Nice Soft Corals

Holy cow!! Lol now that is out of control xenia.

 

Although not quite "soft" LPS of the hearty variety are in order;

Frog Spawn


Torch


Large Colt


And even some "Fuzzy" Mushrooms

 

It's the friend of a friends tank. He sent me that pic when I told him I was getting a Silver Branch. LOL
Didn't stop me from adding it tho.;D

 

If you want Xenia get xenia. It is not going to take over your tank unless you let it it take over your tank. Its not like you wake up one day and all of a sudden its everwhere. Keep it on a seperate rock by itself and it will be fine. if you ever want to take it out if it gets to large you can. Make no mistakes the xenia in the photo became that from lack of maintanience. same goes for green star polyps. people told me this would take over my tank. I had the impression that it would be growing every where like algae. not the case. It grows in the same spot rapidly. I have it in my tank and its fine. If you want it get it. both those corals are hardy and are nice additions.

 

You've never seen xenia polyps "jump ship" to recolonize another area of the tank have you.

 

well yes but it still can be controlled. all I'm saying is if he is up to the maitnenance he still has it as an option. I would just never a newb "dont do it". rather just give them the cons and let them make the decision. I was kept from gettting green stars becuase of this until I investigated more about them.

 

Everything can be "controlled." The question is how much work it takes to do so. In my 180 I was literally pulling out about a gallon of Xenia per month. The stuff grows so quickly that unless you can clear every piece of it COMPLETELY off of a colonized position, it will grow back again. And doing a complete extraction is not easy on live rock. After a while it is growing in so many places in the tank that it is very difficult to control.

Additionally, as I mentioned below, the toxins it puts out will make you physically ill if you cull a lot of it at once.

 

Umm I'm pretty sure it wasn't lack of maitenance as much as the guy who owns the tank wanted the xenia to cover the back glass and it got out of control. That was my understanding when explained to me anyhow. Around here Xenia is nearly impossible to get unless you know someone who is willing to frag it. The LFS doesn't sell it at all because the owner says it's impossible to ship so never orders any even if requested.
Alot of ppl look at that pic and think 'what a mess'..I look at it and think 'look at all that money'.