xenia xenia xenia...

P

pong

New member
what seems to be the problem here...

i cant seem to grow xenia...


i got a frag, it was 3 inches tall... and over 20
stalks, now, this is less than 1 inch tall
it opened up right away in my tank but after
2 days, it got smaller... as in way smaller...


what is the proper way of taking care of xenia? i placed
it in a basket inside my tank, no cover, floating near the top, 400w of lights, mix of t5's and NO's, medium high flow.

other lps and mushrooms are thriving, what seems to be wrong?

what are the proper parameters for these corals?

dkh? cal?
 
They seem to like good stable PH, Salinity, and Temp (ideally no higher than 80-82 degrees)

High Calcium and Alk, as well as Iodine dosing seem to help as well. What is your water chemistry like?

Also, what type of Xenia? I've never had much luck with common pulsing Xenia, but Red Sea (Pom Pom) and Silver Tip Xenia both do well in most of my tanks.
 
salinity 1.025
temp 80-82
calcium 520
alk 12
nitrate... i dunno why but its at 40 now (api)
i put iodine... 2 drops or so per day...
 
You're burning them at too high a temperature and poisining them with too much much iodine and nitrate.

Two drops of iodine a WEEK max. unless you've got a 200g + tank. Keep you temp 76-78.

Consider frequent water changes without supplements altogether. They don't need that much light either.
 
I agree with the temp sugestions but these guys do need alot of light! they primarily feed on nutrient uptake from the water and photosynthesis.
I have several species of xenia that grow like weed, I cut them with a pair of sissors when they get out of control and stitch them to a piece of rigid gause and then drop it into my sump by jamming it into some egg crate. ( I have some strong lighting down in the dungeon)
I've been experimenting with using xenia as a method of nutrient export, if I skim 24/7 all the xenia stop growing within 3 days.
Eric Bourneman has written several times that xenia grow naturally in nutrient rich waters, particularly near effluent outlets which does suggest to me that that they draw alot of nutrients from the water.
As far as dosing with iodine goes, I've heard varying reports but in my opinion I wouldn't dose iodine on it's own, the potential for overdosing and burning everything to smitherines is far to high, I've heard alot of horror stories about this! I dose C-Balance primarily for Calcium but it also has the correct levels of iodine and strontium in there to keep the xenia more than happy!
I've had several near fatal experienses in the height of summer once the tempurature reaches in excess of 28 degrees all my colonies started to melt, I chillers was bought soon after that!
My success with xenia has been down to keeping the temp at 25 C, skimming only 12 out of every 24 (I would shut the skimmer down totally if I didn't have LPS), lots of light (if you are skimming heavily they are going to have to rely on photosynthasis) and I'd also buy your self a dosing pump and go the C balance route, I'm all for keeping things as simple as pos but the dosing pump has been a godsend! the last thing is make sure the SG stays rock solid, I use an automatic top up which is also one of the most important aspects for any corals.
I hope this all helps, I'm sure other guys have equal success with a completely different setup, I think the captive strains of this stuff can get used to very setups, this is just my take on it, let us know how you get on
 
I would say the temp is probably the problem area. Drop it to about 78, no higher than 80 if possible.
 
High alk,calcium and stable pH at 8.4 and temps at 76 to 78 to keep it constant. I started with 4 stalks and I have more than 20 now and it is still propagating.
 
oh ok... i slowly dropping my temp... im at 80 now... trying to go to the 77-79 range...

its summer here and temp is a problem now...
 
how long did you acclimate them before adding??? this happened to me a few times and they took forever to recover.. in my case they prefer 76 to 78 range temp and good light with low current.. Good Luck
 
my temp is between 79-81 right now...

2 frags... 1 really slow... 1 dumped right away... the one
that was dumped right away... looks better...

the hands are waving already... the thing is...
when i got this... this has something like a tree trunk...
this is non-existent now...

but there are more of the "twigs" why is this the case?
 
my xenia grow like weeds. my temp is 78, and idont dose anything. all i do is frequent water changes to keep my trace in order. They are right in front of a spray bar, near the top. When they get to big i cut them with sizzors down to the rock so they are just little spots of jelly on the rock, in a week there are two new stalks pumping away. I dont think you can kill them. haha
 
Also the twigs vs. stump question could be the flow of the area. I have noticed if they are below the flow, they will grow a long trunk until they reach the flow and then send out arms, where as ones that are directly in front of the flow tend to have shorter trunks and longer arms. It could just be adjusting to the new tank conditions and flows, give a week or two, im sure its fine.
 
might be because the flow... the powerful current passes near it... tried moving the xenia... will see in a few days...

20 drops? wow!
 
having a short stanlk and long arms isnt a problem for the xenia, they do well both ways, its more of an asthetic decision on your part.
 
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