Coral regrets that I have made!

[emerald525]

As is typical in the week, I had a few fellow reefers over yesterday. We were talking and had a great conversation about corals we regretted later putting in your tank. I thought what a fun thread it would make and may help some of the newbies out too!1smile1


Here's a few of mine:
1. Kenya tree :beat_brick: The first tank we bought had this in there. I was so proud and thought we were such great hobbyists as it grew so well. I even tried to sell some on my local forum with out much luck!( Then I quickly found out that it grows like a weed and spreads all over the tank and our only recourse was to remove the rock that had it on there. We thought we had it all out and still little trees would sprout everywhere!
2. Green star polyps-I still think these are cool looking but not when they overgrow your tank and start taking over your other corals
3. Mushrooms -Again I think these are neat and pretty particularly the blue which I do have in my tank even though I tried to get rid of them. They overgrow and will detach and spread and continue to sting my corals:cry:
4. Brown palys. These were the first zoa type rock I got. I thought I got a smoking deal, then they started to take over the tank :beat_brick:... On the positive this is where I grew to love and appreciate zoas!

Those are the ones off the top of my head. Again, not trying to bash those who love and appreciate these corals because I love them too. I just simply regretted having them in my tank because they grew like weeds, stung or overgrew other corals I had in my tank

Anyone else?!!!

 

[ColaAddict]

My thoughts exactly! hahaha. best thing i've done is get rid of those corals. They are more like weeds!

 

[_Alex_]

kenya tree.... well i didnt put it in there, i was in alabama for 2 weeks for some job training and while i was gone she ran into a local reefer lady who invited her over and ask her if she wanted all these nice free corals! a nice large kenya tree for one, then a toadstool (no big deal), and a few mushrooms. lets just say im still trying to get the kenya trees out......

 

[lawnman]

The corals I regret the most are leathers in general because they grow big and have alot of toxins. I have removed all of mine so I can try my hand at SPS again.

 

[chestnud]

Clove Polyps.

 

[1Snapple]

Mapp gas fixes all the above "pest" corals

 

[emerald525]

kenya tree.... well i didnt put it in there, i was in alabama for 2 weeks for some job training and while i was gone she ran into a local reefer lady who invited her over and ask her if she wanted all these nice free corals! a nice large kenya tree for one, then a toadstool (no big deal), and a few mushrooms. lets just say im still trying to get the kenya trees out......

:hammer: That's an awesome story!

The corals I regret the most are leathers in general because they grow big and have alot of toxins. I have removed all of mine so I can try my hand at SPS again.

Awww yes let's not forget the leather corals!:bigsmile: Fortunately I never added any but was offered them many times. We have a local reefer and the ongoing joke is consider yourself lucky if you make it out without a free leather frag!:snicker:

 

[mcarroll]

Mapp gas fixes all the above "pest" corals

Could you provide some detail? I'm intrigued, but A) what is mapp gas and where would an average hobbyist get some and B) how did you use it (or how would an average hobbyist use it) on pest coral?

(MAPP gas? Discontinued in 2008 in the US and replaced with liquified petroleum gas+propylene.)

Thanks in advance - you're welcome to PM me your response.

-Matt

 

[mcarroll]

Mixing softies and stonies (at all) is my biggest regret.

Either family of coral is diverse enough that given even the smallest modicrum of self-discipline and foresight (where was this post back then!?) I could have picked one vs. the other and stuck with it.

In truth, while softies certainly look nice, fear of failure with stony coral is the only reason I experimented with softies at all. One more example of fear not being a good basis for decision making.

Another factor is that it seems most reefers do no keep their tanks running continuously for more than a year or two....maybe three on the upper end of "normal". The most common internet guidance to newbies on the topic of softies vs stonies seems to come out of the bulk of people who only run a tank for a few short years (before upgrading or giving up) and hence never see the issues. My system is 5+ years old. While still not "old" it's old enough that I've seen more co-habitation issues with coral than the average coral keeper. More to the point, I didn't have any issues until about Year 3 when everything in the tank was growing like gangbusters. (Are you prepared for success?? lol)

All things considered, I put mixing softies and stonies in the same category as buying a Naso tang for your 75/90 gallon tank with intentions of upgrading. Unless you're really serious, and in the sooner rather than later time frame, you're just asking for trouble in the tank. No real good reason to do that.

