For those of you having sucess with Xenia

[trainfever]

Could you possibly describe your complete set up. Size of tank, type and wattage of lighting. Brand of salt mix, type of water, tap, distilled or RO. Any and all supplements added, and I mean anything. What your parameters are, your temperature, what you test for. Where are the Xenia in your tank? close to top? mid level? bottom? strong flow?, moderate? weak? I have been trying to grow Xenia for over a year and they just dont last long in my tank. Anything you can possibly tell me about your tank would be greatly appreciated.
Does anyone else use VHO lighting with Xenia succesfully?

 

[chipmaker]

1 gal to 30 gal tanks, pulsing xenia in all of them., All have PC lights and decent current. My calcium in the tanks are all 460 or better.....alk 11.5 or > and PH is what I belive is the most important with xenia.....and it needs to be 8.2 or> My sg is 1.025-1.026 and temps 81-83 deg F Mine grow like weeds.......I use nothing but Instant Ocean salt, and only dose with B-Ionic. I have em up high and down low, in direct flow of current and in moderate flow.....lighting in minimum tank would be approx 5 watts...all other tanks lighting is still PC or HO, but no MH is used.

 

[seannmelly]

Wow that's alot of questions lol! Ok lets see:
125rr w/ 40 gallon sump. Current Orbit 3x150w hqi, 4x96w pc
Crystal Sea salt mix, tap water.
Suppliments: Carib Sea Purple Up (once in a while), every couple of days Kent Marine Microvert and Phytoplex, Kent Marine Kalkwasser drip
Parameters are:
ammonia-0ppm
nitrite-0ppm
nitrate-0-5ppm
calcium 400ppm
alkalinity-3.5
ph-8.4
sg-1.026
temp-80-82f(the lights throw alot of heat, and w/o ac its hard to control the temp
Our xenia is towards the top of the tank right under one of the halides with strong flow. I will post a picture of before and after of our xenia. We bought it as one stalk about 1-2 months ago, and we had it on 3 seperate pieces of rock and its still growing like crazy. Hope this helped!!
p.s. the first pic is before, the second is after a month. its been almost a month since the second picture, and they are almost doubled the size
Melly

 

[chadman]

Originally Posted by chipmaker
1 gal to 30 gal tanks, pulsing xenia in all of them., All have PC lights and decent current. My calcium in the tanks are all 460 or better.....alk 11.5 or > and PH is what I belive is the most important with xenia.....and it needs to be 8.2 or> My sg is 1.025-1.026 and temps 81-83 deg F Mine grow like weeds.......I use nothing but Instant Ocean salt, and only dose with B-Ionic. I have em up high and down low, in direct flow of current and in moderate flow.....lighting in minimum tank would be approx 5 watts...all other tanks lighting is still PC or HO, but no MH is used.
i am not sure how accurate the statement is about the PH being the most important thing....my PH is stuck at 7.8 and i have an unbelievable amount/growth of xenia....

 

[trainfever]

Sorry about all the questions but for some reason Xenia just wont grow in my tank and I am trying to figure out why.

 

[rappa]

I have the same problem. I have tried to grow them at least 5 times now. I always wait until I think I have everything perfect, buy them, and watch them die in less than a week or so. I can't figure it out. I will be reading this thread to see if there is something I am doing wrong also. Thanks!

 

[faddn5]

I have mine right at the top and very little current. They dont like alot of current but they do love the lights.

 

[wilsonreef]

o.k. 75 gallon reef
1.025 - 1.026
temp hovers around 80 - 81
calcium 420
I use Tropic Marin Pro Reef salt
PH is about 8.2
Ammonia 0
nitrates and nitrites 0
I have Xenia everywhere, high low mid in flow out of flow you name it
I even have a good crop of red sea xenia.
my lighting is 2 250 watt 10k mh's 2 65 watt dual daylight pc's and 2 65 watt dual actinic
760 watts of light

 

[seannmelly]

I used to work w/ a guy that had a degree in marine biology and had a beautiful tank for 9 years before he had to break it down and the two things he could never keep were elegance and xenia :notsure:

 

[victoria]

sean, thanks for the FYI, I can't keep xenia and yesterday I almost bought a huge elegance (atleast 16 inches long) for $100 at the LFS, great deal if it would live. There must be a connection with their needs.... I won't be buying that elegance

 

[seannmelly]

Elegance corals are beautiful, but they are pretty hard to keep long term, kind of like flower pot coral. Some people can keep them alive long term, but most can't I don't think there is any connection with this and experience in the hobby, I think it's more like being lucky and getting an extremely healthy specimen.

