First, I’ve been there! Find your happy place! Don’t go from one extreme to the other. Pick a good dip and use it. Please don’t dip your coral in 3 different concoctions!
Make small changes. Give each one time. What we do today, we may not see the benefit/down side for couple months.
Test frequently if you can. Not the end of your tank if you miss a day. Become confident on test procedures and get a feeling of how your tank is doing.
Seconded
It almost seems like when I did very little my tank was happy (especially when it was Fallow). That sure was a ton of information to digest. I just hope it’s not disease that’s in my tank. I’m not a number chaser. I definitely like richard Ross’ approach. Easy is always nice but, until I can understand what’s goin on I’ll continue to test and medicate as needed. I’m convinced that something came in on one of my corals coupled with the reef roids that I target fed that reeked havoc on my tank or so I feel. My dipping habits will definitely tighten up. Instead of just reef dip, I’ll also do either a bayer dip or the poly lab reef prime and possibly all 3. This reef stuff can sure be nerve wracking.
A problem with dipping is many of the pathogens of corals already are present in the coral holobiont. It's the right balance of viruses, bacteria and other stuff that are beneficial for corals that keep the pathogens in check. Stress, of any kind (lighting, water chemistry, nutrients, temperature, microbial stuff and supplements and medications) can help shift the microbiome from a healthy one to an unhealthy one. Even if a coral looks "healthy" it can have a microbiome that has already shifted. Immune systems of corals also can vary significantly at the genotype level so one coral may do well but another coral of the same species may not. Because of the time it can take for a coral to recover it's important to wait to see how corals are responding. Constantly changing things doesn't allow a stable ecossytem to develop.
Since you mentioned feeding here's some research showing how complicated that subject is.
Elucidating an optimal diet for captive Acropora corals
Developing an optimal heterotrophic feeding regime has the potential to improve the growth and overall health of captive corals. This study evaluated …
www.sciencedirect.com
Comparing the capacity of five different dietary treatments to optimise growth and nutritional composition in two scleractinian corals
Developing an optimal heterotrophic feeding regime has the potential to improve captive coral growth and health. This study evaluated the efficacy of three exogenous diets: Artemia nauplii (ART), a commercially available coral diet (Reef Roids) (RR), and a novel, micro-bound diet (ATF), against...
journals.plos.org
Coral farming: effects of light, water motion and artificial foods
Improved coral cultivation will facilitate the reduction of wild harvesting, reef restoration, preservation of biodiversity, and the use of corals as model experimental organisms. In this study, we examine species-specific responses in growth and
www.academia.edu
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