Xenia in fuge question

[Jeff]

I understand that Xenia is beneficial to water quality. I am not a fan of the way it looks and the invasive way it spreads. How are people keeping xenia in their fuge and not allowing it to enter their tank and start growing in the display tank?
Thanks in advance :).

[Frogmanx82]

Xenia spreads by splitting the stalks. I haven't seen xenia spring up anywhere by any other propagation method.

[Jeff]

I just sounds risky. What happens if a rock shifts or I move a rock full of it and some breaks loose and gets blown into the main display?

[Frogmanx82]

Its not as bad as algae. You can pull them off the rocks and squirt aiptasia x or joes juice on the remnants. Xenia is not going to come unattached from a rock because it moves anyway and if it does, it won't attach right away either.

[zachfishman]

Xenia can also propagate by dropping polyps. If one were to get sucked out into the tank you might find a big colony behind your rockwork one day.

Also, I understand that xenia love dirty water, but I don't know how beneficial they are to clean water.

[Jeff]

Has anybody done this successfully? By that I mean, keeping xenia in the fuge and not the display tank?

[Frick-n-Frags]

when i was going full guns coral propagating, i had all my xenia in one tank(i had 4 tanks online at the time) they crept up the sides leaving colonies behind mostly, then i would harvest like 50 when i hit 100colonies and sell or give them away. i couldnt give them away after a while, heh, i OD'd N ohio with xenia. they never got into the DT.

if you are thinking these are a good nutrient remover, IMO, they grow too slowly to do what a big tub of chaeto can do. same with aiptasia(now THAT's playing with fire :D)....

[Jeff]

Well, I have a few rocks covered in xenia and I thought that when I move all my stuff over to a new tank, I would put the xenia rocks in the fuge. I really don't want to take a chance that the xenia will make it's way into the display tank. I hate that stuff.

[strendo]

I've got Xenia growing all over my tank. I ply it off with small pliers, but little pieces of it always manage to float away-and start growing in a new spot. Real pita wished I never introduced it

[IslandCrow]

I don't think there's very much risk of xenia kept in a fuge or sump finding its way to the main tank, especially if you have a chamber or two between the fuge and the return pump. I used to keep xenia in my sump, and although I cannot say for sure since I had it in my main tank as well, I really don't think that any xenia from my sump found its way into the main tank. I kept a filter between my last chamber and the rest of the sump, and I never saw any bits of xenia caught in it.

Now, that said, I wouldn't believe all of the hype about xenia doing much of anything to "clean" your water. There is a lot more rumor than fact out there concerning what xenia use for a nitrogen source. Many seem to think it takes nitrates directly from the water, but I don't believe there's ever been any proof or even concrete evidence suggesting that. I'm also not a believer in the theory that it loves dirty water. I think it's just more tolerant of certain water conditions, but there are probably more than enough nutrients in the most sterile reef tanks to support xenia. Regardless of whether or not xenia uses some other source for energy, it's pretty certain that it gets most, if not all, of what it needs from its zooxanthallae, which means it's probably not pulling out anything you're going to notice from your water.

[frewd]

i had a xenia fuge and it never went into the display