xenia light requirements

[kypatriot]

I picked up some purple pulsing xenia at a frag swap about a month ago or so. It was pulsing when I got it, but has never pulsed in my tank, despite trying different positions in the tank for more or less light and for more or less flow.

The tank it's in is a 135g with 384w PC, and this is the tank I'd rather keep it in. Is this enough light for a xenia? I've had it near the top of the water, but it has seemed to not be doing well lately, so I moved it lower yesterday.

I wanted to be sure these things don't need a lot of light, and if it does, I can move it to the 40g.

 

[fishnut321]

some times xenia stop pulsing for no apparent reason, despite showing growth and general good health.

 

[01saleen]

it should bounce back. mine was unhappy until i finally moved it twords the top of the tank and glued it down. it gets minimal flow, too much flow then it stops pulsing. your lights are good..

 

[gasman059]

man that grows like weed in any condition.except bad parameters

 

[t-bone2]

ive seen some people adding i think iron to their suppliments to get them pulsing again search the fourm there was some discussion about this a couple of months ago

 

[xtm]

In my experience, Xeniids' pulsing has a lot to do with how high/low your pH is. In my tank, they don't pulse at all if the pH is in the 8.10 mark and pulse heavily in the 8.30 mark

 

[flrydr]

we have the "weed growin version" started with 2 med size stalks which were traded in at various LFS long ago and still nearly 40 stalks..... moved some frags from the main tank to the mushroom nano.... after a week in the tank they were pulsing just a lil until the weekly water change and a small trace dose.....they are now back to pulsing normally.
thinking they are silver branch xenia, & light tan pom pom.
light, i don't think is a serious issue just upgraded a bit in the main tank from 192w sunpaq retro to a 48" outer orbit hqi and i have not seen much of a difference in growth

 

[Cuby2k]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8617002#post8617002 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by xtm
In my experience, Xeniids' pulsing has a lot to do with how high/low your pH is. In my tank, they don't pulse at all if the pH is in the 8.10 mark and pulse heavily in the 8.30 mark

Man this xenia is odd stuff. Mine seem to pulse like crazy from 7.9 to the highest which was 8.30.

The only time it acts differently is when it closes up tight like little fists for about 30 minutes or so then it opens again. In the multiple stalks that I have I will see one stalk close like this then another one and so on. There seems to be no reason that I can put my finger on but it continues to happen and then they come back to their little pulsing madness selves.


I guess that is one of the reasons I like this stuff, just a little quirky.

 

[laf-reef]

Lighting is fine for xenia. Mine seem to prefer moderate flow. They pulse when the lights are on and seem to know when the lights are scheduled to go off.....they tend to close-up about a 1/2 hour before lights out. Grows like weeds

 

[ManuVarras]

Hi !

Did you have a test of iod (iodid ???) ? sorry, in French, we say Iode and in our tanks, non pomping xenia is a synonym of lack for iod ...

Amic (for "amicalement")

Manu (http://monboutderecif.over-blog.com)

 

[syrinx]

Oui, I agree- iodine is often the key.

 

[kypatriot]

I don't have an iodine test kit, but I did add some Lugol's solution according to the manufacturer's directions for dosing. It did seem to 'eat' the iodine that I put directly over it, but still have never pulsed.

When I dosed it directly over the xenia, it looked like the 'fingers' turned open as much as possible, and then later the arms seemed to shorten & the base swelled slightly (like a coral that just ate something).

I'm using it once a week, occassionally some of the Seachem Iodide, and the tank has a Sealab #28 block in it now.