Why can't I seem to keep Xenia?

trainfever

trainfever

Active Member
Xenia is my favorite coral but I can't seem to keep it in my tank. I tried everything. I have a fuge and thought that maybe the Xenia and macro were competing for nitrates so I even tried holding off on amount of water change to let nitrates build up but that didnt help. Evan before I had the fuge, I couldnt keep xenia. I tried moving it to different levels in my tank and that still didnt help. I have a 45 gallon tank with another 15 gals in a sump/refugium. I have 190 watts of VHO in my tank. I originally had reg flourescent light and switched to VHO so I could keep Xenia. Now I am being told that Xenia doesnt like VHO because the spectrum in VHOs is 10k and VHO likes 6500. Anyone with successs with Xenia have any suggestion?
 
victoria

victoria

Member
I'm having the same problem, just got alot of new frags from a friend and once again they are dying. His grow like wild fire....mine just die...Now I have 2 different kinds, no difference...
The main difference between our tanks are his is very high flow and lower temp..78 degrees.
 
chadman

chadman

Active Member
a few months ago i bought two small stalks of xenia....now i have 30 plus stalks...its nuts how this stuff grows!!! i have high flow and i keep my temp between 79 and 82...i do not run a skimmer so i have slight nitrates maxing out at 10....usually lower though....
 
wilsonreef

wilsonreef

Member
Depending on how long of a ride your xenia made before it got to your aquarium, the problem could be in the fact that xenia does not travel well. Be sure to acclimate slowly also. Check water and wait and see what happens. I recently bought some red sea xenia from a guy in Little Rock and drove home with it (about 3 hours) and when I got home I put the bags in the aquarium to temp acclimate. Left them there the rest of the night and over the course of the next two days drip acclimated. Even so they looked terrible for a while but pulled through.
 
trainfever

trainfever

Active Member
No, the rides only about 10-15 minutes. I drip acclimate them for 3-4 hours. It seems as if they start out Ok for months and then just slowly wilt away.
 
wilsonreef

wilsonreef

Member
sometimes and who only knows why they just wilt and go away. It is normal for one to do good and one not to. There are a lot of things about Xenia that people still don't know why. I have Eric Borneman's book on corals and in it he states that too. Like why do they pulse, and why do they stop? who knows...When I first got mine they pulsed like crazy, about 3 months later they stopped, a little later they started again and have been doing so ever since. I know I can't figure it out
 
deelucky

deelucky

Member
i got one i bought from this guy i only temp acclimated through him in and within to weeks new growth popped out of nowhere. :thinking:
 
fishcake

fishcake

Member
personally,
Because there are soooooooo.... many things we don't know about xenia.
I think most aquarists are better off leaving it out of your setup's IMHO.
They tend to meltdown for no apparent reason
and can take your whole tank with them.. if your not around (vacation)etc....
 
deelucky

deelucky

Member
Originally Posted by Fishcake
personally,
Because there are soooooooo.... many things we don't know about xenia.
I think most aquarists are better off leaving it out of your setup's IMHO.
They tend to meltdown for no apparent reason
and can take your whole tank with them.. if your not around (vacation)etc....
i agree,personally the first thing i do in the morning is check the tank for anything out of place i check on all corals as well as fish for the first sign of trouble
 
grumpygils

grumpygils

Active Member
Originally Posted by trainfever
Xenia is my favorite coral but I can't seem to keep it in my tank. I tried everything. I have a fuge and thought that maybe the Xenia and macro were competing for nitrates so I even tried holding off on amount of water change to let nitrates build up but that didnt help. Evan before I had the fuge, I couldnt keep xenia. I tried moving it to different levels in my tank and that still didnt help. I have a 45 gallon tank with another 15 gals in a sump/refugium. I have 190 watts of VHO in my tank. I originally had reg flourescent light and switched to VHO so I could keep Xenia. Now I am being told that Xenia doesnt like VHO because the spectrum in VHOs is 10k and VHO likes 6500. Anyone with successs with Xenia have any suggestion?

I have xenia in tanks with MH, MHs and VHO, VHO only and PCs only. It grows like a weed. Since I have other coral I do cyclopeese and DTs Phyto 2 Xs a week. Medium high flow and temp 79-82. It actually seems to do best in my tank with the least calcium? Maybe no relationship
 
mrdc

mrdc

Active Member
My neighbor has a lot of xenia in his tank and it grows VERY fast. We grow it (well he does and I supply the rocks) and I take it to the LFS for credit. He never adds ca and never tests for it. He also never does water changes or at least hasn't in over a year. I was told that they can thrive in "dirty" water so I am not sure if his water classifies as "dirty". All his other corals seem to do fine also. He has CF lights.
 
toonascott

toonascott

Member
I've had my xenia for a month. 4 tiny individuals, they don't pulse if I have any current on them. I have them in bright area of tank and I use 4 39w t-5. My water has 0, ammonia,nitrites,nitrates,phosphates, the ph is 8.0 and calcium is under 400. I feed once a week with cyclopeeze, they seem to like it. They are looking great and I have my fingers crossed.
 
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