Those having difficulty keeping xenias..

[XeniaMania]

In my tank, my Goldbacks are actually the champs. They split on a weekly basis while my Red Seas split like every 2-3 weeks instead. Although it's been stated that xenias can't eat, my testing appears to prove quite contrary. It's true I have never seen my Red Seas illicit a feeding response, but when I feed plankton into my tank, my Goldbacks are the only ones that show a response while all the other xenias seem to "keep doing their thing". Coincident that they're also the fastest growing xenias in my tank? Perhaps not. Marine Snow has been the only item that illicits a response from more than 1 type of xenia. Apparently my Fiji Blues seem to love this stuff since the polyps go crazy once this is added into the tank.
In regards to them pulsing, a proper analogy would be the expansion and contraction of our lungs. When zooxanthellae algae production is up, respiration needs to increase thus making them pulse faster, after all, them pulsing is not a voluntary action, but rather a reflex. That's also why when you put more current on them, they will pulse less, as they do not need to "autorespire", if that's a word, since the current will help them out.
Regarding the sandbed, it is one of the double-edged swords of our closed system marvels I'd say. It can be a nutrient sink, pulling nutrients out of the water, harboring bacteria that can convert Nitrates to Nitrogen, yet at the same time compete with corals we'd like to keep. I remember back in 95-96 when the Berlin method was just being introduced and everyone thought barebottom was the weirdest thing, however, I have no doubt in my mind that it has played a vital role in my success of keeping xenias.

 

[PatrickJ]

Sometimes they just dont like certian tanks. I know awesome reef keepers than can not take care of them, others seem they cant get rid of them. It depends on one's tank, from gravel to lighting and everything in the middle.

My brother's school 10th grade science experiment:

My brother was doing a school experiment and grew some under 175 watt MH's (10 inches above fan cooled) in a 20 gallon tank, 1.5 inches of live sand, heater set to 80, and small power filter with carbon. Topped off every few days. Nothing fancy. Strictly basic.

Three sections of the tank were shaded with black clothe, one sheet on one section, two sheets on another, and one with no sheets of clothe. This caused varied amounts of light in three sections. Each section had a 1 inch frag of xenia. Full light, shaded, and dark, describes the amount of light they received. In his expirement, he showed that light has a key role in the growth and most important pulse rate.

At the end of the expirement (3 months) he observed them and weighed their final mass and compared it to the initial mass.

Under full lighted section, xenia obviously grew the most, and had a fast pulse rate, too many to count. Under shaded light section, xenia grew somewhat, slower pulse rate than the full lighted frag, color slighly dull and not vibrant. Dark lighted section, xenia was humped over and decreased in size dramatically, and pulse once per minute, the color was terriable.

He hypothosized that the zooxanthelle algae gives this coral energy to pulse, which was shown by the amount of light they received. The more light the xenia received, the more it pulsed and the more it grew in a 3 month period.

I hope you can use my brother's research for some good. lol

 

[XeniaMania]

Well, that's what I hope to accomplish with this thread, to come up with a happy medium so to speak. I also realized that I've taken care of xenias for so long, 12 yrs to be exact, that even I can't explain exactly how it's done. It just comes 2nd nature to me. The one thing this board has done for me, is it's made me want to go from casual to advanced..

 

[sterling18]

Mine is Oceanic and IO, don't dose. Grows like mad under MH.

 

[Cutiewitbooty]

my red sea/pom pom splits once a week. One that thats weird is that the ones i have 20" deep in my tank pulse like crazy buy they are more of a brown color. But the ones close to the MH pulse fast too, but their "hands arn't as open as the ones deeper so it's doesn't look like they are pulsing as much. Both split once a week so i don't know lol

 

[Travis L. Stevens]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7291066#post7291066 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by XeniaMania
Thanks Travis, how long have you had them and have you had any crashes? *knocking on wood*

Okay, here goes a novel filled with information for you. I'm very eager to get to the bottom of this as well. Except I have no experience on Xenia dying that was out of my control. So, I have nothing to compare to.

I've grown my Xenia in PC lights ([1] Current Actinic 65w PC, [1] Current Daylight 65w PC), (1) 250w up to 1 year old 10K Coralvue MH, and my current setup with Actinic/MH

About 6 months ago, my first batch of Xenia did melt away, but that was because of me. I had accidently overdosed my pH buffer before I knew about the importance of Alkalinity/Calcium balance. It dropped my Ca to about 300, and my dkh shot up to 16. I attempted to correct this with lots of limewater dosing until I found out that I needed Calcium Chloride to fix my problem. I had a couple species then. I can only remember elongata. The other may also have been elongata from the same colony. The smaller colony metled away rather quickly, but the larger colony toughed it out until everything was balanced but never completely recovered and eventually faded away.

