Xenia questions and frustrations!

[Guygettnby]

Currently I have a 72g tank with the following.
Mag 9.5 return, 2 evolution 1400's on the hydro smart wave (set to about 8 seconds back and forth) 2 TLF reactors (1 curently running carbon and the other running seagel), return goes thru filter floss then trickling down on to about 10lbs of rubble rock and then to a swc 160 cone skimmer.

Lights I am running dual 250w 20k halides for about 10hrs along with 4 54w atinic t5's running for 12hrs. 1 hour before and 1 hour after the halides.

Temps are always around 79. Salinity is 1.023 and all other parameters are righ on par. Phosphate and nitrates are practically zero.

I had a flatworm problem, but tried my best to naturally keep in check. Just recently dosed FW exit with great success. No problems at all, worked great for me. Also had abit of cyano growing that I am taking care of, but not bad.

So now that you basically know my setup here are my questions. I have never been able to keep any form of Xenia in the past. I have had a lot of different tanks thru the years, but not once has Xenia ever been something I could keep alive long term. So about 3 months ago I bought a nice sized colony of waving hand Xenia and a small frag of pulsing Xenia. The waving hand Xenia took off and looked great! Grew twice the size, nice extension, fully opened and just looked in great health. The pulsing Xenia grew slightly, but not much. Never really looked to great but it is still alive and kicking.

Now months later the pulsing Xenia looks the same, but the waving hand Xenia is not doing so great. It is slowly receding and disappearing. It's not fully extended anymore, stopped growing like it was and is jut all around not looking great. Nothing has changed in my tank since it was added. I do weekly water changes, change filter floss weekly and carbon about every 3-4 weeks.

Why is it that I can just not keep this coral alive? Ever, no matter what tank I try it with? This is supposed to be one of the easiest corals to keep and I can't seem to keep it alive long term. Are there any tips to actually keeping Xenia alive long term?

The only thing that I know for sure has changed, is now the clowns are hosting the waving hand Xenia. Not all the time, but they are. But that doesn't explain all the other times I have tried in the past. I'm going crazy trying to figure this one out. My wife really wants the Xenia in the tank, so I am reaching out for help here. In the past I just said screw it and gave up.

 

[Khemul]

Xenia is one of those corals that has at least one, if not multiple, unknown factor to keeping it alive. There is a bit of debate on it, but the generally consensus is that it is a weed for some people and damned-near impossible to keep for others.


Otherwise the other thing to look out for are your stocking (corals and fish). Borderline reef-safe fish will sometimes go after the "weeds" before bothering any of the more desirable corals (probably easier to eat with the trade off between growth and security the weeds took). Coral warfare could also be hitting the Xenia.

 

[Guygettnby]

The only fish I have in my tank that I would think may cause an issue with it would be my potters angle. He is very small and I have never seen him bother anything since I have had him. Nothing else bothers my corals besides the 2 b/w ocs clowns hosting the waving xenia.

When I just took a closer look it seems as though the waving xenia is still growing up my over flow. But the older growth is shrinking up and disappearing. The mat is also looking like it has holes were it had melted away, but has little bumps were they used to be.

Its crazy how good it was doing, with alot of good growth and now it is all of a sudden melting away. Could the flatworms have caused this too happen even though there were not that many on the xenia?

Lastly, all of my corals are spaced well enough apart that there should be no issues at all with any coral touching each other.

 

[negia22]

I have read that xenia thrive on dirty waters, wiith flatworms, I've read six-line wrasse eats them. GL

 

[insanefishguy]

I kept pom pom xenia for years and it thrived. I allowe it to cover the entire glass panel on the end of my 125. Months back I increased my water changes and added more chaeto to try to reduce my flatworm numbers and my xenia withered away

 

[Guygettnby]

I have read that xenia thrive on dirty waters, wiith flatworms, I've read six-line wrasse eats them. GL

I currently have a mandarin and a melanarus wrasse that both eat flatworms. I also was removing them manually and just dosed the tank with flatworm exit last weekend. It killed off a serious amount of them, but I still have a few. I will dose the tank again this weekend to try and kill the remaining FWs. FW exit worked really well for me and caused no problems. If anything my tank looks great now, cleaner then it has been in awhile.

As far as the dirty water comment goes, I have heard the same thing in the past.

 

[Guygettnby]

I kept pom pom xenia for years and it thrived. I allowe it to cover the entire glass panel on the end of my 125. Months back I increased my water changes and added more chaeto to try to reduce my flatworm numbers and my xenia withered away

Hmmm, maybe that is what is happening here. Although my tank has never really been dirty so to speak. Thanks for your input.

 

[usmc121581]

I was never able to keep Xenia, but about a year ago I decide to try and bought a frag. It is now spread an entire 10 lb rock. I have had it out of no where decide to shival up and the oh of no where took off again to the point where I am at 3 stalks per frag in roughly 1/2 a week. But it hasn't spread from that rock I would love for it to take over the back glass.