SPS corals with Pulsing Xenia

Laakmann

New member
I have a tank with SPS and LPS corals, no softies. I really like pulsing Xenia and I was wondering if it would be alright to put them together, I skim heavily and change a bag full of active carbon in the tank every week. I have also heard that Xenia can be used to reduce nutrient levels in aquariums much like micro algea, how real is this?

Thanks,

Eric
 
I've seen alot of people grow xenia with LPS and SPS corals. But eventually most of them get tired of pruning the xenias. If you don't keep control of them they will take over your tank.
 
wow, how hard is it to prune them? I have a 30in deep tank so that would kinda be bad if they got to the lower regions of the tank.
 
the trouble is if you had xenias in your sps tank and if they ever melted down or sometimes little pieces are left to 'fly' around ... it will damage your sps that comes into contact with these pieces of xenia ... so I would rather not keep xenias with sps in an aquarium.
 
If you're selective with the variety and placement you can keep it with no worries at all IMO :) I'd avoid the shorter wispy type that typically spreads like wildfire and look for the larger trunk variety. This one [lower center of pic] was called a giant Bali pompom and its placed on it's own isolated rock as a precaution to avoid spreading. You can't see it but the trunk is appx. an inch thick and branches into 3 heads. Personally I think my water's a little too clean for it's liking... it hasn't grown much in a long time ;)

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I keep pom pom and elongata xenia in my SPS tank. I keep it on it's own rock isolated in the sand so it can not spread. I dont think Xenia give off many chemicals or have a tough sting, their main problem is spreading like a plague.
 
alright, I really like the movement that they create and the fact that their growth will make my water a little cleaner, I think I am going to go ahead and pick some up.
 
Yeah I have some also and it is a pain to pull back, but I usually take a blade to it and cut stalks out to give out. My girlfriend like it and it is cool to see it pulse. Its sensitive so can alert you to potential problems and too have heard filters the water and think there is some truth to that.

I bet you can get some locally from another reefer for free.....I throw the stuff out half the time....
 
i got a bunch of xenia form fellow reefers, pom pom, elongata, and some anthillia sp too. all the pom pom and anthillia died during a temp spike, but i still have a lot of the elongata. i had one piecenear the bottom that had spread up and grew over my zoas, killing them because it was actualy on top of some. so i removed that. but when it split, another piece went the other way towards my sps. until a few horus ago, i had a digitata that was the only thing to survive an infestation to monti eating nudibranchs comply encased in xenia. i pulled up about 6 stalks, all withing 2-3 inches of it (but all the stalks were about 3-4 icnhes long) i had removed them not because they were causeing damage (the digi has since colored up and grown a lot since the infestation), but because i was cleaning the spot to place my new superman frag there. The xenia did absolutly no harm. of course though we shall see if the digi grows faster, or colors up even more now without them. but it was constatnly in contact with it with nothing wrong.
 
it grows like wildfire!!!!if you like it and have SPS....just put it in a fuge...it really does eat up nutrients... i swear by it but i dont like it because it can overgrow very quickly in certain conditions(particularly nutrient laden)

Xenia are one of the least noxious corals you can find and i know this...people get it confused as being one of the more noxious for some reason but if you carefully research you will find many reliable sources to attest to this

also, the other problem is as mention previously...you can have a xenia (meltdown with potentially bad side effects of it doing so
 
great water parameter meter.... ( xenia ) first to show effects if something has gone amiss in your tank...

Mine is a weed in my sps tank, impossible to eradicate so I leave it alone... the low nutrients keep it in line.
 
i have some, actually quite a bit, in my tank growing in and around a few different SPS corals and i have not notice any damage to the SPS at all. my green tort actually melts it as soon as it grows to close.
heed those growth warnings! for a while mine didnt do much at all but the second i added an auto feeder to my tank for a vacation it took off like mad. its back under control growth wise but it still spreads upwards. looks pretty cool on the glass IMO. ill send you some if you pay shipping as im sure half the people who have it would also.
-nick
 
I have got a 30 gallon fuge hooked up to my tank but the main reason that I have it is to grow pods for the tank so I would think putting a coral that might potencially eat them would be bad for what I am trying to accomplish with it.

From what you guys are saying it looks like I will be searching for some free xenia locally.

My nitrates and phosphates are both 0 and I only have trace amounts of silicates after a water change so I really dont have much nutrients to speak of in my water.

Thanks for the offer exoticaquatix
 
Don't do it. Do yourself a favor, use xenia in your refugium and not in your main display.

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Dont worry about the xenia eating pods - they have some of the move underdeveloped digestive systems and almost no nematocysts (stinging cells) for prey capture. They couldnt eat pods if they wanted to.
 
Xenia dont eat pods....they are similar to green star polyps except far less noxious.....

i can stand by my statement that xenia doesnt eat pods....

do a search somewhere on a "xenia scrubber"

i think xenia is actually more capable of removing nutrients than common macros like chaetomorphia
 
I've had problems with overgrown xenias actually blocking light to corals and my LTA beneath them. So, I made a nifty tool out of a metal skewer (I squared off the end, sharpened it, and bent it into a little hook). Every few weeks, I scrape the off the stalks that are growing in a direction I don't like. I make sure to remove all of the flesh, or they will start growing again. (If I let them, they would cover every square inch of rock.) I also make sure to suck up any floating pieces with a baster.
 
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