Pulsing Xenia’s and Nitrates

gibbs.david

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Do Pulsing Xenia’s consume Nitrates. The reason for asking is I want to remove the Xenia from my tank as it’s becoming a bit of a pest
 

Lasse

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As all photosynthetic organism – they do consume inorganic nutrients including NH3/NH4 and NO3. As a fast-growing species, they can bind rather much nitrogen, hence consume a lot of NO3 (or NH3/NH4 before it becomes NO3). A huge colony can affect your NO3 levels rather much (lower them).


Sincerely Lasse
 

ScottR

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BRS talked about this. I think it was Ryan that said his xenia kept his tank clean.
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

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As Lasse mentions, all photosynthetic organisms take up nitrogen and would have the effect of lowering nitrate. Xenia can be fast growing, so may take up more than slower growing organisms, but maybe not as fast as a macroalgae.
 
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gibbs.david

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That raises a very awkward question. Do I remove them from my tank. It is quite a large colony, to large to be honest but sounds like the tank may benefit from their presence. If I remove, will I regret it. A tough one!
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

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That raises a very awkward question. Do I remove them from my tank. It is quite a large colony, to large to be honest but sounds like the tank may benefit from their presence. If I remove, will I regret it. A tough one!

You will likely need to remove some of it it periodically, just like macroalgae in a refugium. :)
 

Ardeus

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What about BTA's? They are fast growers too.

I have a mixed reef and there's over 20 BTA's in the main display and I catch the ocasional wanderer and put it in the refugium.

Can they work as mechanical filtration and remove nutrients if I get about 30 of them in the refugium? Just today I gave a few to a friend.
 

clm65

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I’ve heard of some people putting them in their refugium in place of algae.
 

lbacha

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I have a part of my sump full of Xenia and I have to dose nitrates even with heavy feeding and only 8 hrs of my macro fuge running. I’ve considered taking the macro fuge offline and turning the Xenia fuge to run at night to help keep my ph up (my main reason for the macro fuge). The only reason I done is I have a pair of clown in the Xenia fuge that live it down there and my wife likes to see them during the day
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

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What about BTA's? They are fast growers too.

I have a mixed reef and there's over 20 BTA's in the main display and I catch the ocasional wanderer and put it in the refugium.

Can they work as mechanical filtration and remove nutrients if I get about 30 of them in the refugium? Just today I gave a few to a friend.

Anemones may actually get a lot of nitrogen from particulate foods, and certainly if you feed them chunks of stuff. They may, in that scenario, be a source (like a fish) rather than a sink for soluble nitrogen like nitrate.
 

Ardeus

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Anemones may actually get a lot of nitrogen from particulate foods, and certainly if you feed them chunks of stuff. They may, in that scenario, be a source (like a fish) rather than a sink for soluble nitrogen like nitrate.

The idea is not feeding them at all and let them catch whatever reaches the refugium.
 

RicanKing

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kinda would like to bring this thread back up and see what people think. I currently have a refugium with Ulva and I certainly am considering another avenue for nutrient export and I like this idea of the xenia or even anomes in the sump
 

RicanKing

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kinda would like to bring this thread back up and see what people think. I currently have a refugium with Ulva and I certainly am considering another avenue for nutrient export and I like this idea of the xenia or even anomes in the sump
 

CanuckReefer

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kinda would like to bring this thread back up and see what people think. I currently have a refugium with Ulva and I certainly am considering another avenue for nutrient export and I like this idea of the xenia or even anomes in the sump
No fuge or sump, but I do have an ever growing Xenia colony in my 90g main display. Let me tell you it eats nitrates like a boss. I have started to frag it off now, trying to keep it in check. Being I have no mech filtration / skimmer and my Nitrates are steady around 10 , the Xenia is acting as an export scrubber quite nicely! I am also considering a small fuge for the stuff so I can pull 1/2 of it from my display, and keep it to a more reasonable size.
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

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kinda would like to bring this thread back up and see what people think. I currently have a refugium with Ulva and I certainly am considering another avenue for nutrient export and I like this idea of the xenia or even anomes in the sump

Xenia grew a lot in my tank, then declined. No idea why.

I don't think any anemones grow anywhere near as fast (and hence uptake nutrients more slowly) than many macroalgae.

That said, if you like growing these things and nutrient export is not needing to be optimized, it's a fine plan, IMO.

IME, the most efficient macroalgae is caulerpa racemosa, but you may not want to use that since it can become invasive and hard to remove from the main tank without certain fish.

Chaetomorpha strikes a good balance between fast growth and not an invasion problem.
 

RicanKing

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Xenia grew a lot in my tank, then declined. No idea why.

I don't think any anemones grow anywhere near as fast (and hence uptake nutrients more slowly) than many macroalgae.

That said, if you like growing these things and nutrient export is not needing to be optimized, it's a fine plan, IMO.

IME, the most efficient macroalgae is caulerpa racemosa, but you may not want to use that since it can become invasive and hard to remove from the main tank without certain fish.

Chaetomorpha strikes a good balance between fast growth and not an invasion problem.
Thank you for a response
 
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