Corals that thrive & those that just survive or die! Plus how old is your oldest?

[revhtree]

Happy hump day!

There are those of us (not me) who have the "blue thumb" and can grow every type of coral they touch successfully and long term into massive colonies that need multiple fraggings every year! But then there are those reefers, like me, who are very successful with certain types of corals but then are not able to have success with another. Let's talk about it today!

1. What one coral thrives the best in your reef aquarium?

2. What corals seem to struggle to survive or even die in your reef aquarium?

3. What is your oldest coral and how long have you had it?

PC Superman via @DivingTheWorld

 

[Swordsman82]

1.) I have a Duncan that Is massive. It currently has 4 large heads that are about 2 inch diameter a piece. I have had it for about a 6 months, and it just now started to grow other heads.

2.) I can't keep Chalice corals to save my life. I am currently having some success with Hollywood Stunner, but all others have failed

3.) My oldest is the good old red mushroom. First coral and test coral that just walks around in its own little corner of the tank.

 

[CanuckReefer]

Happy hump day!

There are those of us (not me) who have the "blue thumb" and can grow every type of coral they touch successfully and long term into massive colonies that need multiple fraggings every year! But then there are those reefers, like me, who are very successful with certain types of corals but then are not able to have success with another. Let's talk about it today!

1. What one coral thrives the best in your reef aquarium?

2. What corals seem to struggle to survive or even die in your reef aquarium?

3. What is your oldest coral and how long have you had it?

PC Superman via @DivingTheWorld

1. Duncan, continually thriving/ growing.
2. GSP- tried several times, some would call this a blessing lol...
3. Oldest are a few various types of mushrooms, can't remember which one I got first....

 

[SauceyReef]

My 11 year old Scoly that likes to change colors. When we got it it was huge. I can only imagine it’s actual age

 

[ZoWhat]

Aiptasia

After a nuclear destruction of the planet, cockroachs and aiptasia will be the only two things to survive

 

[duesmortem]

I try to keep SPS in my mixed reef, but they also lose their color and turn brown Even after lowering my nutrient levels I still don't see them going back to their original colors

 

[Tundra Cuttle]

For a long time most of my corals were just barely surviving. Some zoas grew new heads and other didn't while others still melted entirely. Hammers and torch were suffering. Candy canes and Duncans were taking off. Chalices were not doing well, my Miami hurricane browned out and started losing flesh right after I bought it, mummy eye chalice was surviving but didn't grow at all. Acan was looking good. It turn out my constant hair algae issue was bottoming out nutrients almost constantly. Shut that tank down and started over with a new system and everything is doing well and after 3 months I am starting to get new heads on my zoas and my chalices are growing and my hammers are coming back to life vigorously.

 

[Paul B]

I dont remember ever buying a coral. (typing with left hand) But this gorgonian on the left I see in my old pictures and may be 15 or 20 years old. But I am guessing. That hammer is also up there but not that old. Maybe10, but guessing again. They were both fragged many times. Mst of my montipora was overtaken by encrusting sponges and those are probably about 10 or 15. My Duncan has maybe 30 heads, I don'tknow

 

[Sharkbait19]

Mushroom corals have always been troublesome in my reef, and I cannot ever keep them thriving. From massive colonies I’ve bought, I only have a few left that are hanging on. It feels like mushroom corals need a lot more stability and care than people give them credit for.

A good number of my corals just survive, not really growing much but certainly not unhealthy. This includes my trumpet, lithophyllon, and blasto corals.

Some of my corals that thrive and grow at a fast and steady rate are my torch coral, my xenia, and my captain jerk palys.

My first and oldest coral is a lobophytum leather that I got way before I knew anything about coral care. I just stuck it in the sandbed, and it slowly but steadily grew. I’ve had it for exactly nine months. The funny thing about this one is that I’ve tried moving it to other areas, but it doesn’t do well in any place except the precise spot it has had since day one.
Here’s two pics, one of it when I bought it, and one of it today.

 

[Paul B]

I just checked, those are not all dunkins, those are hammers. I only have about 20 or so dunkins.
Of course my corals die, I just don't know their names.

 

[CanuckReefer]

I dont remember ever buying a coral. (typing with left hand) But this gorgonian on the left I see in my old pictures and may be 15 or 20 years old. But I am guessing. That hammer is also up there but not that old. Maybe10, but guessing again. They were both fragged many times. Mst of my montipora was overtaken by encrusting sponges and those are probably about 10 or 15. My Duncan has maybe 30 heads, I don'tknow

That Gorg is a beaut Paul.

