Waving the white flag - giving up.

[Seymo44]

I don't know of anyone who throws away live corals (except xenia, blue cloves, etc.) In fact, most reefers will say to leave the bare skeleton of a seemingly dead coral in the tank for a couple months just in case there's still some life left.

In my experience, the three things that harm corals the fastest are inappropriate lighting, moving stuff around too often, and alk swings. Lighting could be too strong/weak or have poor spread.
I agree with what others have said, let the tank be a fowlr. If you can't sell your corals, at least offer them to someone for free.

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

I don't know of anyone who throws away live corals (except xenia, blue cloves, etc.) In fact, most reefers will say to leave the bare skeleton of a seemingly dead coral in the tank for a couple months just in case there's still some life left.

In my experience, the three things that harm corals the fastest are inappropriate lighting, moving stuff around too often, and alk swings. Lighting could be too strong/weak or have poor spread.
I agree with what others have said, let the tank be a fowlr. If you can't sell your corals, at least offer them to someone for free.

If you haven't thrown corals in the trash your not quite there yet, not that it's enjoyable but sometimes, it's necessary.(acropora, montipora mostly sps)

I've thrown frags away that I've had in my possession for 5 min AEF's and in the trash she goes, I have some corals I'm trying to give away right now, every time I prune my birds nest most of it goes in the trash.

Thread 'Free frags locally' https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/free-frags-locally.918996/

 

[Rick's Reviews]

Make it easier for yourself to enjoy an aquarium, you took on a project that was out of your control and just brought a ready made ball off stress

Aquarium: (Sold to me as a 40g) Actual True Size is a 29g

Livestock:
2 clownfish
1 Pygmy Angel
1 Mandarin
1 Yellow Watchman
1 Cardinalfish

CUC is a mixture of snails that don’t do anything. 2 blue legged hermit crabs




Most recent parameters:
Salinity: 1.025
Temp. 76.6
Nitrate: 5-10ppm
Phosphate: 0
Calcium and Magnesium: Both of these tests are a headache for me. If I even test them correctly.

Lighting: SmatFarm 90w LED

Flow: Honestly don’t know how to answer that? Are you asking what I’m using for flow? If so, I’m using two FluvalSea powerheads.

Do what's best for you and your life, I would reconsider a full breakdown and maybe do just a partial to keep just the fish you currently have and keep it fish only
In regards to life of corals, ethically you can try LFS and even offer for free on some selling platforms or unethically it is the unfortunate side and you can only do your best.

Do you really want to quit the hobby?

I think if you made your aquarium easier to manage then it will be worth sticking to it IMO

 

[sixty_reefer]

Aquarium: (Sold to me as a 40g) Actual True Size is a 29g

Livestock:
2 clownfish
1 Pygmy Angel
1 Mandarin
1 Yellow Watchman
1 Cardinalfish

CUC is a mixture of snails that don’t do anything. 2 blue legged hermit crabs




Most recent parameters:
Salinity: 1.025
Temp. 76.6
Nitrate: 5-10ppm
Phosphate: 0
Calcium and Magnesium: Both of these tests are a headache for me. If I even test them correctly.

Lighting: SmatFarm 90w LED

Flow: Honestly don’t know how to answer that? Are you asking what I’m using for flow? If so, I’m using two FluvalSea powerheads.

My advice would be increase your phosphates with something like neophos and let it run for another month, you may change your mind about the white flag then.

 

[Lavey29]

Do people really just toss out coral like it’s nothing? (I’m NOT implying you do or anything) I’m just wondering. It just doesn’t seem ethical to me to give them a flush or a toss into the trash can.

Just depends, I try and wait till they are on deaths door but if there is risk to other corals then I pull it. Having a coral QT tank would be beneficial. I think you should try and salvage what you got and if the corals die off then just keep a cool fowler going. You can always try coral again in the future also.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Put it up on kijiji or something similar, people like me are always scoping the classifieds for people like you taking down their tank.

On the same note, buying and trading frags and equipment from local classifieds is a great way to meet local people with similar interest.

 

[Screwgunner]

Get your temp up to 78 and get your phosphates up. Maybe run some carbon.

 

[Spare time]

My advice would be increase your phosphates with something like neophos and let it run for another month, you may change your mind about the white flag then.

Yeah it looks like dinos which would easily be killing the coral. I have a feeling the OP is not using the best phosphate test kit.

