Coral Troubleshooting/LIVE food

[Liquid360]

Everyone has had problems with losing coral. If you haven't, just wait. I had a problem with corals slowly dying over timescales of a few months. When you consider things logically, there aren't that many factors to consider. You have placement, flow, light, chemistry, and food. All but the last are easy and need only a google search or advice from your retailer. What I've discovered is that food is the big "secret". I began spending all of my tank time working on the microfauna. It was VERY expensive. Various types of live phytoplankton are pricey as are isopods, and various types of copepods. Almost all of these, save the isopods, are all but invisible and you can't really test for them unless you have a microscope. I began a long term trial/error methodology. In the end, I can't tell you what worked, but it worked. I very likely overdid it, but it changed my coral completely. I've just begun making my own phyto and I have a small ten gallon tank I use for pods filled with live rock. Every month I exchange some of the pod infested live rock with rock from my sump. I feed LIVE phyto to my display tank a few times a week.
Water chemistry, lighting, placement, and flow is something which wasn't a problem.
We'd all do much better if we spent as much money and time on the microfauna as we do on those other factors. Dead coral food will never be the same as or as good as live food, but should only be a supplement, not a primary food source.
If you're having a problem losing coral and you have good L/F/P/C, focus on your live feed sources!!! This applies to your LPS, SPS, and fish. Live food is the basis for everything in your tank.
Thanks for letting me vent [emoji4]