Question about Xenia

[Mr_Cool]

I got a Xenia frag about 3 weeks ago. I drip acclemated it for about 2 1/2 hours and added it to the tank. It was doing great for the first week or so.
(I love how it just flows back and forth in the current.)

However, for the last two weeks, it's just not looking as good. I've tried moving it to different spots in the tank, but to no avail. It doesn't look bad like it's dying or anything. It just doesn't really open up and get the extention that it did the first week.

I tested my water this morning. Nitrates were at 10, and pH was a little low at 8.1. Salinity is 1.022 and Alk is between 3.5-4 meq. I don't test for Ca as I don't have any SPS corals. Of course, Nitrites and amonia are undetectable. Any ideas?

[Mr_Cool]

Please move this to the General Reefkeeping forum. Sorry!

[gcantu]

I don't know if this is true, but doesn't xenia require certain amounts of iodine in the water??

[JimD]

You listed everything but the tank temp, Xenia will not tolerate higher tank temperatures, anything over 82° could cause it to struggle. Just a thought.

[Shark_Bait]

They also like very low flow. And kinda dirty water, That's why many people use them in the fuge.

[Mr_Cool]

I do have some iodine that I started to add about a week and a half ago. I knew that Xenia benefits from it. But, Shark Bait scares me now. I don't know if I really want to ask about iodine poisoning!

I thought they liked more flow, though. I'm off to move it (again), this time to an area of low flow. We'll see what happen there.

Thanks!

[Mr_Cool]

Moved to a low flow area of the tank.

Just checked water temp., too. Its right at 79 now. It usually fluxuates between 78-80.

[Shark_Bait]

The iodine thing was a serious overdose of Lugols' How big is your tank? And I didn't loose as much as I expected to. guess I'll change the sig again.

See if the low flow helps. Every time I've had Xenia when I had them in higher flow it "blasted" the pumping out of them. Even when the pumps were of they would just sit there. Now that I have them in low flow they stand way up and pump away. Keep us posted.

[Richard]

Dosing Iodine isn't proven to be beneficial. I know plenty of people who have xenia growing like weeds that never dose iodine. IMO you shouldn't dose iodine unless you are testing the level. Even then I'm not sure how accurate a hobbyist grade iodine kit would be and I don't think it is necessary to dose it at all. At to high of a level it is very toxic.

Here's an article if your interested...
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/mar2003/chem.htm

[Shark_Bait]

Was not suggesting that xenia need iodine. I was just explaining my iodine poisoning in my sig.... was taxic and was at very high levels :blush :cry

I will not dose iodine anymore.

[Mr_Cool]

Ok. So I've only dosed the iodine twice. The instructions on the bottle said to give one capful every 4 days. It was a Kent Marine starter pack with Calcium, Strontium and Iodine. I guess I'll just toss the Iodine.

Still waiting to see how the low flow works. I'll keep you posted. Thanks.

[GaryP]

What about light? They need lots of light. They are primarlily photosynthetic.

[Ross]

About xenia not tolerating higher temps, that is totally false in all my experience. My tank would reguarly get up to 86 and xenia grew like crazy.

[cpreefguy]

Xenia is an awesome pH indicator, one reason it doesnt ship well. Check your pH and make sure it is not fluctuating too much. HTH

[GaryP]

Ok. So I've only dosed the iodine twice. The instructions on the bottle said to give one capful every 4 days. It was a Kent Marine starter pack with Calcium, Strontium and Iodine. I guess I'll just toss the Iodine.

The best rule of thumb I have ever heard is "if you can't test for it, don't dose it." Especially something as potentially toxic as iodine. I used to dose iodine as well. I stopped and never noticed a difference. I think light makes a lot bigger difference in Xenia growth. The last time I read something about iodine and Xenia they came to the conclusion that Xenia does absorb iodine, but it doesn't necessarily need it. It also absorbs a lot of toxic heavy metals. That's one of the advatages of something like a Xenia fuge, it acts like a water purifier. That doesn't meet you want to dose lead, chromium, mercury or cadmium to your tank though.

In my experience, the key to growing Xenia is light, pure and simple. The more the better. It grows like a weed in one of my tanks under MH, and I can barely keep it alive in my other tank under fluorescents.

[Shark_Bait]

About xenia not tolerating higher temps, that is totally false in all my experience. My tank would reguarly get up to 86 and xenia grew like crazy.

Don't know about totally false. My tank got to 86 once and the xenia was the only casualty. It melted. So maybe you just has a resistant variant.


Xenia is an awesome pH indicator, one reason it doesnt ship well. Check your pH and make sure it is not fluctuating too much. HTH


This is another good point.

[JimD]

About xenia not tolerating higher temps, that is totally false in all my experience. My tank would reguarly get up to 86 and xenia grew like crazy.

You might want to do some research before expressing your experience as factual data, heres a start....

www.aqualinkwebforum.com/groupee/forums/a/tpc/f/4956080522/m/8976080522/inc/-1

[GaryP]

Sorry Ross,

I'm going with Jim on this one.