Xenia Advice?

Hey guys,

So just got some pulsing xenia, something i've been looking for, all the time i've been in this hobby. Believe it or not this "pesty" coral is nowhere to be found over here in Denmark, but my store finally decided, to get a bigger and more healthy variety of corals from De Jong Marinelife. So thats awesome. But! Do you guys have any Xenia advice, that might be useful? I've of course researched alot about the coral in the past, and know alot about them, and heard about dosing iodine more often to promote more growth. But i'm not sure if i wanna do that forever, because what if heard, is that if they thrive well in a tank, they will grow EVERYWHERE. So, do you guys got any neat tips i might learn from?

 

Let your tank get a bit "dirty." Don't shoot for pristine waters like in an SPS reef. Similar to goniopora, they are collected from lagoons rather than reef crests, and require a gentle, random current and parameters not often sought after in most reef tanks.

HTH.

BTW, pulsing xenia is one of my moms favorite corals and she bought one as a "present for me" (it was really for her to look at), and I had to bring it back because I didn't want it in my tank. LOL told her it died.

 

Lots of light,low to moderate flow and some nutrients in the system are what made it take over the last tank I had it in.I really doubt that you need to dose iodine and would not advise it,be sure to test for it if you do decide to dose it.

 

Yeah, i heard about that. My tank isnt pristine like that either, algaes still grow here and there. But i dont keep any SPS corals at the moment, but if i'm going to, it would also be species that would like the more "dirty" waters. The waterflow is very low too, it just gently sways above it, and you can see the heads bopping around every now and again.


Haha, that is mean!

 

Okay, i'll keep that in mind, thanks for the advice !

 

FWIW, I've yet to hear of an SPS that likes less than pristine waters That's why true mixed reefs are so hard to achieve, especially in smaller tanks.

 

Yeah, that is true. But if i'm not mistaken, something like birdsnests can somewhat tolerate it? I might be wrong here, just heard about it Yeah, there are VERY few nano sps tanks out there, they are so hard to keep up :-/

 

I've never dosed my tank with anything and I have a good size colony of Xenia going strong. If you were closer I'd give you some! I have mine on the sand bed about 18" below my T5's moderate flow.

 

Tolerate and thrive are two different things my friend

 

I heard that these were really good exporters of nitrates if you prune them, could always sell some back to the store or friends.