Pulsing Xenia's in decline : ( - Page 2

doomicon · #26 11/29/2006, 07:12 PM

LMAO!

Pete1399 · #27 11/29/2006, 11:59 PM

I do not know why but Xenia grows like a weed in my tank. I started with 1 colony and it has split about 15 times in the past 3 months. I can literally tear it off a rock and rubberband it to a plug and it still comes back and splits again! Like I said...a weed.

doomicon · #28 11/30/2006, 08:47 AM

I saw a tank at a recent club meeting, roughly 50g acrylic. The entire tank was Xenia, the substrate, the sides, it was growing EVERYWHERE! I took some pics, have to dig em' up.

salsipuedes · #29 11/30/2006, 11:02 PM

thats basically what my 92 corner is turning into, the upper 2/3 of the tank is xenia... its crowiding out my stonies so i am moving them to another tank rather then try to compete with the xenia for space. its at the point where i would have to take my tank apart and scrub all the xenia tissue off the rocks if i wanted to get rid of it. just out of curiosity, whats everyones favorite kind of xenia?

Cuby2k · #30 11/30/2006, 11:44 PM

My fav is pompom by a long shot. I have been trying to get a frag from a generous fellow reefer for about six months now.

Anyone? Anyone?

lildraken · #31 12/01/2006, 12:27 AM

the kind that live!

I like the xenia elongata because of the way the "fingers" flow when they pulse.

salsipuedes · #32 12/01/2006, 06:20 PM

anyone want a free piece of xenia umbelatta? i'll even pay shipping... its for the pursuit of science, lol

JonK · #33 12/01/2006, 09:58 PM

Cuby2k: I have pom pom xenia that will close up like you mentioned around the same time every night. It seems to happen between 8 and 9 pm. They will re open but not fully until the lights go off and then they will be back to normal the next day.

salsipuedes · #34 12/02/2006, 01:41 AM

what is the temp of your tank when it closes and how long have the lights been on at that point?

Cuby2k · #35 12/02/2006, 01:47 AM

Hey JonK, when your pompom closes up is it the entire colony or is it just one or two stalks? I've never seen mine ALL close up at once but the stalks do seem to alternate . . .somewhat.

JonK · #36 12/02/2006, 09:50 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by salsipuedes
what is the temp of your tank when it closes and how long have the lights been on at that point?

My tank usually holds steady at about 80.5 degrees. Never gets below 80.5 but a couple times this week it moved up to a little over 81 degrees. The lights turn on at 10:00 am and turn off at 10 pm. It's about 10 hours after the lights turn on they close up.

JonK · #37 12/02/2006, 09:56 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Cuby2k
Hey JonK, when your pompom closes up is it the entire colony or is it just one or two stalks? I've never seen mine ALL close up at once but the stalks do seem to alternate . . .somewhat.

My entire colony at this point is 4 stalks. They do seem to all close up at the same time or within a minute of each other. There seems to be more time between each stalk opening back up after the initial closing. And they won't be as fully open as they are during the day. I've noticed this in my last tank as well with elongata.

I haven't checked PH or Alk in a while. PH usually runs around 8.4 to 8.6 and alk around 10 - 12. I drip Kalkwasser for most of my top off.

Maybe I'll start a small log and see if there is any pattern.

salsipuedes · #38 12/04/2006, 11:58 PM

yeah check ph and alk. my ph was somewhrre around 9 and alk was way high as well... my calcim was about 310, i neglected the tank for a while since its at my parents house and all my xenia is closed up. massive water change due tomorrow...

anyways that offer is still up for grabs. anyone want a FREE piece of xenia with about 2 to 4 stalks on it? i just wanna see how it ships... aka... i'm paying for shipping as well, lol...

Cuby2k · #39 12/05/2006, 12:42 AM

Salsipuedes, PM Sent. That's kind of you or am I missng something?

