Dying xenia?

[Darth]

So everywhere I read it says how easy xenia is and how well it spreads. so why is mine always shriveled?  It opens sometimes and pulses, but for the most part it is just shriveled. I am using a iodine supplement in hopes it will help. So any suggestions my ovas gurus??

Thanks
Steven

[beertech]

What type of lighting do you have?

[Cheebs]

Also, what are your water conditions like?  As mentioned in a previous thread, Xenia can do poorly with bad water quality, BUT it also tends to prefer a small amount of nutrients in the tank.  If your water is completely devoid of nutrients, the Xenia may just be reacting to that.  If not, it might be a sign that something's amiss.

[Julie]

What are your nitrates ?

[Zoe]

It was like that in my tank, too. Xenia can be really easy but only if it's happy.  I couldn't keep Xenia for months, but now I can. Try again in a few months if all your levels and lighting and water movement are fine.

[Darth]

all my levels are good, maybe I don't have enough flow, I have 2 powerheads, 1 aquaclear 30, and one zoomed. It's a 29 gal tank. Running t5s for light

[beertech]

Xenia dosen't like too much direct flow.  If it's directly in the path of a powerhead, it will stay shrivelled. 

[Darth]

okay I will try and move it tonight when I get home from work, will let you guys know how it's doin

[Zoe]

Xenia dosen't like too much direct flow.  If it's directly in the path of a powerhead, it will stay shrivelled. 

I have some right under the output of my AC70 and it seems pretty happy.

[KLKelly]

I've read so much conflicting info on Xenia I never bought it.  Many sites suggest that it needs phosphates which people using tap water have in their water and if you use true RO it will melt and not thrive.  Since I'm buying culligan water I decided against even trying and risking killing something so neat.

I hope you find a solution for your xenia.  They are the coolest.

[groupie02]

Xenia is funny like that. It can do very well or it can stay shriveled up for a long time. It can pulse or not in tanks with very similar conditions.

The xenia we have in our 65g is growing like crazy and pulsing all the time. In our 29g that we purchased a couple of months ago, it's doing OK but doesn't grow as quickly. It pulses but doesn't look as good as it's exposed to more direct flow. It also took about 3-4 weeks before it opened up completely after we moved the tank to our place.

All of this with RO/DI and little to no phosphates (I hope)

[Darth]

well I have always used tap water in my tank, I guess I will move it every few days to see where it likes to be

[buzzard]

"Xenia dosen't like too much direct flow.  If it's directly in the path of a powerhead, it will stay shrivelled."

Sorry but I beg to differ.
I have it growing everywhere, including IN the ouput deflectors of my MJ1200's and directly in front of my 1000gph return from my sump.
They are growing on my clam, glass, sand, in the shade, 4" under my halides, even in my Sump.
I use ro-di water, the only chemicals that I EVER add is bio-cal.
I must have come across some sort of new strain of SUPER XENIA, both silver and pulsing.LOL
If you want some to try, Just give me a call, Just dump it in your tank and it will grow wherever it lands.LOL

[gvv]

Looks like everyone has different experience with xenia. Or probably there are so many different types of it...
I got waving xenia from different sources and they all gone after few weeks and never re-appear.
I has much more luck with pink pom-pom xenia I got from Dave88 (if I remember correctly). I was growing great moving to the upper level of tank. I had a lot of frag and one day it suddenly start shrinking. There was a thread on this site where I posted 2 pictures - one when it was healthy and another when it started shrinking. Believe me - big difference.
It lasted for 6-8 mounths and suddenly it started growing again! I still have xenia that is somewhere in the middle between death and life on the LR located on the very bottom of the tank, but one that is on the top is looking great (http://ovas.ca/index.php?action=gallery;sa=view;id=2104)
There could be a number of reasons, but main are that I changed my lights and skimmer. I always used RO/DI water and adding iodine and bio-calc (which should not affect xenia).
In my case I see that it does not like much flow and pumps much nice without it. Also I found that it prefer medium-high light. It grows in my office nano with Coralife CF screw-in bulb, but doing much better under MH in my 90G. With less light it getting higher and thinner.

So, it could be a number of reasons it shrinks and it will be difficult to give correct advice. But if all other corals are doing fine, I would not bother 50-50 it may get back on track.

Regards

[Darth]

Well I took out the zoo-med power head and added a more powerful ac70, now have an ac70 and an ac30 in the tank, moved the xenia, it is opened and pulsing weakly, the color is very faded, it's not as pink as it once was. The rest of the tank seems okay, I have some zoa that are opened, and some ysp, my feather duster seems fine. So it's just the xenia.

I will keep you all updated, because I know you are all on the edge of your seats just dying to know how my tank is doing!!!



Steven

[Julie]

xenia likes nutrient rich water.

[Adam]

How's everything going?

[Darth]

moved it this morning and it was fine now my tank is just a mess

[Brooker]

I have a veritable xenia farm in one portion of my 65. Looks great. Bought 1 piece for $15 and have sold over $400 in frags! I can mow it down and it grows right back. As for flow... not an issue. It's growing up the side of my tank where the return is pointed straight at it.

Xenia needs light, nutrients and rock to attach to. One thing that is likely to mess with it (actually melt it) is kalk. If you're dripping kalk and/or running a phosban reactor you may have difficulty with it. A larger dose of kalk will precipitate out phosphate from your tank. I've seen this first hand when a local dosed heavily with kalk and lost all of the xenia I had just sold him... 

As mentioned above you may just need to wait a bit for your tank and water to mature to bring it to the right nutrient levels...

[Darth]

so would using phos-x from fluval in my filter do the same as running a phosban reactor? Should I remove it and see if it improves, I put it in hoping it would help with cyano