TbSaysNo
Active Member
I'm so close to quitting this hobby and I have only been in it for a little over 8 months.
Spent 9k so far to have some “easy” beginner corals die on me. I have an advanced skimmer, a reef mat running 24/7, 2 Wavemakers with Dual output, 2 red sea led, and 90 gallons of water. I Got my first corals after 1.5 months (pocillopora, stylophora, montipora, candy cane, green mushroom, Duncan). They were showing very good colors, was super happy and everything was just good. I also got a blue tang, a yellow goby and a pistol shrimp, 2 expensive clownfish (the one that cost 183 USD jumped out of the tank one day), and a butterfly fish (which just disappeared one day). Got ich at some point, which killed all my fish except the goby and clown, and I had a QT up for 50 days which luckily eradicated ich I think (?) with the help of some super nice members on this forum (thank you so much).
since all my fish was gone from the aquarium, a lot of weird-looking creatures multiplied in my tank. I got 3 corals more (1 more montipora, a rare rainbow chalice, and one more expensive montipora). one day my montipora had a big chunk bitten off. I was confused, all the other corals were doing good and having some growth. I had made sure to dip all my corals when I got them so surely nothing could have come into the tank? wrong, I had montipora eating nudibranchs, which is a death sentence for the coral. I tried scrapping it twice a week, but nothing seemed to help. In the meantime, I got another clownfish as I felt bad for my clown to be alone, a fox face rabbitfish, and a regal angelfish. I finished my QT and fallow period at that time. I read online that a six-line wrasse will help against the nudibranchs so I got one of them as well. on delivery day I got 2 clownfish instead of the one I ordered. they go crazy on each other and I have to separate them and sell one of them.
luckily my new batch of fish is thriving and to this day, none of them has died all of them are feeding well and are nice to each other. I feed them frozen Mysis, frozen Artemia dipped in vitamin dip, frenzy pellets, formula 2 and 1 pellets, AF pellets m and s, AF algae pellets, algae sheets daily, easy masstick, and live black worms (they love that, especially the regal angel).
my montipora both ended up dying so I had to get some new corals that cannot be eaten by my nudibranchs. I get 2 cleaner shrimp, 6 different montipora worth 700 USD, and a euphyllia holy grail worth 220 USD, and they get delivered in October. on arrival they have all lost their colors, one of them has already white tips on delivery, and surprise, they all die shortly after in my tank except for my euphoria. I understand that was a very dumb move on my part, and that I should not have gotten them so early. this is when things went downhill. suddenly on my rainbow crush chalice, a white spot appears. it gets bigger and now my Duncan is completely retracted. my euphyllia is still happy, but every other coral is sad. this goes on for a while, and my chalice ends up shrinking to half its size, the Duncan ends up getting good again, the pocillopora and stylophora die, my mushroom gets 2x bigger and spreads (only coral that loves my aquarium), the euphyllia gets smaller and smaller and I'm pretty sure it is dead now. my candy cane also melts and dies. what happened? all my parameters were good? I do an ICP test
aluminum is 10x higher than recommended and zinc is 5x higher as well. where does it come from? to this day I still don't know, but I have done a lot of water changes since. I now only have 2 corals left, a Duncan which looks like it has been through a war zone but it looks happy today and a mushroom which has never felt a thing. 2 weeks ago I bought some lordhowenis corals which are said to be easy. it looks good today. I also bought some zoanthids corals. half my them are out and the other half is retracted. I got a new montipora which is looking okay, polyps are not completely out and a slight white area is forming on the bottom of it. my new euphyllia torch toxic green/black is looking super happy with widely expelled polyps. last but not least I also got a clam which died after 24 hours.
I have spent so much money on this and kept parameters good for the last 3 but corals are furious for some reason. back in the start when I did not have as much control of parameters, and where I did not keep them as stable my corals were 100x happier. I'm so close to quitting and going full-on FOWLR.
this was my rant, I just had to get it out there. Merry Christmas and I hope your corals are doing much better than mine.
