Hey guys
I just bought a pulsating xenia, It went into the tank yesterday. but it is not pulsating? any ideas?
Hi, the most common causes of Xenia not pulsing is PH. What are your tank specs?
I put some in my tank. Flow was my issue. Too much flow and it will not Pulse either.
The instant I turned off all the pumps it started to pulse for me. Now its happy. Been in there a week.
I think it pulses more under higher light too (if I am remembering what Pat told me correctly...Pat?). How's your light?
Quote from: RoxyDog on May 09, 2010, 09:26:54 PM
I think it pulses more under higher light too (if I am remembering what Pat told me correctly...Pat?). How's your light?
Less light will cause it to grow long stems trying to reach the light. More light and it will be a dense little guy. I am doing testing with the LED's I got for my tank, its about 28 Inches away from them. Lets see what happens!
believe it or not...xenia needs almost flawless water conditions..
well, I've read that it grows pretty much anywhere including where the sewer lines dumped into the sea near a city... I have a hard time believing that would be near perfect conditions.
Oh well, now I'm not sure who to believe.
xenia is used in sumps as a nutrient export system. You "export" nutrient by selling frags.
I do not know much about xenia, but I too have heard it likes the dirty stuff.... and with ULNS they often melt/die right away.
If you have tons of phostpate in your water for sure that xenia would do great , like rays tank never been to his place yet at his main tank full of pompom xenia lol
I have had xenia on a couple of different occasions and it never really took off for me. When I asked the question why it was slowly melting....the response I received from several people was..." your water is probably too clean, xenia like dirty water."
I put a piece of Xenia in my sons tank. It only has the 12 G Eclipse light on it and that is really no light. But it is supplemented by the south and east facing windows. It pulses when it comes out, but not that fast. the tank is going to get LED's when the budget allows. Its bit yellow in color right now also as a result.
http://ovas.ca/gallery/531_10_05_10_7_43_07.JPG
I heard it flourishes from an abundance of phosphates.
I have noticed lately that the Pulsing Xenia colony in my sump less tank has been growing like mad. coincidentally, so has the deterius and algae.
I tend to agree with the "dirty" water theory. I know first hand of a tank with pompoms it in and it spead like crazy! Water quality was terrible, tank neglected (due to unexpected travel) and the pompoms were just chillin' all over the front of the glass and covering about 1/3 of the LR.
As much as I LOVE pompoms, they do spread just a little too much for my liking but then again, it's a great fraggin' opportunity :)
Lower water quality, lower light for sure.
Whither in my 75 gal, but do great in my 24 gal nano
Is it ever funny on how many different opinions/experiences people have with corals. I know a guy that never touches his tank, left for college and had the lights turned off and when he came back like 2 months later his tank corals/mushrooms had grown and multiplied as if they were on steroids.
Its called adaptation..so of coarse they do good..
Take a negelcted tank....buy brand new xenia from a 'good' tank.....then add them to the neglected tank....melt in 24hrs...
Over time, things adapt.
Thats odd, as I stated, mine melted in my good tank and
came back to life in the dirty tank.
It's far too vague to just say "dirty " tank or "pristine " water. You really have to address the requirements of the coral, as well as measuring exactly what is going on in each individual tank. Some factors are phosphates, iodine, available nutrients, lighting, flow, alkalinity, etc.. etc.... Sometimes, like in the case of Xenia, it's easier to just try it and see what happens in your particular tank. :)
In my case I will say my xenia did best in moderate water quality. When the tank was pristine it was not growing very quickly. When my husbandry was merely adequate it was growing like crazy. When I got real lazy for a bit it melted faster than anything.
you may regret putting it in there. The stuff can grow quickly. I put it high in my tank so it gets moderate flow and lots of light. About once a month I have to go at it with a razor blade to keep it under control......then you can also find little bits of it popping up here and there as well.
It can be a lot like star polyps if you aren't careful.
hes pulsing really well now
I moved it up to the top of the tank so that it would not spread
I got a small rock with pulsing Xenia as my "first" coral some time ago. I have/had it in a 12 gal nano and it basically took over the tank. Water conditions were pristine (b/c of the horses) but feedings were heavy. Not that the Xenia munch mysis, but the debate over water conditions IS intriguing. I've heard of total meltdowns. Based on my experience, low-med water flow is best for it. PH around 8 - 8.2 is also imp and water hardness as well (seems sensitive). I also noticed that once when I went on vacation, the salinity went up to 1.028. Boy did it spread! Also, if you feed your tank something like reefroids or other coral foods, they should spread. I've had to had to slice a dice a lot of it as it continuously grows like a weed in both my tanks.
I know this isn't the trading forum but if things don't work out, I'd be happy to supply you with a little colony in trade for something.
Good luck!