When your coral looks sick do you take action or hope for the best?

When you see one of your corals looking sick do you take action or hope for the best?

  • Take Action (explain in the thread)

    Votes: 214 53.2%
  • Hope For The Best

    Votes: 156 38.8%
  • Other (please explain)

    Votes: 32 8.0%

  • Total voters
    402

revhtree

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We all know that sinking feeling of walking into the room to view your reef tank and seeing a coral that looks to be sick or getting sick! It has happened to us all and it doesn't feel good. Obviously some coral can "look" sick but not really be suffering from sickness. But there are certain coral that you know without a doubt when they are looking bad! So when that happens what do you do? What's the steps you take? Let's talk about it!

1. When you see one of your corals looking sick do you take action or hope for the best?

2. If you take action what are the steps you take to try and save the coral?


image via @Zero Nitrates
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sp1187

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my tank is softie dominant.
I don't chase numbers. if 90% is doing well, I'm not changing anything because something new doesn't like my parameters compared to where it came from.
if a group of zoas looks irritated/closes up, I do look for nudis. :cool:
 
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revhtree

revhtree

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I move straight into action. :cool:

Actually I noticed my Green Lobophyllia turning grey on the edges the other day. I feed it mysis shrimp and it got its color back in 2 days.

What do you do to take action?
 

Dvanlier05

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Being SPS dominant, I run daily test so it allows me to spot a trend up or down before it causes major issues. Not everyone has that time or needs to test that much but it does help out when a problem pops up.
If the coral was newer, I'll take actions. I may frag it, dip it, or move it.
One that is established is up to the Reefing Gods
 

DC Reefer

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I will usually take action. I will check parameters to make sure nothing is off. Sometimes I will remove the coral, dip it and then put in either the frag tank or the coral QT to monitor and hopefully nurse it back to health. Sometimes I also find certain types of corals will do better in 1 tank versus another and I will sometimes move between tanks. If I see multiple issues within a tank I will do and ICP test on the tank.
 

WvAquatics

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I have had issues with my birdsnest and a Monti. The Monti went grey polyps not coming out. Birdsnest losing the back side of the frags polyps. I left them alone for a week. Then moved them up as high as possible and they seem to be coming back. Definitely not a pro. My lps is doing well. Can look the worst but they are still here.
 

design.maddie

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If I notice a coral being extra upset I will take action in a passive way. I will start documenting with photos, possibly even video. I'll run a few test for the basic culprits then just monitor. The last coral I lost was because I used to much GFO and stripped my water of stuff.
 

dbowman5

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i picked other
in school(navy) we would have practical labs where we would be given a situation to trouble shoot, Most of the time there was a simple problem and a documented solution. Sometimes there would be more than one contributing factor which would combine to cause the symptoms. sometimes the answer was to do nothing; sometimes it was to test and gather information; sometimes it was pull the plug.
as a neo i observe a lot. i sometimes SEE something new. i compare that to conditions described in my books or on-line. sometimes i understand what is happening and that it is beyond my ability to prevent, in that case i watch to see what i can learn.
 

Kingkold020

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I actually just encountered my first sick coral. Got a hammer in and about 1 day later one of the heads started to peel. The other head was doing fine so I tested and my Paramus were in check. I then decided flow was the problem. Moved it and it is doing excellent. Only problem is one of the heads has peeled to the point of no recovery. What should I do with it.
 

Jimmeh lee

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I try to do what I can without disrupting the rest of the tank. I had a colony of acans going south badly, but it had grown all over a rock that was at the base of my structure. What I was able to do was add some carbon and discontinue the use of vibrant. Something in that action turned it around, and it’s healthy/open/eating/colorful again. Though not as fluffy as it once was. If I can get something out easy enough I’ll dip it and frag it if necessary... saved two of my acro frags that way. I haven’t lost much in my tank.
 

GSnake

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I actually just encountered my first sick coral. Got a hammer in and about 1 day later one of the heads started to peel. The other head was doing fine so I tested and my Paramus were in check. I then decided flow was the problem. Moved it and it is doing excellent. Only problem is one of the heads has peeled to the point of no recovery. What should I do with it.
I currently have a recovering frog that was all skeleton months ago. It has tiny frog polyps now and looks better everyday.
I would keep it, esp if LPS euphyllia at least ime.

As long as there's no brown jelly that is
 

damselindistress

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I typically observe and research, check my parameters and consider any recent changes in the tank. I try to watch for a few days at different times of the day, I've noticed sometimes a coral will look like death and then in a few hours its looking healthy again. Maybe when they are expelling nutrients they look crummy lol.

If I have one that is definitely headed south ill take it out and dip it if I can, maybe try it in a different place in the tank. I recently had to move a galaxea coral because his sweepers found one of my rock nems and he scorched the daylights out of it. Now the nem is injured and there's no moving him so hoping for the best and trying to feed him well. I know thats not a coral but its coral-adjacent (pun intended ha).

If there's one that I know is on its way out I'll try to frag and salvage any healthy tissue, sometimes thats been successful and other times not.

For the most part I'm into the monitor, research and wait and see category.
 

ernestojbs83

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I have a Wellso that was super good and a few days ago I realized that my clown fish was throwing sand at it with its tail and now the tissue is shrinking. I have moved it to the other side of the tank but I don't see any improvement. Any suggestions?
 

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