Wow that's pretty high ph, are you dosing with baking soda or somethng?

salsipuedes · #40 12/05/2006, 02:25 AM

no i does b-ionic 2 part calcium and alk. i guess the calcium is being used up faster then the alk so i have to find the right ratio. nothing that is ever supposed to happen with fishtanks happens... at least not for long, lol

doomicon · #41 12/05/2006, 08:23 AM

In my case my Alk was low, Calc was through the roof. It's my salt mix. Ever since I started dosing, my Xenia have been doing GREAT! This is the longest period of consistant growth and wellbeing my Xenia have gone through, and the Calc/Alk balance is the only consistant change I have made.

tigerjace · #42 12/11/2006, 08:30 PM

Xenia's don't like heat, 75 to 77degrees is perfect. Keep good levels of iodine. Moderate water flow. Consistency is key...water changes, supplements, equipment maintenance, monitoring and care.

salsipuedes · #43 12/12/2006, 06:14 AM

i disagree with tiger. i've kept xenia at 83 degress and it was fine. i try to kep it at 78 to 80 but there is no need for such low temperatures. However, i do agree about maintenance, iodine, and water changes. as far as actual food for xenia, its pointless... they dont have mouths and therfore no way of feeding off of all the extra junk we throw in our tanks

Cuby2k · #44 12/12/2006, 10:42 AM

Yeah I have my water temp swing from 72 to 83 and my xenia seems fine. I have dosed with iodine and not. I do water changes irregularly but I can't figure out why they thrive.

cbicop · #45 12/12/2006, 11:08 AM

a friend of mine has a 20 gallon nanocube at work with zenia growing like mad. It is covering the rocks and going up the glass... he frags it weekly and sells back to the lfs. This guy cleans his tank maybe once every 3 months... his tank has no heater... it is cold, it is dirty but he has alot of flow. This seems to be a magic combo with zenia.

ffwalker · #46 12/12/2006, 06:26 PM

i have 1 red and 1 white xenia in my 30g they have been through alot already they were almost eaten by my peppermint which i took to the shop. because of that i put them in my friends tank over night now back in my tank they are very happy, i have dropped them and moved them alot and they still recover well. low and centre of my tank with a moderate current which is there prefered current they like the same sort of things as many other corals and are very easy to spread mainly the way of your current but dont tend to have a long life they are the same as other corals in that they dont like bad traces in the water they like the heat to be between 72-78 you only really need to worry when they melt but are quite hardy and easy to look after. hope this helps im still newso this may not be the best info just going by what ive read and been told.

DegaBird · #47 12/12/2006, 08:44 PM

The one thing I've noticed that dramatically affects my xenia is waterflow. All my xenia will crawl directly infront of water jets where it procedes to get blasted with current. They do GREAT this way! The moment I moved a gorgonian infront of the water flow, most of my xenia moved. Those that got back into the flow did fine, the rest have begun to wither. I have so much xenia at this point that I've let them go.

icepick5587 · #48 12/13/2006, 10:36 PM

Ya I dunno what's the deal with mine... they're doing a little better but I have no nitrate, nitrite or ammonia. I dose iodine weekly. My pH should be fine... it's probalby high tho. So far what I've come to learn from this forum is that nitrates don't play a major factor with Xenias and that what most often is the missing factor that affects them is the pH, calcium hardness, or alkalinity. Am I correct?

If so, what can I do to correct my calcium hardness and alkalinity? In addition to that what levels are appropriate?

-Thanks

lildraken · #49 12/14/2006, 12:36 AM

Being a new reefer, I did not understand the importance of water hardness. pH buffers say "keeps pH at 8.3 without fear of overshooting the pH"--so I never worried dosing with buffers. My xenia died off back in september and looking at my log, my water hardness was around 5.7 meq/L.
A singly polyp did survive and it's doing well along with a new stalk i bought. They're not growing like weeks but my alk is around 3.5 meq/L.
has anyone been successful with Xenia with high alkalinity levels? My calcium has always been from 380-480 ppm

lildraken · #50 12/14/2006, 12:37 AM

I meant they're not growing like WEEDS not weeks