Haard things about Reefing

[undercontrolj]

So i was sitting here looking at the tank tonight and I had a few thoughts.

1.Thought) Man MOST of the tank looks good. Notice the word most

2.Thought ) Growing corals is not the hard part the hard part is getting EVERYTHING to lok good and grow. Its easy to grow one thing and then for no apparent reason at all one coral starts going down hill. Thats what makes this hard. I sit here and think nothing has realy changed actually half my corals are growing fast than every then i got the Alabama Bonsi turning brown but has the polyps on it. I am sure that i am not the only one that thinks this way.

Share your thoughts on what you think makes reefing hard.

 

[NeedBiggerTank]

LOL - where do I start? The hardest thing for me (and frustrating, infuriating, embarrassing, yada-yada) has been the hair algae. I suck at gardening - what on earth made me think I could have a garden under water I'll never know!

 

[TinaFoster]

Keeping everything happy! And deciding what coral would look good where, when the entire tank is still practically bare!

 

[undercontrolj]

It's a labor of love.

 

[mapn4reef]

Power Outages and/or equipment failure when you're away from your tank on vacation/work which result in significant fish and/or coral deaths.

 

[pickupman66]

yup.. Labor of love. I have one coral I got that has not come back from when the power went out. I had to cut all the tips off it, and it just wont color back up. I did see some polyps on it, but all the other corals in the tank look stunning and have excellent extension, even the ones that were obtained last night are all extending polyps and looking good....

Jennie.. two words, ALGAE-FIX MARINE.

This was taken just after the swap

I just took this tonight. it had cleared up this much within a few weeks of the dosage. Keep in mind, that if you are getting HA, you need to attack its food source too. the nitrates and phosphates. I had pellets and GFO in place but they could not get over the hump. once I did the AFM, it hasnt returned.

 

[gmoney243]

Not goingbroke on payday is what makes reefing hard .. self control ;P

 

[NeedBiggerTank]

LOL good one gmoney243!

 

[Zef004]

time time time!!!!
And keep everything in check bud. and it will turn around. Ive had corals take a year to color back up.

 

[poolkeeper1]

Lighting Changes

So i was sitting here looking at the tank tonight and I had a few thoughts.

1.Thought) Man MOST of the tank looks good. Notice the word most

2.Thought ) Growing corals is not the hard part the hard part is getting EVERYTHING to lok good and grow. Its easy to grow one thing and then for no apparent reason at all one coral starts going down hill. Thats what makes this hard. I sit here and think nothing has realy changed actually half my corals are growing fast than every then i got the Alabama Bonsi turning brown but has the polyps on it. I am sure that i am not the only one that thinks this way.

Share your thoughts on what you think makes reefing hard.

Well one of those things may be as simple as the change in lighting it was used to! In your system everything is most likely different than what is was used to, And SPS turning Brown but still having Polyp ext is most likely it getting used to you lighting. And what suprised me was how long this can actually take to color back up after the change, It can take several months before you see improvement.
I had one Coral for Many years and was just always brown, Then one day it turned into one of my Favorite pieces, You just never know!
Bill:squigglemouth:

 

[Dowtish]

I have to agree with gmoney on the spending part, and just being able to have some contentment that last longer than a week. i'll stare at my tank, and I can always find something "wrong", or something i want to change.

My most recent pain is dealing with frags not staying in their place. Due to either inverts at night, or just the super glue/ epoxy not working for me. This is probably somewhat due to operator/decorator error.

 

[undercontrolj]

I wish it was that simple bill but the lighting did not change. That's what makes this hard. Same things day in and day out on the tank then one day coral turns brown while everything else is growing like weeds.

I agree with Dowtish frags getting knocked around is a hard thing
To deal with especially when it falls into a frog spawn and dies overnight.

 

[Zef004]

You may have flatworms or red bugs. That can turn acros brown and have PE.