Spent 9k so far to have some “easy” beginner corals die on me. I have an advanced skimmer, a reef mat running 24/7, 2 Wavemakers with Dual output, 2 red sea led, and 90 gallons of water. I Got my first corals after 1.5 months (pocillopora, stylophora, montipora, candy cane, green mushroom, Duncan). They were showing very good colors, was super happy and everything was just good. I also got a blue tang, a yellow goby and a pistol shrimp, 2 expensive clownfish (the one that cost 183 USD jumped out of the tank one day), and a butterfly fish (which just disappeared one day). Got ich at some point, which killed all my fish except the goby and clown, and I had a QT up for 50 days which luckily eradicated ich I think (?) with the help of some super nice members on this forum (thank you so much).
since all my fish was gone from the aquarium, a lot of weird-looking creatures multiplied in my tank. I got 3 corals more (1 more montipora, a rare rainbow chalice, and one more expensive montipora). one day my montipora had a big chunk bitten off. I was confused, all the other corals were doing good and having some growth. I had made sure to dip all my corals when I got them so surely nothing could have come into the tank? wrong, I had montipora eating nudibranchs, which is a death sentence for the coral. I tried scrapping it twice a week, but nothing seemed to help. In the meantime, I got another clownfish as I felt bad for my clown to be alone, a fox face rabbitfish, and a regal angelfish. I finished my QT and fallow period at that time. I read online that a six-line wrasse will help against the nudibranchs so I got one of them as well. on delivery day I got 2 clownfish instead of the one I ordered. they go crazy on each other and I have to separate them and sell one of them.
luckily my new batch of fish is thriving and to this day, none of them has died all of them are feeding well and are nice to each other. I feed them frozen Mysis, frozen Artemia dipped in vitamin dip, frenzy pellets, formula 2 and 1 pellets, AF pellets m and s, AF algae pellets, algae sheets daily, easy masstick, and live black worms (they love that, especially the regal angel).
my montipora both ended up dying so I had to get some new corals that cannot be eaten by my nudibranchs. I get 2 cleaner shrimp, 6 different montipora worth 700 USD, and a euphyllia holy grail worth 220 USD, and they get delivered in October. on arrival they have all lost their colors, one of them has already white tips on delivery, and surprise, they all die shortly after in my tank except for my euphoria. I understand that was a very dumb move on my part, and that I should not have gotten them so early. this is when things went downhill. suddenly on my rainbow crush chalice, a white spot appears. it gets bigger and now my Duncan is completely retracted. my euphyllia is still happy, but every other coral is sad. this goes on for a while, and my chalice ends up shrinking to half its size, the Duncan ends up getting good again, the pocillopora and stylophora die, my mushroom gets 2x bigger and spreads (only coral that loves my aquarium), the euphyllia gets smaller and smaller and I'm pretty sure it is dead now. my candy cane also melts and dies. what happened? all my parameters were good? I do an ICP test
aluminum is 10x higher than recommended and zinc is 5x higher as well. where does it come from? to this day I still don't know, but I have done a lot of water changes since. I now only have 2 corals left, a Duncan which looks like it has been through a war zone but it looks happy today and a mushroom which has never felt a thing. 2 weeks ago I bought some lordhowenis corals which are said to be easy. it looks good today. I also bought some zoanthids corals. half my them are out and the other half is retracted. I got a new montipora which is looking okay, polyps are not completely out and a slight white area is forming on the bottom of it. my new euphyllia torch toxic green/black is looking super happy with widely expelled polyps. last but not least I also got a clam which died after 24 hours.
I have spent so much money on this and kept parameters good for the last 3 but corals are furious for some reason. back in the start when I did not have as much control of parameters, and where I did not keep them as stable my corals were 100x happier. I'm so close to quitting and going full-on FOWLR.
this was my rant, I just had to get it out there. Merry Christmas and I hope your corals are doing much better than mine.
