Just can't do corals

[Aparker2005]

Hey everyone. Been feeling a little depressed about our 125 lately as most all of our corals have unfortunately died/withered away. Life has unfortunately been very busy with my wife and daughter both having sickness they were dealing with, as well as both of our jobs being very busy lately. This has caused the mixed reef to be less tended to, causing a spike in nitrates and less than needed water changes.

Fish and inverts have all done great and are looking better than ever. However, our tank looks just bland and mostly rock now on the "reef" side of things.

We lost all of our favorite torches, frogspawn, and sps.

Zoas, plays, finger leathers, gsp, toadstools, and anemones however are all growing.

I haven't had time to check numbers like I should and do tank maintenence like I said.

Looking like the wife and I are gonna focus more on fish and just getting simple, easy corals we know we can take care of with our schedules lately.

Any tips or optimism for going through this cycle?

Here's our tank now. Filtration is 3x Seachem tidal filters with mechanical and bio media. Lights are Current USA R24 52wx4, and r24 95w x2.

 

[fish farmer]

Grow out the softies.

My tank went though a similar cycle when I didn't maintain it well for a couple years, had a major GHA issue and nitrate and phosphate numbers were high. All my LPS perished.

I got back on track and got back into growing LPS, but during that time my softies were still doing extremely well, mushrooms, palys, some zoas, nepthia.

If you find the time in the future, you can always try an easy LPS in the same tank.

 

[vabben]

Maybe check PAR levels, especially with the SPS. Also, ICP can shed some light on issues that might be going on.

 

[bobnicaragua]

You don’t need to test anything on a mostly softy tank. Keep up with your water changes, and your good.

Mix your saltwater in a big brute trash can and just roll it to the tank when you need it.

 

[blecki]

My advice: Buy more zoas.

 

[Aparker2005]

You don’t need to test anything on a mostly softy tank. Keep up with your water changes, and your good.

Mix your saltwater in a big brute trash can and just roll it to the tank when you need it.

That's what I currently do, just haven't had the time to do it weekly lately like I should. Really just wish we could keep euphylia and a few montis. Our tank used to be so gorgeous. But.... Skipping out on maintenance, this will always happen.

We'll bounce back once things settle down some. We're just glad the fish, inverts, and corals we have left are doing so well

 

[blecki]

Maybe doing reef moonshiners is right for you? There are tanks out there growing the highest end acros with zero waterchanges using a combination of ICP testing and dosing.

 

[VintageReefer]

Read my tank thread. It will hit home
Avoid sps for your lifestyle. Lps can be a beautiful tank

 

[vimarys]

Hey everyone. Been feeling a little depressed about our 125 lately as most all of our corals have unfortunately died/withered away. Life has unfortunately been very busy with my wife and daughter both having sickness they were dealing with, as well as both of our jobs being very busy lately. This has caused the mixed reef to be less tended to, causing a spike in nitrates and less than needed water changes.

Fish and inverts have all done great and are looking better than ever. However, our tank looks just bland and mostly rock now on the "reef" side of things.

We lost all of our favorite torches, frogspawn, and sps.

Zoas, plays, finger leathers, gsp, toadstools, and anemones however are all growing.

I haven't had time to check numbers like I should and do tank maintenence like I said.

Looking like the wife and I are gonna focus more on fish and just getting simple, easy corals we know we can take care of with our schedules lately.

Any tips or optimism for going through this cycle?

Here's our tank now. Filtration is 3x Seachem tidal filters with mechanical and bio media. Lights are Current USA R24 52wx4, and r24 95w x2.

I’m so sorry to hear this! I live in Arkansas too if you have any mushrooms you don’t want to keep anymore I would be interested!

 

[MariahP]

Agreed with all the above - just lean in on the softies. To be honest, some of the best looking tanks I’ve seen on here are softie and lps dominant!!

 

[Reef Racket]

Sorry to hear about this but from the photo you still have some good polyp extension going on in there!! If you are interested I'd love to try and help! Send me a PM or email [email protected] and we can get started! This is my specialty and I love to help newer tanks problem solve these issues.

Good luck and hope the family feels better. this one hit home, my wife and daughter have some stomach bug and I'm lucky enough not to have had it yet but the week/weekend got scratched, unfortunately.

Darel

 

[Magic031707]

Sorry to hear about your coral issue but that Orange Shoulder tang is a pretty one.. wow!

 

[MariahP]

Agreed with all the above - just lean in on the softies. To be honest, some of the best looking tanks I’ve seen on here are softie and lps dominant!!

Meant to add that I have a Duncan that is unphased by anything I throw at it. And it grows like crazy and makes me feel good about my reef keeping lol

May be a good place to start over!

 

[Reef Racket]

Meant to add that I have a Duncan that is unphased by anything I throw at it. And it grows like crazy and makes me feel good about my reef keeping lol

May be a good place to start over!

This is my experience with Ducans as well! I always have a ton of frags they grow so well!