Good luck!

-Matt

P.S. Once the budget lines up for a tank upgrade I'll have to think really hard about whether I'm taking anything more than frags from the old system due to the persistence of soft corals in the old rock.  Gonna make the upgrade just that much more expensive.

 

[IBEW41]

xenia,and blue clove

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Mine is a little different. I so regret not fragging up my mama red plate that had 100+ red plate babies on it. I was told that the mama would continue to reproduce as the babies popped off but I ended up losing the whole thing for some unknown reason.

 

[asmashling]

don`t know whats the english name - free translated, german language translation means "Apehair"
Erythropodium caribaeorum

growing way to fast.. is just a beauty for starters..

 

[nater]

i'm in the same sort of boat , my coral would have to be a hydnophora. thankfully i got it out before it caused me any headache. but further more it would have be my rbta. not because it was a problem , but as i became more of a stick head i wanted it out. it was a nightmare and almost lost it. i got her out and it's doing fine in recovery. such a beautiful animal and was glad to have had the chance to learn and enjoy it. just would not want to have to get another out of a tank when it's 1 foot in size and logged deeply in to a crevasse. want a pain, lol

 

[emerald525]

don`t know whats the english name - free translated, german language translation means "Apehair"
Erythropodium caribaeorum

growing way to fast.. is just a beauty for starters..

Beware of buying something called apehair LOL!

i'm in the same sort of boat , my coral would have to be a hydnophora. thankfully i got it out before it caused me any headache. but further more it would have be my rbta. not because it was a problem , but as i became more of a stick head i wanted it out. it was a nightmare and almost lost it. i got her out and it's doing fine in recovery. such a beautiful animal and was glad to have had the chance to learn and enjoy it. just would not want to have to get another out of a tank when it's 1 foot in size and logged deeply in to a crevasse. want a pain, lol

I hear you. I had a beautiful rbta that I grew out from one that was the size of a quarter. I loved it but it stressed me out because it would get too close to the sps so I took it out and sold it. The clownfish in my avatar was not very happy I took it out either. I tried to replace it with a torch but she killed it. Poor clownfish started hosting zoas. I missed it so much though I converted the tank from sps back to rbtas and love my clown anemeone tank

Mine is a little different. I so regret not fragging up my mama red plate that had 100+ red plate babies on it. I was told that the mama would continue to reproduce as the babies popped off but I ended up losing the whole thing for some unknown reason.

Ouch. I remember you posting pics of that plate. It was so cool! What a shame !

 

[KSzegi]

Pulsing xenia is my biggest regret .... it is beautiful but at this point has become quite a chore to keep it under control. When I upgraded from my 180 to my 300 I took several rocks out that had the majority of it on them .... and thought I had completely picked all of the remaining stalks off of the other rocks - but apparently I missed some and it is now taking off again. So, now I just try to prune it every other week and live with it. In my 90 it was more isolated to a rock on one end near the overflow .... it grew up the overflow and onto the glass and so far I've been able to keep it there - and don't mind it there! lol. I keep wishing I was one of those people who could not keep it ..... even with what I think is pretty low nutrient tank it grows for me ......

 

[lps1212]

My biggest regret was gettin a haddoni carpet which ended up eating about 5 of my fish before I ended up gettin rid of it

 

[Hyprviperx]

Could you provide some detail? I'm intrigued, but A) what is mapp gas and where would an average hobbyist get some and B) how did you use it (or how would an average hobbyist use it) on pest coral?

(MAPP gas? Discontinued in 2008 in the US and replaced with liquified petroleum gas+propylene.)

Thanks in advance - you're welcome to PM me your response.

-Matt

i think he meant it as a joke in conjunction with a blowtorch (MAPP gas is blowtorch fuel), however i could be wrong

 

[cthedaytrader]

any sps I pay a small fortunre for that has ended up looking nothing like the sellers pics lol

 

[emerald525]

any sps I pay a small fortunre for that has ended up looking nothing like the sellers pics lol

LOL I had that issue when I first started in the hobby with acans. I couldn't figure out why they would look so different in my tank. It was on ebay. No vendors from here.

 

[caudill187]

Plain green palys, pavona coral, plain brown protopalys