 

[Spare time]

You are missing arguable the most important test which is alk. I am also curious what settings you are running with the lights and how high it is mounted off of the tank (as high as the mounting arm goes perhaps?)

 

[Guns286]

I am about to try my hand at this hobby. It’s all very daunting and I can definitely see how easy it would be for things to go bad. A FOWLR tank would probably be the way I will go if something similar happens to my tank.
If you end up deciding to step away from aquariums all together let me know. I can’t take livestock yet, but I’m starting to gather together whatever equipment that I can find. I’m in Westchester County NY, so it would be pretty easy to ship stuff to me.

 

[MoshJosh]

It’s a possibility, but my concern is what to do with the corals that remain. LFS doesn’t want them and I just can’t come to terms of “throwing them out” especially with some life left to them.

I say just throw an add up on craigslist for free coral, people will take them from you. If someone was giving away free coral in my area I'd snap them up just to see if I could rehab them/make them work in my setup.

That or. . . just leave them be? If they make it great, if not. . . they were going in the bin anyway right? Just make sure your water quality is good for the fish and call it a day?

 

[Tamberav]

probably from 0 phosphate and dino. But what phosphate kit do you use?

YOu can always have a nice FOWLR and revisit corals in a year or two. You can run lights low enough to not grow ugly algae.

if you live in a decent size town, there may be a facebook group for saltwater.

 

[Screwgunner]

I agree, alkalinity has to be kept up. In my opinion it is the fastest at disapering. Then calcium, magnesium. But if you do your %10 water change every week you don't have to worry about all that.

 

[bReefedBaker]

probably from 0 phosphate and dino. But what phosphate kit do you use?

YOu can always have a nice FOWLR and revisit corals in a year or two. You can run lights low enough to not grow ugly algae.

if you live in a decent size town, there may be a facebook group for saltwater.

 

[bReefedBaker]

Yeah it looks like dinos which would easily be killing the coral. I have a feeling the OP is not using the best phosphate test kit.

It may not be the best on the market.

 

[Tamberav]

It may not be the best on the market.

Not familiar with that one but basically some kits color scale is too wide a range. Say it reads 0 and next step up is .25

Well how do we know if it’s 0 or 0.25 or 0.08? API has this issue that it’s not sensitive enough.

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

It may not be the best on the market.

I would Put the tests on the shelf, go fish only for a while and stop worrying about #s and enjoy, get to the roots of what peaked your interest in the hobby( a glass box with water and life in it) in time everything could work its self out .

 

[Bpb]

All corals in this hobby eventually will die. Trust me…it stings a lot more when a massive colony in a teeming tank goes belly up overnight with no logical explanation. Rather than a handful of Zoa polyps that just won’t thrive. If we as hobbyists cannot accept that fact early on, and allow ourselves to get attached, it’ll be a disappointing and heart breaking hobby.

As far as tank break down. there’s no solution you haven’t already considered. Keep them, pass them along locally (I realize you said there’s not much in the way of local hobbyists that would take them), or the least likely candidate, ship them to a willing recipient, which itself is a fairly big undertaking if you aren’t experienced and will likely kill them anyway if you can find someone who wants them.

sounds like keeping or sacrificing them is the likely solution. It is what it is. If it were me and I was absolutely done, I’d give the fish back to the store, toss the rock and set the tank on the curb. Maybe list the lights for sale on here but don’t expect to get but 20-50% of what you paid for them, and you’ll have to cover shipping.

the lousy part about gear investment in this hobby is the extreme diminishing value once something is used, even for a short period of time.

 

[Unitylover]

Your phosphates are low, that could be starving your corals.

 

[Seymo44]

If you haven't thrown corals in the trash your not quite there yet, not that it's enjoyable but sometimes, it's necessary.(acropora, montipora mostly sps)

I've thrown frags away that I've had in my possession for 5 min AEF's and in the trash she goes, I have some corals I'm trying to give away right now, every time I prune my birds nest most of it goes in the trash.

Thread 'Free frags locally' https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/free-frags-locally.918996/

No I’m definitely there. I just bring them to my LFS to be given away to others.

Any corals that I have with pests/diseases go into QT. I have one coral QT for new arrivals that seem healthy, and one for sick corals.

What I was specifically referring to is corals that are browned out and/or growing slowly, like what the op is referring to.