Fishheaded's Nano Tank

[Mr.September15]

The clown better watch its wrasse then . Post pictures please! I would love to see the xenia.

 

[Redstratplayer1]

The clown better watch its wrasse then .

jk

 

[fishheaded]

The clown better watch its wrasse then . Post pictures please! I would love to see the xenia.

Lol. Sure I'll post some pics as soon as my xenia opens up. It's been about 4 hours and my xenia still hasn't opened up yet. It looks better then how it was when I first put it in, but how long before they open? Also my sixline is doing good. He is still acclimating himself, he's just shady and stays around the rocks, all up in the crevices and such. Him and the clown didn't seem to have any problems really. Well hopefully the xenia will open, so tomorrow ill post some pics.
-FishHeaded

 

[SkiFletch]

Xenia can take anywhere from hours to a couple days to open up. If it doesnt, that could be a sign that your pH or salinity is out of whack . Lots of reefkeepers (myself included) use Xenia as a kind of saltwater Canary. Just like Miners used to use canaries as signals to when deadly gasses were being releaded in a mine (canaries would pass out from CO poisoning before a man), Xenia will close up when parameters in the tank are way out of whack.

When my refractometer drifted on me my Xenia let me know by closing up. I was up to 1.029sg and didnt know it, thankfully I brought water in to my LFS for testing and they found out I needed to re-cal the hydrometer

 

[fishheaded]

Xenia can take anywhere from hours to a couple days to open up. If it doesnt, that could be a sign that your pH or salinity is out of whack . Lots of reefkeepers (myself included) use Xenia as a kind of saltwater Canary. Just like Miners used to use canaries as signals to when deadly gasses were being releaded in a mine (canaries would pass out from CO poisoning before a man), Xenia will close up when parameters in the tank are way out of whack.

When my refractometer drifted on me my Xenia let me know by closing up. I was up to 1.029sg and didnt know it, thankfully I brought water in to my LFS for testing and they found out I needed to re-cal the hydrometer

Yeah, I was reading about them and xenias can be very helpful. Well, I just got home from the lfs and bought some more snails. (2 cerith, 2 nassarius, and 1 astrea) to add to the rest of the six snails already in there. Well I got to my room to look at my tank and my xenias did open up a little, they are open but not as open as they were at my lfs. They were huge before I bought em. Well the thing is right now they are open and close, open and close repeatedly. Can someone tell me why they are doing that? Also I noticed on the live rock there is something that looks like a cobweb or spiderweb? What is that?
-FishHeaded

 

[fishheaded]

Lol, nevermind about the xenia opening and closing, hence the name "pulsating coral" Haha, but I still want to know what that cobweb type stuff on my LR? Well I repositioned my xenia, it was on the substrate, but then I moved it upward more, onto my LR, in a little crevice. Does it matter that the xenia's stem isn't straight up, because I think it is tilted. Got some questions:
1) how do you attach corals onto LR?
2) how would I know if my xenia is getting too much or too little of flow?
3) why is it so much smaller then it was at the fish store?
Sorry for such noob questions. I'll post pics as soon as I get a better camera.
Also the sixline is awesome! I think him and the ocellaris clown are buddies. They tend to swim near each other, usually not farther then 1 inch apart.
-FishHeaded

 

[Mr.September15]

Lol, nevermind about the xenia opening and closing, hence the name "pulsating coral" Haha, but I still want to know what that cobweb type stuff on my LR? Well I repositioned my xenia, it was on the substrate, but then I moved it upward more, onto my LR, in a little crevice. Does it matter that the xenia's stem isn't straight up, because I think it is tilted. Got some questions:
1) how do you attach corals onto LR?
2) how would I know if my xenia is getting too much or too little of flow?
3) why is it so much smaller then it was at the fish store?
Sorry for such noob questions. I'll post pics as soon as I get a better camera.
Also the sixline is awesome! I think him and the ocellaris clown are buddies. They tend to swim near each other, usually not farther then 1 inch apart.
-FishHeaded

Yes yes homosexuality can be seen in the marine world. . lol jk. You can attach the coral onto L.R by tying it down with some string. That's what i've seen with some people who frag.

 

[SkiFletch]

Lol, nevermind about the xenia opening and closing, hence the name "pulsating coral" Haha, but I still want to know what that cobweb type stuff on my LR? Well I repositioned my xenia, it was on the substrate, but then I moved it upward more, onto my LR, in a little crevice. Does it matter that the xenia's stem isn't straight up, because I think it is tilted. Got some questions:
1) how do you attach corals onto LR?
2) how would I know if my xenia is getting too much or too little of flow?
3) why is it so much smaller then it was at the fish store?
Sorry for such noob questions. I'll post pics as soon as I get a better camera.
Also the sixline is awesome! I think him and the ocellaris clown are buddies. They tend to swim near each other, usually not farther then 1 inch apart.
-FishHeaded

1) superglue gel. Even dries underwater and is non-toxic
2) its hard to give xenia too little flow. if you give it too much flow, it'll look like its ready to blow over in the wind
3) either it likes your light better, or its still just stressed.

 

[fishheaded]

1) superglue gel. Even dries underwater and is non-toxic
2) its hard to give xenia too little flow. if you give it too much flow, it'll look like its ready to blow over in the wind
3) either it likes your light better, or its still just stressed.

Yeah, cause I tried putting the xenia on the LR twice now, and he keeps getting blown off or jumping off onto the substrate (landed on same spot twice). Also what is the cobweb looking like stuff, I think my sixline is producing it but I have no idea?

 

[fishheaded]

Yeah, cause I tried putting the xenia on the LR twice now, and he keeps getting blown off or jumping off onto the substrate (landed on same spot twice). Also what is the cobweb looking like stuff, I think my sixline is producing it but I have no idea?

Okay, nevermind. I guess the sixline has to produce the cobweb to protect itself when it's sleeping. Well I got some pics with my horrible camera, I'll post better ones when I get a better camera :

As you can see the xenia has not been repositioned and is still on the substrate:

FTS:

 

[fishheaded]

Ok, well as I was feeding my fish, I picked up the xenia to put it back on my LR. I noticed that the xenia is basically almost disconnected from the small rubble rock it was on. I put it on the LR, but the root or stem is not straight, it is horizontal instead of vertical. Is it possible that the xenia can hop onto my LR?

 

[SkiFletch]

It can/will move as it grows. Btw, your tank looks GREAT. I'm so jealous of you Brits, we get horrible quality LR compared to yours. Stupid laws.

 

[Redstratplayer1]

ski bit off topic but ReefScience has the best live rock i have ever seen .
Also the brits have to pay like $12 bucks a pound for live rock

 

[SkiFletch]

ski bit off topic but ReefScience has the best live rock i have ever seen .
Also the brits have to pay like $12 bucks a pound for live rock

Yeah, but I'd rather pay the $12 a pound for the stuff they get. The collection procedures are not as stringent and the storage and transportation methods used in the UK are WAY better than even the best US shipment. They actually ship thier LR from the collectors to the mainland distributors inside water, what a concept . The US distributors want it now and they want it cheap, and all the collection methods and storage shows, our rock has way less life than theirs

Thanks for that link though

 

[fishheaded]

It can/will move as it grows. Btw, your tank looks GREAT. I'm so jealous of you Brits, we get horrible quality LR compared to yours. Stupid laws.

Wow, thank you Ski, I never thought I would get such a complement from a reef genius That made my day, lol. Oh yeah, and I live in the United States in Arizona. I was just lucky that my LFS had these huge rocks. Honestly I thought these rocks were horrible, I was even thinking of breaking them up into smaller pieces.