 

[trainfever]

Cant you boneheads take your converstion somewhere else? I'm trying to find out some information with this thread and you are polluting it with garbage. Please everyone, if you have nothing to add to my questions, then please do not comment here.

 

[seannmelly]

Originally Posted by trainfever
Cant you boneheads take your converstion somewhere else? I'm trying to find out some information with this thread and you are polluting it with garbage. Please everyone, if you have nothing to add to my questions, then please do not comment here.
Thank you for letting me decide to ignore all your future threads. I posted on your question, if you opened your eyes, maybe you would see it. This forum is about learning, and by responding to someone that said something to me, I was being a bonehead?? and polluting your thread with garbage?? Before you make another rude comment to someone, take a chill pill before you get your panties in a twist.

 

[stanlalee]

I kept them easily. 30 gallon tank, 192watts of PC lighting. tank temp 80deg, pH 7.9-8.0, dKH 8-11. nitrates 0-10ppm.I IO then Red Sea salt. Spec gr 1.025. Kept them in fairly strong flow. Not bending over flow but strong right over top current. Spread easily. Started with a frag with one stem. Had about 10 stems on four different rocks. Added 10 gallon sump to tank and not one survived the transition (mostly a sand storm but who knows what might have gotten into the sump since it was sitting in the garage for a while). They died, candycane died, umbrella mushroom died, X-mas tree coral all died. Blue mushrooms unaffected, hammer unaffected,green star polyps unaffected, zoo and buttons uneffected, yellow polyps closed for days, open brain nearly slimed itself into a cacoon but some how made a full recovery. Fire shrimp, hermits, snails and all fish uneffected.
What Xenia are "suppose to like" : strong flow, pH 8.2 or greater (mine didn't care), iodine, moderate to strong lighting.
what Xenia are "not suppose to like" temps above 82deg or rapid increase in temp, low flow, weak lighting
I had the pom pom variety. you can see the powerheads are directly overhead of them.

 

[myocean]

125 reef
2-175 watt MH lights
i add purple up everyday
lights run 8 hours
2-4 foot vho 115 watt
run 24/7
sorry i dont have a pic

 

[deelucky]

this is a frag from the main stalk that has three heads.ammo 0ppm,trates 0ppm,trates 10ppm.instant ocean salt,82 degrees,mid level in my 29gal.nova extreme t-5 ho,pH8.2. i guess thats enough info i hope.

 

[travis89]

I have a 46 gal which is 21" tall, 192W PC lighting, I use Tropic Marin Pro with RO water, they are in low flow, 80 degrees(gets to 84 during the day in summer), they are on the bottom of my tank, I use phytoplankton and Kent tech CB for calcium/KH, and my parameters are:
PH-8.0
KH-7
Cal-350
amm-0
trite-0
trate-5
salinity-1.025
Hope this helps.
Travis

 

[drewsta]

OK lets see
115G oceanic
20G sump/refugium about to be a 30-40G
542 MH Lighting 2-175w hqi 2-96w actinic pc
Tropic Marin Salt
80-83F temp
1.025 salinity
P.H 8.0
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 20ppm
copper 0
calcium 400-420
Alkalinity 12
magneseum ???
strontium ???
It grows like weeds

 

[happyhourh]

o.k. 58 gallon reef
1.025 - 1.026
temp hovers around 78-80
calcium 420
I use IO salt
Havent done any tests in about 5 months.
I have Xenia in five locations in my tank from bottom to top, high flow, low flow, the original colony has tripled in size over 8 months.
I have 260 watt PC lighting.