Farms: Xenia bed filter research report
Productivity | Information | History | View | Quality
We use xenia to filter our coral farm water. Xenia use many waste products that can cause unwanted algae growth.We needed to develop ways to make this coral easy to produce because this is one of the best corals for small scale farmers to grow. Xenia tend to be very hard to ship. The best types of Xenia pulse and have great shapes that are not like any other common soft coral. People read about Xenia and this creates demand. Many people who purchase Xenia do not read about this corals needs. Xenia tend to over grow their aquarium. If these crowded corals are stressed then they will often crash. This combination of high demand and hard shipping makes this coral group a good one for local production. Small Xenia that have been grown in captive reefs for several generations are much more hardy than wild collected Xenia. These captive strains ship much better than any wild Xenia we have ever purchased.
Comments
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xeinia swimming crab are they safe in my tank
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Wow! Revisting this page after a long time and I realized that there is so much misinformation and misinformed views on this page. First and foremost, Xenia coral in general,is not desirable in a reef tank. The coral is an invasive species and will literally overtake and suffocate many corals if left unchecked. It does nothing to control algae or cyanobacteria and doesn't process nitrate. It's only benefits are that it does have a usable ability to absorb phosphates, which is usually much less of a concern in most reef tanks, assuming good water quality, than nitrates, anyway. It's pulsing and random swaying in currents are appealing to some people, especially blue and golden Indian ocean varieties but it can overtake a reef system and once it does it can spread out of control. I've often heard it's sensitive to and does not fair well in temps around 82 F or above. So if you don't feel like pulling live rock from your tank piece by piece and scrubbing it with a brush and decide to go the higher temp increase way of getting rid of xenia make damn sure you tank has a gracious plenty of circulation, and surface agitation, if you take your tank to 83 F or more. 84-85 can be dangerous for extended periods. Remember, it's a closed system, not a natural reef ecosystem.
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I was in my local Petco about a month ago, unfortunately closest other LFS is 30min away, and couldn't help but laugh. They were selling Xenia 1"x1" frags on square tiles for like $30 which is insane. I bought a 3" wide by 4" tall colony at a frag show for only $10 about a year ago. Since then it has grown to a "massive grove" taking over 1/2 of a corner in a 55 gallon tank with some stalks over 1/2" in diameter and 6" tall. Never pay more than about $10 for a large frag of Xenia unless you're buying a massive colony. The species is invasive in most reef tanks with aquarists having to continually prune out colony's, many reefers curse it as they give it away. To it's credit it does absorb phosphates pretty well and will grow under just about any type of lighting, and is a good "filler" coral for reef tanks due it's swaying and pulsing action in currents. It is also immune to most stings or chemical attacks by other corals except frogspawn, most hammers, and some anemones.
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I have tons of xenia in my tank grows like weeds doesnt control algae cause well i still get algae and its all over my tank its pretty and well if tyou wanna get rid of it just turn it temp on your heater it will start to crash at around 77 degrees aptasia i took care of that by butane lighter and a peppermint shrimp still have 1 big aptasia but my peppermint keep any more from showing up and my 2 maroons like it. BTW if you have any torch frogspawn hammer corals they will string the crap outa xenia and keep it at bay
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Your'e the idiots buying from Garf, when clearly they're illiterate..2:05..
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Xenia being so sensative to ph swings how could they be used like this. Algae scrubber is ten times easier and more cost affective
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butterflyfishes damage the corals a lot
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I agree, dont buy from garf, aptasia all over the xenia melt away and when you complain sally just ignores your calls and email, cant believe they are still around what a joke, and they try to help teach kids, whatever
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yes, they could live in saltwater, but you need to slowly change the water saltiness in another aquarium.
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is that a molly in a saltwater tank ?!?!?!?!?!?