I'll summarize it for you and save you some pain in the future.
  • Place them on their own rock in the sand bed.
  • Keep them away from other rocks (They jump or extend and travel).
  • They like dirty water(Think of them as filters for Nitrates and Phosphates).
  • They are almost impossible to kill. (You will find out soon) :-)
  • If they look sad and shrivel down a bit, your tank is clean (I use them as an early warning system)
  • If they have too much flow, they will not pulsate. (They pulsate to generate a void around them and bring in nutrients) Direct flow eliminates that need.
 
Webmanny said:
I'll summarize it for you and save you some pain in the future.
  • Place them on their own rock in the sand bed.
  • Keep them away from other rocks (They jump or extend and travel).
  • They like dirty water(Think of them as filters for Nitrates and Phosphates).
  • They are almost impossible to kill. (You will find out soon) :-)
  • If they look sad and shrivel down a bit, your tank is clean (I use them as an early warning system)
  • If they have too much flow, they will not pulsate. (They pulsate to generate a void around them and bring in nutrients) Direct flow eliminates that need.
Click to expand...
Get this man a beer
 
I'm not exactly sure I agree with the "they like dirty water" statement. This might hold true in some cases, but I've seen plenty of tanks where the Xenia was thriving up top right next to the acroporas. Also, if they appear to shrivel up so to say, check your alkalinity and make sure it's not bouncing around. A lot of people consider them to be a very easy coral to keep, but IME they can be kind of tricky sometimes. Definitely isolate them though. If conditions are favorable they can spread like wildfire. GL.
 
Ive been moving them around a little bit, some of the smaller ones are wilting and a couple heads fell off a small shoot of them.
Im running the LED's about 25% power, should i increase or keep the same?
I have a 2-3 time a day feeding regimen with my clowns. So the water isnt clean but i try to skim wet hold a steady salinity, and regular water changes. On top of cleaning the HOB polisher ever day or so.
 
Xenia are not light intensive coral, but they do love dirty water like zoas. Maybe your light is too strong and burning the coral. Whenever buying new corals, you should start them on the sandbed. Move them up every 4 or 5 days to the desired high. Good luck
 
Milez803 said:
Xenia are not light intensive coral, but they do love dirty water like zoas. Maybe your light is too strong and burning the coral. Whenever buying new corals, you should start them on the sandbed. Move them up every 4 or 5 days to the desired high. Good luck
Click to expand...

I have a very thin bed of crushed coral. The xenia was on its own frag so i put it on the bottum and it stopped wilting and reveresed. ill post a pic later.
 
protossdisaster said:
I have a very thin bed of crushed coral. The xenia was on its own frag so i put it on the bottum and it stopped wilting and reveresed. ill post a pic later.
Click to expand...

Good to hear they came back. Please, please, please... keep an eye on them and away from other things. I'd hate to read a post from you a few months from now asking how to get rid of them and how they have spread over all your tank and are killing other corals.

Trust me... It will happen if you don't keep an eye on them. I love these corals, but you have to keep them in check.
 
They are doing alright not much pulsing but i have pretty decent current.
They open with the light and close at night.
I moved to a couple pieces of rubble live rock away from the big LR,
so if it spreads i have seperate pieces.

First picture wasnt doing so well, 2nd i moved directly under the LEDS and away from LR as my arrow crab likes to hove above it and knock it over.
<a href="http://s324.photobucket.com/user/protossdisaster/media/20150918_0611461_zpsqlyiyys7.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i324.photobucket.com/albums/k330/protossdisaster/20150918_0611461_zpsqlyiyys7.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 20150918_0611461_zpsqlyiyys7.jpg"/></a>

2nd pic i moved it away

<a href="http://s324.photobucket.com/user/protossdisaster/media/20150919_1359501_zpssfz6bgcl.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i324.photobucket.com/albums/k330/protossdisaster/20150919_1359501_zpssfz6bgcl.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 20150919_1359501_zpssfz6bgcl.jpg"/></a>
 
This was taken a few minutes ago
<a href="http://s324.photobucket.com/user/protossdisaster/media/20150919_1945171_zpsqhbcgp0g.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i324.photobucket.com/albums/k330/protossdisaster/20150919_1945171_zpsqhbcgp0g.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 20150919_1945171_zpsqhbcgp0g.jpg"/></a>
 
New heads?
I lowered the current and moved again.
Starting to pulse again :)
<a href="http://s324.photobucket.com/user/protossdisaster/media/20150924_1519551_zpsneiqzct1.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i324.photobucket.com/albums/k330/protossdisaster/20150924_1519551_zpsneiqzct1.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 20150924_1519551_zpsneiqzct1.jpg"/></a>
 
Xenia's Doing alot better!
Had to secure the piece from falling and remove both power heads.
I only have a hob penguin and a coral life 65g.
My Aquamana burnt out on the 70 watts of white i think the driver went.
So i only have 70 watts of blue and 20 watts of white diy LEDS i built my self and mounted on some old cpu heat sinks with out fans.
<iframe width="500" height="450" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tTEeiPGmcpE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
hold on buddy. You may want to put those power heads back into the tank. You need that flow for other corals and to reduce algae formation due to detritus. I get that you like Xenias, but there are other corals that need the flow and light.

Don't worry too much about this coral. It is pretty hard to kill it.
 
I still have flow in the tank, i just lowered it a bit.
I dont have too many other corals, a LTA anemone, and a purple mushroom,
One big reason i had alot of flow was i didnt have a actual vacuum and was using hoses and siphoning.
The mushrooms have split, and the xenia seems happy, the anemone has been good, same with the fish.
Levels are all at 0,
Salinity 1.024
Temp 78 degrees
wet skimming
and a poly filter in the penguin HOB and some black bio stars that i clean often.
 
protossdisaster said:
I still have flow in the tank, i just lowered it a bit.
I dont have too many other corals, a LTA anemone, and a purple mushroom,
One big reason i had alot of flow was i didnt have a actual vacuum and was using hoses and siphoning.
The mushrooms have split, and the xenia seems happy, the anemone has been good, same with the fish.
Levels are all at 0,
Salinity 1.024
Temp 78 degrees
wet skimming
and a poly filter in the penguin HOB and some black bio stars that i clean often.
Click to expand...

Cool. Glad to hear. Sorry, but I though I read that you removed some of the power heads and I freaked out a bit. Good luck with everything and like the other post said, bring salinity up a bit and you will be fine.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

P
20L to 46 Bow Front Restart
2 3
Replies
48
Views
8K
Bent
Bent
P
Returning to Hobby 20G long Tips comments?
2
Replies
28
Views
5K
protossdisaster
P
H
New 46 gallon bow front build.
Replies
5
Views
634
Hooj
H
K
New Approach multichip LED build
Replies
13
Views
8K
sfsuphysics
S
Back
Top