My current ones have been through Nitrate spikes of well over 180 and did fine. They've survived temperatures of 88* for about a 24 hour period. I have dosed Iodine in the past with no significant results. My current colony of elongata is very close to a Bubble Coral (Plerogyra sinuosa) and often brushes up against its sweeper tentancles and does not retract from them. They do close up some because they are touching something. But they do the same thing when they hit a rock. Both colonies (this one and the one that melted) had been successfully fragged.

 

[XeniaMania]

Anybody use Red Sea salt? I'm like the only one? :lol:

Great posts everyone, thanks!

 

[amazingbobby]

IO, no Iodine, dose B-Ionic Alk and Calcium as needed. Must have kind of a dirty tank because my xenia grow like crazy. They pulse non stop. All this under a Coralife PC setup. I have had the xenia 5 weeks and it is like 4x bigger that it began. I'm contemplating an all xenia tank.

BTW my clowns hate it and stay well away.

 

[Saltz Creep]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7293421#post7293421 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Saltz Creep
Xenia prefers MH to anything else. Xenia also likes nutrients. My silver tip xenia has been going nuts for two years or more, and I get about 60 dollars credit at the LFS every few weeks for my thick monsters. A single trunk is 1 to 1.5 inches in diameter! I'll post pics soon.

Here is a pic of one of my monsters. The Solomon Island Perc is 3 inches long. The 175W MH is 6" from the water. The xenia is 1" from the surface and is constantly being blasted by a return.

 

[XeniaMania]

Bobby, go with the xenia tank :thumbsup:

How wide would you say that colony is Saltz?

 

[Saltz Creep]

It's about 6 to 7 inches across now because I just plucked some yesterday for the LFS.

 

[cristhiam]

My old 55,
I use IO and dose limewater 27/7, that's it water chages every 2 to 3 weeks 5G.
I had 3 40W 6500K bulbs and 1 URI 110W actinic, using an IceCap 660

 

[XeniaMania]

Hey, just the guy I was thinking about last night..I never noticed it before but is that a cespitularia on the bottom left corner?

 

[cristhiam]

I only have two kinds pulsing and elonganta, is a cespitularia a xenia type?

 

[XeniaMania]

It's a coral that resembles the xenia, but it doesn't pulse and it is electric blue w/ orange polyps.

 

[cristhiam]

very nice. I wish I can find different kinds around this area

 

[Nataku]

I use reef crystal and instant ocean

My experience with Xenia light and nutrient were the key to sucess.

I have a 37cube with 2 type of Xenia. At the start i has a 150w PC and the xenia melted away. Switch to a 150W MH and Im harvesting every week. This tank has about 3 inches of sand. Got so annoy with all the maintance I scrubbed all the rock bare. After about 4 month the remain are starting to grow again.

The cutting went to a 29 gallon tank ( Bare Bottom ) with a 150 MH. No dosing and minimal water changes ( Once every 3 months). The Xenia still flourish.

Check this thread for more info

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=433654

 

[XeniaMania]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7296823#post7296823 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by cristhiam
very nice. I wish I can find different kinds around this area

I'm surprised that you can't in FL since it's as big of a coral farming state as CA. I'm tapped out for May, since I only release 1-2 frags a month of the stuff I have, but if you ever want something more elegant (ahem, rare) PM me

 

[psimitry]

I am on my second colony of enlongata(sp?) and have had pretty much complete success regardless of what brand of salt I use.

I dose Lugol's throughout the week (I keep a gallon of top-off with 2 drops of Lugol's shook-up in it), and also dose 10mg daily of Randy's 2-Part.

In my experience, the one thing that Xeniids are absolutely intolerant of is dropping salinity levels. They can handle (slightly) higher than normal salinity, but once they cross the level of what they're able to handle on the low end, their death is very, very quick (I did a FW zoo dip to eliminate nudi's and unfortunately, one of my most infested rocks had the xenia attached to the rock. Even though the exposure was short, it killed it within 24 hours).

As far as their pulsing, according to Anthony Calfo, their pulsing seems to be dictated by pH levels. He's seen them pulse through the night on tanks that he doses kalk and/or has reverse lighting on his sump.

 

[XeniaMania]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7297213#post7297213 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by psimitry

As far as their pulsing, according to Anthony Calfo, their pulsing seems to be dictated by pH levels. He's seen them pulse through the night on tanks that he doses kalk and/or has reverse lighting on his sump.

I'll double-check his article, but one surefire way to defy that statement is to keep a xenia in low light w/ high pH. It definitely won't pulse.

I'll film a video later today when my lights are on displaying the feeding action of my fiji blues, it should be fairly noticable in the change of polyp motions. I think few has ever seen them curl to this degree.