Melt Xenia? Or is it Zenia?

[Sean]

I have read where otherwise healthy tanks can cause Xenia to completely melt. I want to know your secret! I have a 130 that has had an explosion (over the past 12 months) of Xenia and it is impossible to control. It has gotten to the point where I am considering just taking the tank apart and starting over. First it took over the Zoas and mushrooms. It has now killed all of my SPS and most of my LPS.

Do I need to cook the live rock in trashcans in the garage to get rid of this stuff? I hate to take such drastic steps if something as simple as a salinity adjustment can do the trick. I put a couple chocolate chip stars in there and they have an appetite for the Xenia but I would need a dozen of the stars just to keep up with the growth. It has spread to every corner of the tank and the sump as well.

The tank has been established for a couple years. It is full of live rock and the tank was growing anything I put in there. I am running a combination of six t5 actinic along with two MH lights. I have tried running without lights for weeks at a time and the "WEED" doesn't care. I am running a 55 gallon sump with a sock, a basketball size bunch of cheato and a 5 inch sand bed. I also have a UV filter but I don’t run it often. (I haven’t turned it on since I established the tank.)

I am talking about the flowing xenia, not the pulsing. The flowing took over and killed all of the pulsing... It looked cool at first b/c it added nice movement to the tank but it quickly got out of control.

Any suggestions?

Edited September 26, 2009 by Sean

[innate1]

Xenia is one of those corals that can become a weed. I like it. the motion it gives the tank is just awesome. I'd yank out as much as you can and meet a whole bunch of new people by trading or giving it away. Make a buffer zone around the corals you don't want over run and spend your time weeding the garden there.

[Sean]

It has gotten beyond what weeding can solve. Every piece of LR is at least half covered with the stuff. It is even growing inside the overflows and down-flow tubes... It evidently doesn't need much light to spread.

[mhart032]

High ammonia will kill it. and heat or cold will kill it. i had a really nice piece and when i had my ammonia spike it killed it. everything else was good but the xenia. I say cold cause i also had another piece in a bucket over night and it got cooled and didnt make it..

[Sean]

Thanks for the tips, I will try to get an ammonia spike and turn off the heater as well. Not sure how to spike the ammonia in such an established tank but it is worth the effort if I can get this stuff to melt. =-)

[mhart032]

just wait a couple weeks when you do a water change. but make sure its not to high or you may kill everything else. just a heads up it also killed 90% of my sps too

[Chad and Belinda]

You have it growning out of control and I've managed to kill every stalk of Zenia I have ever put into any tank I've owned. I'll try to figure out my little secret and pass it on.

[Bill B]

just wait a couple weeks when you do a water change. but make sure its not to high or you may kill everything else. just a heads up it also killed 90% of my sps too

Just wanted to chime in that intentionally causing a spike could be the proverbial cutting off your nose.... Unless you've intentionally done this before it sounds mighty risky.

JMO

(Not to be too patronizing but are you sure this is Xenia and not Aptasia? When they are small they do look a little similar.)

Bill

[PeeperKeeper]

You could do a little experiment and set up a small 10 gallon tank or maybe even just a bucket and spike the ammonia there (put some dead fish in it to rot) and set the rocks with the xenia in there for a day or two. See what it takes to kill it. I agree that spiking your whole tank could be disastrous. Aside from raising the ammonia in the first place to do the job, as soon as all that xenia starts dying, you'll get an even larger spike. That's why I'd just do a few rocks at a time.

As for the overflows, sump, etc. I guess all you can do is try your best to scrape it out. Once you get most of it knocked down, your stars can keep up better.

[overkill]

xenia is a climber!!!!! train on to back glass it will allways grow toward the light and is easy to remove that way. to slow its growth add more soft coral like colt corals. finger leathers etc... xenias a fast grower trimm aggresively with pruning and competition for trace elements it should slow it down. warning this things growth seems directly related to iodide supplementation if you dose that may be why its growing out of controll this coral is found growing at the outflow pipes for raw sewage so it prefers a nutrient rich tank .cut back on planktonic foods