What does Xenia Thrive from

[Tropix]

My aquarium is newly setup, 8 months now, and just have been doing daily water changes, lol I do very long cycles, for the first 6-8 months I enjoy cleaner crew buildup stage. I added my first coral, Xenia.

I have all these products by Kent marine I bought when I had my last reef setup, anyways the question is which one will aid with the xenia.

Tectra-M Magnesium
Strontium & Molybdenum
Iodine
Essential Elemnts
Iron

Lighting - 4 55w power compacts 1 150watt PFO HQI

Thanks

[Tropix]

Just dosed with Iodine, should that be enough... I have nothing else in the system except for liverock and a couple sea stars and gobys

[WhoDat?]

Good lighting, good flow, good water... thats all you really need right now....

[IPowderBlueTang]

My Pink pulsating xenia grows like crazy. I add nothing, just good water and good lighting. My other tank if I add tropic marin my xenia gets upset and shrivels up for weeks.

[travis32]

your tank has been setup 8 months and just starting xenia???

[trigger:)]

I can notice the diffrence over night when i dose my nano iodine and Essential Elemnts. The xenia, mushrooms, brain, and frog spawn blossom! I do notice my toad stool, doesn't do as well! Maybe every tank is different? test each out, couldn't hurt!

[thegrun]

I would be slow to add Iodine to the tank, not much is known about what it does (if anything) to your tank. There are some studies that seem to concude it may do more harm than good.

[ctrl+f]

Originally Posted by trigger:)

I can notice the diffrence over night when i dose my nano iodine and Essential Elemnts. The xenia, mushrooms, brain, and frog spawn blossom! I do notice my toad stool, doesn't do as well! Maybe every tank is different? test each out, couldn't hurt!

Sure it could. Why would you add anything to your tank unless you know what it does and why you need it?

[terri_ann]

+1 the grun...many people ascribe to that if you don't or can't test it, don't dose it

[h2oimports]

if its pulsing xenia, keep you ph up. they will stop pulsing if it gets too low. ive experienced it before.

[Fibinotchi]

Your water changes will give everything the xenia needs. You shouldn't need to dose anything until your tank gets very populated.

[t00lfan]

I agree with water changes...I also have pink pulsating and it grows like weeds...I do not add iodine and it pulses and thrives. The tank I have it in is under pc lighting which seems to grow it the best...t5 it grows good however not like under the pc.

[PRDubois]

iodine

[spw4949]

In general I agree that you shouldn't dose what you cannot test for, with the exception of phyto I personally do not dose anything, just a 10 gallon H20 change EVERY 2 weeks......with that said I have read in a few different places(& I don't have links) that iodine will enhance the growth of xenia & kenya tree......if you do dose I would tell you start slow & do not overdose, if your using lugols concentrated iodine be very careful because it is quite easy to OD......

[Dun Properly]

Daily water changes? Not sure that is necessary.

My xenia grows like a weed. I do bi weekly water changes. I watch my ph (8.1-8.4), Alkalinity (8-12), calcuim (420+). Obviously ammonia, nitirites and nitrates are 0. I dose with Essential Elements as well.

My lighting isn't particularly strong either, but I do have good flow.

[Tropix]

Originally Posted by travis32

your tank has been setup 8 months and just starting xenia???

I have taken the slow route to the tank cycle, I have to many hobbies so and I read over and over again that most rush the cycle process so I just spent those 8 months focused on aquascaping, clean up crew and hardware upgrade and adjustments, just doing what I just said keeps me more then happy, for those OCD freaks that buy and get bored, well I forgot what I was going to say eff it.

[travis32]

Do you do anything to keep your bacteria colonies up? I waited 8 weeks to add fish, and may have waited too long may have had bacteria cultures die off. I would guess if there's been nothing in the tank for 8 months, you may have to recycle the tank.

[spw4949]

You know what Tropix, I think you went the smart route, there is nothing wrong with taking things slow, letting your system mature & waiting to add corals, as long as you have LR in there (I'm assuming you do) No need to re-cycle.....do you have any fish in there or are you going to do just corals?

[travis32]

Yeah I guess it would matter if it's going to be coral only or fish and corals.
If it's coral only then I agree it wouldn't matter. I only think it would matter some because there's nothing in the tank to build bacteria up and keep it alive to process fish waste and food.

But, if it's corals only then it doesn't matter at all. If adding fish, just add fish slowly.
Nothing wrong with it.

[Tropix]

Originally Posted by spw4949

You know what Tropix, I think you went the smart route, there is nothing wrong with taking things slow, letting your system mature & waiting to add corals, as long as you have LR in there (I'm assuming you do) No need to re-cycle.....do you have any fish in there or are you going to do just corals?

Yes, I have 40lbs of LR, 1 Fish and a sea star and some hermits. I am about to add a fish finally.