What Coral Do You Most Regret Adding to Your System?

[Literallyhydro]

Green palys. I have some of the other "pests" in my tanks. Xenia, GSP, Anthelia you name it. They all have their own rock and don't spread to anything else. However, a long time ago I added a small colony of green palythoas to my tank, now it's popping up in completely random locations in the tank. It isn't a disaster yet, but there will come a day that they take over everything. I need to plan measures to eradicate them eventually, or at least contain them.

 

[nickkohrn]

It sounds like a lot of people could use a blue laser like Marc Levenson uses to kill Aiptasia. I wonder if any of the aforementioned corals could be taken care of by one.

Does anyone have any experience using a laser to keep nuisance corals in check?

 

[vetteguy53081]

None. I buy what pieces I have for a reason.
In the past it was Bubble Tip anemones which split regularly and stung everything in site

 

[Lousybreed]

This is the tank drained and I can't even get the dead coral off the glass. It's like cemented on!

Vinegar dude

 

[pecan2phat]

Not dude!
Tank was soaked in 9 gallons of vinegar and tap water for 5 days. Muriatic acid attempted also. Even tried lightly hitting it with a screwdriver and baby hammer, stopped when I felt that the glass is gonna crack first.

 

[Jake Weiman]

Tje only coral I’ve added is no coral. Because I’m poor. We have a few anemonies and some fake plants though, so I think I’ve got you all beat! These fake plants spread like wildfire. (They actually don’t spread tbh)

 

[freshy&salty]

My Xenia is a bit of a nuisance to keep in check but still 1 of my faves and im pretty sure my clown would grow legs and kick my backside if i got rid of it. I had a BTA and as my cousin said "everyone has their reason to never own another, now you have yours". It refused to stay put for anything, walked every night, doing his damage until 1 night it decided to pry off the fuzzy powerhead guard thing and try its luck. It lost. I woke up to what looked like a tank filled with skim milk and had to immediately do a water change, pry what was now a stump stuck in the powerhead, etc. My poor pajama cardinal looked like he was coming down off a 5 day bender(i wish i had taken a pic). Luckily everything pulled thru but i was soured on anemones.

*side note, i cant keep GSP for the life of me. Havent actually had any other coral die but GSP, just fades away and dies. Maybe thats lucky?

 

[craiger]

.

 

[craiger]

green polyps, thinking they were just a bigger zoanthid. what a noob!!. evil weeds they are.

 

[Ronny Pena]

I just started my first reef, previously I had an FOWLR, last Sunday I was at a friend's house and he told me to avoid soft corals. They're beautiful until you can't control them.

Sent from my Moto E (4) using REEF2REEF mobile app

 

[Fishfinder]

Encrusting montipora. I don't care what type. It's taking over.

If you add it put it on a seperate rock

 

[Michael Llabona]

For me it was my RBTA in a mixed reef. Whenever it split. 1 time every 6 no or so. The clone would walk all over tank and kill some SPS. I removed the rock the nems were on and set up my old biocube as a nem and clown tank

 

[Dmsick]

As a newb this is really helpful. I have a feeling I would have ended up with something off this list if not multiple items. Thanks for the tips!

 

[Haggisman14]

Back when I started about 15 years ago...the two I hated/regretted most was those dreaded yellow polyps and xenia! They tried taking over my tank!

 

[Jerett83]

Pocillopora!! It drops bombs everywhere, I have a softball size colony and about 10 small frags everywhere. Im going to be working on removing all of it along with my bubble tip nem that's split.

 

[Chalice Kingdom]

Buying a frag with aiptasia on it. Year later still dealing with this problem. Coral for my next tank build will only come from trusted sources.

 

[Rython]

Poccilopora Damacornis (pink skeleton and green polyps). I had to move the colony when it got too large for its spot and the dang thing spit out polyp babies which are now growing everywhere and irritating other corals. I bet I have 30 volunteers at various places in my reef. I really need to get in there and smother them with superglue or something but I haven't had time.

 

[Bonfish]

We got some bubbletip anemones from @Lasse and put them in our 10000 litre reef tank at work. That was a bad idea :) Now they spread everywhere amongst the SPS corals, and burn everything in their way. And not easy to get out.. So if you know a fish eating only bubbletip anemones, please let me know!

So thank you Lasse! ;)

I was told by a fellow reefer that the porcupine puffer he recently purchased ate three RBTA’s on him.

 

[135zman]

Kenya tree without a doubt was worst ever. Main colony was great, but constantly had to harvest the branches that dropped. They usually managed to come back since could root so deep into the nooks and crannies of the live rock. Eventually used Joe's Juice on remaining trimmed back stub of the unwanted branches that dropped.

GSP a close second but learned how to manage it and keep it trimmed or scrapped off glass where I didn't want it to grow. LFS used to love the sheets of GSP that I'd trade in since they would easily sell to the next rookie.

 

[Bmasculine]

For me when I first started it was a Kenya tree that was spreading everywhere. Then as I moved on to lps it was a Hollywood Stunner chalice that grows extremely fast with super long sweepers that kill everything within a foot. It’s actually my avatar pic before i removed it.