What has been your coral NEMESIS?!?

[TopShelfAquatics]

What is that one coral that you have always just struggled with? Maybe it does't grow well for you, won't color up the way you want it to or just flat out dies in your system? We grow hundreds of different species here at our farm and it can definitely be tricky to find a balance that makes everything from softies to the pickiest of SPS corals happy. Over the years we have found a pretty good balance. With that said I have to admit Orange Passion has always been the nemesis of our farm. We often joke about it just not liking us.

We have a new colony that luckily is taking off so hopefully soon we can declare that we have defeated our nemesis and will have some awesome frags available to everyone.

So what is your nemesis??

 

[OnPointCorals]

Mine is JF Jolt. I am on the 4th attempt with it.

Nice OP. Sweet pick up!

 

[TopShelfAquatics]

Mine is JF Jolt. I am on the 4th attempt with it.

Nice OP. Sweet pick up!

Tenuis can definitely be finicky... Our Jolt colony does really well under pretty high light and loves strong random flow. Don't give up. Once ours got happy it produced some awesome frags like this one.

 

[BirdFish5000]

Fox Flame hates me

 

[BroccoliFarmer]

Mine are the aquatic varieties. I dont know what it is, maybe im drowning them..but those underwater corals have been a REAL challenge for me.

 

[flashsmith]

Scolys... Followed by torches and elegance. I realize torches and elegance are prone to decline issues. Everything else I'm ok with

 

[TopShelfAquatics]

Fox Flame hates me

Fox Flame has always been a pretty solid grower for us. We found you don't want to blast it with light or it will loose a lot of color. I would say medium to slightly high lighting and good flow is the key to it. Don't give up on it! It is a super nice coral.

 

[TopShelfAquatics]

Mine are the aquatic varieties. I dont know what it is, maybe im drowning them..but those underwater corals have been a REAL challenge for me.

 

[TopShelfAquatics]

Scolys... Followed by torches and elegance. I realize torches and elegance are prone to decline issues. Everything else I'm ok with

How are your nutrients in your tank? We see this with a lot of our customers who have ultra low nutrients. LPS definitely does not do great in super clean tanks. We keep our systems at around 15 to 20 nitrates and they do very well under those conditions.

 

[Coling]

I can't keep Tyree Rouge millepora, Tyree red dragon or RR Firecracker. Have grown over a hundred strains of Acros but kill these 3 without fail. There are others I have struggled with but these are the ones that I have repeatedly killed and perish even when my tank is at its happiest.

 

[knockout]

Montipora Stelatta, I have tried this thing for the better part of 20 years and nothing, grows grows and then puff gone - I am done trying

 

[TopShelfAquatics]

I can't keep Tyree Rouge millepora, Tyree red dragon or RR Firecracker. Have grown over a hundred strains of Acros but kill these 3 without fail. There are others I have struggled with but these are the ones that I have repeatedly killed and perish even when my tank is at its happiest.

Unfortunately we don't have a rouge Milli in our collection, but Red Dragon and Firecracker have both done great in our systems. I would say we get the best color and growth under medium lighting and of course nice strong random flow. If we hit them with too much light they do get pale and very unhappy.

 

[TopShelfAquatics]

Montipora Stelatta, I have tried this thing for the better part of 20 years and nothing, grows grows and then puff gone - I am done trying

We actually have recently started growing a Tubbs Stelatta in the farm. So far so good. We are keeping it under lower to medium light. We had it a bit too high at first and it was definitely not a happy camper. Now that it's lower it is growing nicely and has pretty nice coloration.

 

[Coling]

Unfortunately we don't have a rouge Milli in our collection, but Red Dragon and Firecracker have both done great in our systems. I would say we get the best color and growth under medium lighting and of course nice strong random flow. If we hit them with too much light they do get pale and very unhappy.

Thank you! That is encouraging. I may try those two again but in a lower PAR spot.

 

[StatelineReefer]

Montipora anything... High flow, low flow, high light, low light, high nutrients... ummm... middle of the road nutrients (Not starving my other corals)... Once I thought I saw Montipora growing... then my wife woke me up.

 

[BirdFish5000]

Fox Flame has always been a pretty solid grower for us. We found you don't want to blast it with light or it will loose a lot of color. I would say medium to slightly high lighting and good flow is the key to it. Don't give up on it! It is a super nice coral.

I think I am done with it; I've tried three or four frags. They invariably RTN within one week of entering my tank. Meanwhile, smoothies, tenuis, and millis do fine. I dunno. <shrug>

 

[David Matthews]

Mine has always been blastos, can keep merlettis but not welsi. At least for very long, get maybe a year or year and a half out of em at most and they slowly wither away. Even feeding them twice a week and I've tried about every combination of light and flow you can think. I've heard many times they don't like a lot of light and I don't blast them but then you'll see them in someone's tank next to their acros and they're doing fine. Idk. Mostly it just makes me sad bc they are my favorite coral and I can't seem to keep em. Even set up a dedicated 90 gal a few years back to house just them and there is currently not even 1 in there lol. I seem to have the best luck on the higher side of low light with lower random flow but can still never seem to keep them long term. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. And thanks for listening to me ramble haha

 

[SpyC]

I have never been able to keep blastos alive. No matter how well everything else is doing in the tank blastos die on me in a few weeks.

 

[TopShelfAquatics]

Montipora anything... High flow, low flow, high light, low light, high nutrients... ummm... middle of the road nutrients (Not starving my other corals)... Once I thought I saw Montipora growing... then my wife woke me up.

Definitely got a laugh from this one! Is all your other SPS doing well?

 

[TopShelfAquatics]

I think I am done with it; I've tried three or four frags. They invariably RTN within one week of entering my tank. Meanwhile, smoothies, tenuis, and millis do fine. I dunno. <shrug>

Maybe the 5th time is the charm!