Pumping xenias?

djessem

djessem

Member
Can anyone tell me if pumping xenia are:
A. hard to maintian
B. Reproduce and spread within the tank easily.
C what additives I can expect to use for optimum health
 
jeo

jeo

Member
In my personal experience they are:
1. Easy
2. they grow too fast but are easy to "harvest," which needs to be done occasionally
3. I don't know, I don't add anything to my tank other than iodine mostly for my shrimp
 
T

thomas712

Guest
IME
Yes they are easy to grow.
They are also very easy to propigate
They will spread, sometimes to plauge proportions.
They do seem to like additions of iodine accoriding to some people, but like Jeo I no longer add iodine a routine water change seems to replace all I need.
Thomas
 
banshee

banshee

Member
The xenia in my tank is growing almost out of control. I put a small piece of rock in the middle of a colony and it spreads to that rock in a day or two, then I take that rock into my lfs for credit.
:) Oh yeah, I don't add iodine either....just water changes.
 
B

bambalamb

Guest
My pulsing xenia's are spreading quite well. While I haven't had any problems, others have had trouble keeping them under ideal conditions. Sometimes they will stop pulsing when introduced to a new tank, also. Entire colonies of xenia have been known to crash, even after flourishing for several years under the same conditions.
Some reefkeepers advise using iodine for xenias. In my experience, when I was adding iodine for my mushrooms some of the xenias closed their polyps and stopped pulsing for a while.
JMFFEO
(just my far from expert opinion)
 
N

nanoambiance

Guest
Easy to have, and they grow well, and iodine helps. What about how much lighting do they need or kinds? Do I dare (at the risk of being flamed) ask if standard bulbs are sufficient with good water flow if xenia placed near surface?
 
T

thomas712

Guest
In my experience I kept one under 80 watts of standard lighting in a 55, safe to say it never really thrived, was mowed down by an urching once and slowly recovered, not until I upgraded to VHO did it really start to thrive and spread. Only then did it pulse well and thrive.
Thomas
 
stillfrodo

stillfrodo

Member
How established of a tank do you need to add these xenias. Mine is only up and running 5 weeks. Done cycling. Only thing I have in there now is a small clean up crew. i don't want to rush anything so was curious.
 
T

thomas712

Guest
Well normal rule of thumb so to speak is not to add any corals until your system has been established for about 6 months, due to the fact that the system is still unstable and needs to mature a bit. Now this is not to say that people don't get away with it. With just a xenia I might try it after 3 months to see what happens as a first coral to kinda get my feet wet.
Thomas
 
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