This is war!

eyeneedsumhelp

eyeneedsumhelp

Member
I heard somewhere that pulsing xenias are nitrate lovers....is this true? I know that they tend to prefer "dirty" water, but can they actually help to remove nitrates?
I'm in the midst of a battle with nitrates. Before anyone offers advice....I have done the water change thing, feeding less, sponges in the filter, etc.... nothing seems to be working. I will be buying a hob refugium in the near future, and expect that that will help. But was curious about the possibility drafting some Xenias for the war.

Advice?
 
shyfish

shyfish

Member
I have always kept Xzenia and I must admit my nitrates always read 0. Nitrite reads 0.1
I had no idea they ate nitrates, never heard his before. They are so cool to have , what a plus. They are real hardy too.
 
jackri

jackri

Active Member
Dunno about nitrate lovers... they like nutrient rich water but that doesn't necessarily mean nitrates or lowering them at all. Refugium and cheato will help out quite a bit.
 
florida joe

florida joe

Well-Known Member
They will in fact help with your nitrates to a certain point. Many people I know keep them in their refug for just that reason Welcome and can you post some info about your system. Tank size, filtration. System, (Reef, FOWLR est.) refug or not. If you have a refug what are you keeping in it? How have you tried to reduce your nitrates?
 
eyeneedsumhelp

eyeneedsumhelp

Member
This set up is quite new. I had a 37g cube set up for about a year and a half, and it crashed due to a 3 day power failure. Long story short....i transfered everything from the 37 to a more managable 29 about two weeks ago. I always had high nitrates in the 37....and also had xenias that started as one small colony, and within a year had all but taken over the entire tank!
I'm just kind of at a loss here.... my trates are off the chart, despite an 80% wc when I made the switch, and two 50% changes and a few 10% in the last two weeks. I do have a cannister filter, which i know can harbor trates....but again...with the switch, I cleaned it out, and replaced all the media.
I think a fuge is my last option here.....
 
florida joe

florida joe

Well-Known Member
With all do respect you have to understand that the production of nitrates and the speed at which we convert ammonia to nitrate is the very reason we are able to maintain our systems. The reduction of nitrate is on the other hand a very slow process. And in my opinion even more so in smaller tanks. Less water less dilution. Live rock, which many people use for denitrification is a very slow process.
I would look into some form of small refug with a higher form of algae
 
renogaw

renogaw

Active Member
i've read somewhere that they definitely do help with nitrate removal in the ocean areas where there has been a lot of coral/fish/sea death and xenia and anthelia are the first to start growing in high quantities.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top