xenia in sump

Tom Giddens · Nov 29, 2020

I am growing xenia in my sump hoping it will help drop my nitrates and phosphates. I did a search on reef2reef and did not find much. My question is will it work and do I have to light the section with the xenia or will they do ok with room light and light coming in the window?

esther · Nov 29, 2020

Check this out: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/a-xenia-refugium-pulsing-xenia-as-a-method-of-filtration.707504/

Tom Giddens · Nov 30, 2020

Thanks, interesting read but it does not really answer anything.

andrewkw · Nov 30, 2020

No you want to give them more light. More light will not only keep them healthy but allow them to grow fast. Like anything you are growing to remove nutrients, if they are not growing they are not removing. You want to give them a decent light. Decent does not have to mean expensive, I just mean don't expect a little pico light over a 24x24 area for example to lead to good results. A black box or similar of would more than suffice.

vetteguy53081 · Nov 30, 2020

They do well in sump as I have a few in mine
Provide good lighting and assure some flow and they’re happy
They will remove Some nitrate as long as you have a good number of them

A sea K · Nov 30, 2020

They do like nitrate but just like macro algae in the fuge you need to periodically harvest the zenia to actually remove the nitrate from your system.. Not a big deal though as it repopulates fairly quickly when in a good environment. As far as lighting I use a cheap led grow light from amazon and it seems to work just fine. I see no real need for much more light unless you are looking to absolutely maximize growth. Not sure how well xenia will react to too much light.