Xenia issues - question!

[Jason72]

Hi guys. I have a question about my xenia. It seems to be, well, shrinking. Is this what "melting" mean? It had been diong very well - not necessarily spreading like wildfire, but alive and kicking - for a few months. Now, it just looks - smaller is the best way to describe it. The bases are about half the diameter they used to be, and the rest stays closed a significant amount of time.

Just did a testing routine:
Trate = about 10
dKH = 12
Ca = 440
SG (or salinity - I forget which is which) = 1.025
temp = 79
pH = 8.4

Nothing is any different than it has been, except maybe the trates are lower than two months ago. Any ideas? Or am I just about to become xenia-less?

Thanks in advance
Jason

 

[Yaktop]

they like mag, most people hate xenia it gets out of control so feel blessed. your trates are to high as if your dkh.

 

[afboundguy]

Yes you should get down on your knees and pray if it all of a sudden disapears... I purchased some on the smallest rock and it spread EVERYWHERE!!! It took me months to get it under control.

 

[Jason72]

Thanks for the response - I'm working on the trates - they're down from 20 a month ago. I'm also slowly working on the dKH to get it down to around 10. But for a softy tank I don't think either of those would kill anything off... or am I mistaken in that?

I ask because the water is improving and the xenia is deteriorating, so I wondered if anyone had an idea other than "your water is bad," as I've just been told.

And I'd feel more blessed if I can keep it alive, which is why I asked the question. But I appreciate the response.

Jason

 

[scoobnoob]

Mine was looking great when I brought it home 4 days later......It had shrunk and didn't look like anything at all. I did a partial water change immediately and now it's tripled in size, this has been in a few short weeks. It's become so plentiful it's some of the colony got tangled with itself, it strangled it self and 5 of the heads fell off leaving stumps.

 

[Yaktop]

MAGNESIUM is likely the cause. they love it.

 

[stingythingy45]

Mg helps xenia?I keep mine around 1300 and the xenia never grows like crazy.
That's the first I heard that.Most say Iodine and not to run any carbon.
I'm just glad it isolated on a rock by itself.

 

[Yaktop]

Mg helps xenia?I keep mine around 1300 and the xenia never grows like crazy.
That's the first I heard that.Most say Iodine and not to run any carbon.
I'm just glad it isolated on a rock by itself.

I stand corrected, you are correct.

 

[Jason72]

Mine was looking great when I brought it home 4 days later......It had shrunk and didn't look like anything at all. I did a partial water change immediately and now it's tripled in size, this has been in a few short weeks. It's become so plentiful it's some of the colony got tangled with itself, it strangled it self and 5 of the heads fell off leaving stumps.

Thanks again all... and scoobnoob, then I know who to contact if it dies off and I need a replacement bunch huh?

 

[Sean Irwin]

Xenia require high amounts of dissolved organic compounds to thrive. Try reducing the amount of carbon you use or intermittently running skimmer-less.

 

[stevertr]

I'm still on a quest for some piles of Xenia here in the Worcester County area. Any of you folks with Xenia growing out of control that can spare a bunch, PM me.

Regards

Steve

 

[stingythingy45]

I'm still on a quest for some piles of Xenia here in the Worcester County area. Any of you folks with Xenia growing out of control that can spare a bunch, PM me.

Regards

Steve

I don't know why you need"piles" of the stuff,Steve.All you need is a few stalks and it will either take off like wildfire or die.I had quite a bit ready to give away and then my stupid condy decided to park on top of them.It's amazing how quick it killed the xenia.It killed it and never came back.
So anybody with xenia taking over,just purchase a condylactis anenome.
Luckly it spends most of it's time in the back upper right corner.

 

[rfkeeper55]

I have the same problem with my Xenia and from what I've been reading on Wetweb they say that the pH needs to be 8.3 or above at all times, including during the night when pH usually drops. Does anyone know if this is true?

 

[stingythingy45]

Well,I do know that PH and Alk have a lot to do with pulsing.
Mine rarely pulses and I keep the alk at 9-11 DKH and my PH used to flutuate betweet 7.8 and 8.4 night/day.Now I top off with a little Kalk at night.
Xenia still don't pulse much.

 

[stingythingy45]

Bump on this thread.
I know this question has been beat to death.But I seem to have xenia that grows fine.It stretches out nicely,looks healthy and spreads at a reasonable pace(not like wild fire).But it had slowed down and now has completly stopped pulsing over the past 4 months.It's the elongata type that I picked up from Ronnie almost a year ago.I figured it would start to pulse more by dripping kalk in my sump and maintaining 8-8.2 PH,especially at night.
I also keep my Alk up around 9-11 DKH.It's not being beat to death by current from the PHs.It spread to the point of even climbing on the glass.
Just at a lose on why it just decided to stop pulsing.
Love it or hate it........still looks cool when it's pulsing like crazy.

 

[MisFit]

stingy,
Try dosing some iodine. I find that mine slow down when the iodine level drops. In fact Ive stopped using a test kit for idodine (annoying and pretty much useless anyway) and use the xenia as an indicator.

 

[stingythingy45]

Thanks Misfit,

I dosed some Kent iodine last night according to directions(1 cap per 50 system gallons).I generally dose every other week with iodine.I have a tank that is mostly softies anyways.

 

[stingythingy45]

I think I found the problem.
One of the biggest problems other than rock scape is flow in a 55 gallon.
Long narrow tank with a Maxijet mod pushing 1600 GPH was a little too much.
It seems that Maxijets unmodded seem to work better in a long narrow tank.
You can direct the flow cross tank a little better.
I replaced the mod with a MJ1200 and it wasn't an hour later and it started to pulse slowly again.

 

[JayM]

look at nanostreams if you want more flow than a stock mj, but better dispersed than a mjmod....

 

[stingythingy45]

The thing with the mjmosds is that they have such a wide dispersal that it's tough to direct the stream across the front beteen the rocks and the front glass.With a regular mj the stream seems to hold together longer till it reaches cross tank.Also mjmods pull in water from the back,this has a tendency of pulling everything in the area towards it(xenia).