Xenia coral. Does it help to export nutrients from the aquarium?
- Thread starter djfrankn
- Start date
philosophile
New member
Only if you plan on harvesting them and throwing them out.
Gill_bucket
New member
I have heard that a lot of advanced German aquarist do this.
scadsobees
New member
I asked my xenia to let me know if it ever thought it wasn't fair to throw it out, and it hasn't said anything about it yet. 
But then again, why throw it out when you can get credit, even if it isn't much it will add up
But then again, why throw it out when you can get credit, even if it isn't much it will add up
pico-reefer
New member
I was thinking more of following a natural process which is the nutrient absorbtion. Thanks for your response.[/QUOTE]
Then why not use chaeto?
Then why not use chaeto?
Jeremy Blaze
Former Reef Addict
Garf has info about xenia scrubbers.
Joe Pusdesris
New member
Anything you remove from the aquarium will "export nutrients."
@pico-reefer: Well, I used macro in my refugium but I still keep a colony of xenia in my display. Since it grows at a decent rate and after running into an article some time ago regarding xenia needs to thrive in a tank I was wondering and decided to see what other members think of this approach. Besides, It is not thought only as a for filtration purpose but to grow a coral that is somehow a nice piece of collection in a tank and in the meantime, due to its grow rate, using it as "extra-credit-source" at the LFS's.
@DJ in WV: I read something like it myself and not only the use of xenia but the use of natural live sponges as well. Once I found an article of a guy here in US that has a coral farm and he runs the filtration system with only sponges, macro algae and DSB without the use of a protein skimmer (he dislikes the idea of it removing valuable trace elements from the water column. So that is what makes me think about this apporach
@Joe Pusdesris: I think somehow the sameway.
@T-Rex: Hey T-Rex, the only time that I have seen xenias receding and eventually "dying" is when either the water is to pure in the aquarium (which I think my tank is not the case) that lacks the nutrients this coral needs to thrive or carbon is used in for water filtration (since it removes certain elements needed for the xenia to grow).
Thanks for posting and proposing everyone's own approach
@DJ in WV: I read something like it myself and not only the use of xenia but the use of natural live sponges as well. Once I found an article of a guy here in US that has a coral farm and he runs the filtration system with only sponges, macro algae and DSB without the use of a protein skimmer (he dislikes the idea of it removing valuable trace elements from the water column. So that is what makes me think about this apporach
@Joe Pusdesris: I think somehow the sameway.
@T-Rex: Hey T-Rex, the only time that I have seen xenias receding and eventually "dying" is when either the water is to pure in the aquarium (which I think my tank is not the case) that lacks the nutrients this coral needs to thrive or carbon is used in for water filtration (since it removes certain elements needed for the xenia to grow).
Thanks for posting and proposing everyone's own approach
From a few articles I've read it seems that xenia doesn't export "enough" nutrients to even make a dent. This is similar to setting up a small 10 gallon fuge on a huge 200 gallon tank, there just isn't enough export via algae or other organisms to make a dent.
Unless you are setting up a significant amount of your tank or a larger space of your fuge I'd discount xenia as not doing much for you. Personally I'd rather try something like macro algae in a very large fuge that might even be as big or bigger than you MD.
Unless you are setting up a significant amount of your tank or a larger space of your fuge I'd discount xenia as not doing much for you. Personally I'd rather try something like macro algae in a very large fuge that might even be as big or bigger than you MD.
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