 

[Rocketfish]

All of my SPS and LPS corals are doing great with awesome color. Cyphastria and short tentacle gonis do terrible. Some zoas do great and multiply like.crazy and others never form new heads and just survive. Acans did okay until a file fish took out all 4 of them in one night. Rock flower nems and ricordia are doing well, but rhodactus do terrible.

I do maintain a very low nutrient system. Close to zero phosphate and nitrate by dosing NoPox, with daily high doses of AB+. All of this in a 30 gallon nano tank. Still dialing in numbers for optimal coloration. It's certainly not perfect, but the coloration of what I really want is doing very good.

 

[Bribo12]

In my old tank birdsnest was a weed, now it just sits there not doing anything...
My red planet, star fire acro, bonsai and frozen apple zoas are all growing very quickly!

 

[redfishbluefish]

My longest coral is about 15 years old. I got it as a Wellsophyllia, and then there was this big debate and argument around 2010 or so that Wellso's don't exist, and that they are all Trachyphyllia geoffroy . This reclassification lasted a number or years, and then the powers to be announced that Wellso's do exist, and I had my Wellsophyllia back. It will always be a Wellso to me.

Now I almost lost this guy about five or six years ago when I had put it in my sump and didn't realize that Xenia was overgrowing this coral. By the time I noticed, about half was retracted, and two smaller pieces were now growing below the big one. You can see them on the left (larger of the two) and front left (smaller one). It's now the center piece of my DT.....where it belongs.

Now I also have the original lineage of my Trumpet coral for just as long. I say lineage because every time I'd move it (a softball size+) it would break into 30-40 frags and I'd start over. I've done that maybe four times. The mini colony I have from the original is about 30 heads or so right now.

 

[Azedenkae]

Not a coral, but I have a mini-maxi carpet anemone that is thriving, and has been thriving since I added after three weeks of cycling. It does not seem to care at all about what transpires around it, regardless of anything else dying or algae growing or whatever. It's just like, yeah whatevs.

I also have clove and glove polyps that keep growing, so that's cool.

Xenia though don't do well in my tank. D:

 

[Aldrinlights]

Cant keep gonies for some reason. Everything else SPS LPS softies are all growing fine

 

[sfin52]

My oldest corals are finger leather, shroom and gsp bought in 2014.

They are the only three that survived dinos in 2017. The leather and gsp have been fragged many times. The leather was cut into 3 last year.

 

[NashobaTek]

I have exactly 1 coral, lol a toadstool that's 11/2 yrs old. Growing slow but steady.

 

[James_O]

1. What one coral thrives the best in your reef aquarium?

2. What corals seem to struggle to survive or even die in your reef aquarium?

3. What is your oldest coral and how long have you had it?

1. Simple/beginner palys.

2. Well right now, it’s my sad excuse of a torch, but I believe it was fragged way to soon, which is why it’s doing so terrible.

3. Hehe, only been keeping corals for about 3 weeks - not sure of the age of my corals, but my cinnamon Palythoa as got to be at least a month or two old, because of its size. ;Bucktooth

 

[Ellery]

Happy hump day!

There are those of us (not me) who have the "blue thumb" and can grow every type of coral they touch successfully and long term into massive colonies that need multiple fraggings every year! But then there are those reefers, like me, who are very successful with certain types of corals but then are not able to have success with another. Let's talk about it today!

1. What one coral thrives the best in your reef aquarium?

2. What corals seem to struggle to survive or even die in your reef aquarium?

3. What is your oldest coral and how long have you had it?

PC Superman via @DivingTheWorld

1. What one coral thrives the best in your reef aquarium?
Most corals do well but depends on which of the 6 tanks in my 500g system they are in. I run the same water parameters with different lighting and flow in each. The nutrient levels may also be slightly different pending if it has a sand bed or not.

2. What corals seem to struggle to survive or even die in your reef aquarium?
I used to never be able to keep any Micromussa Lords but now it's Goniopora due to the high Manganese and Iron uptake.

3. What is your oldest coral and how long have you had it?
My oldest coral is just a Toadstool leather for over 25 years which shouldn't be surprising.
My oldest SPS is my ORA Red Planet for maybe 16 years.