Frustrated with the hobby.

[Matt Winstead]

Does anyone else get frustrated almost depressed some days in this hobby? I'm 3 years in on my 210Gal and do the best I can 20% water change every Sunday religiously. Water parameters as stable as I can possibly get them and still corals die. Polyps retract. Some thrive. But still. Is it normal? Can't keep a goniapora to save my life so far lost 3 large ones maybe 1-2 months after purchase. Trachys dying shortly after purchase. Hammers dying shortly after purchase. Torches happy. Frogspawn happy. Nems happy. Bubbles happy. Blastomussas happy.

It's depressing and sad spending so much money on corals and seeing them die weeks after being in the tank. Drip Acclimating and dipping prior to insertion. Countless hours online researching where to place these corals on the tank doing what I'm told and still dead corals.
Salinity 33-35
Alk 9-10
Mag 1425-1450
Calc 440-460
Nitrate 8-12
Phosphate .1-.2
PH 8-8.3
78F deg
90-250PAR
Running 15-25ml NOPOX daily
GFO carbon changed weekly BRS dual reactor.
4 stage RODI water supply filters changed at 1TDS.
Substrate vacuumed every water change.
Filter socks changed 2-3 days religiously.
Skimmer is tuned.
Cheato fuge 24/7 photoperiod
Fritz Pro Mix
Red Sea AB+ daily per bottle
LRS reef frenzy daily

Is it normal to lose 25-50% of purchased frags purchased in a system like this?

 

[qfen223]

With only about a week of caring for an empty bit of water and three days of fish experience I can tell you Iv been frustrated. My one clown died from what I believe to be a swimblader disease. Two days into owning a fish and I had my first casualty. A totally defeating. Sorry I can’t be much help other than It’s for sure a difficult hobby.

 

[FishTruck]

It is a common problem that sometimes a certain tank just won't support certain corals. If you read about the variable results that the brs guys had with different tanks and different methods one gets the sense that sometimes you just have to put in what works now and wait it out.

To reduce frustration, I'd suggest just sticking with what is easy right now, and simplify your system for your own sanity. NOPOX and Carbon and a fuge sounds like a hassle.

You still have a great looking tank!

 

[piranhaman00]

Some tanks just can’t grow some coral, no one knows why,

I am also frustrated with the hobby right now, it happens , I’m right there with you.

 

[DaneGer21]

As said above, it’s all what the tank wants lol, my tank cannot grow candy cane corals to save its life, but EVERYTHING else isn’t an issue, sps, lps, clams, inverts, macros, etc! It’s the weirdest thing. …no explanation after my 13yrs in the hobby

 

[tehmadreefer]

Stop dosing junk and stop using gfo and nopox. Bet your tank gets better within an month.

 

[Uncle99]

That Nopox carbon dose seemed a bit on the high side at 25ml per day. I assume you need that dose to maintain your nitrates.
I have the same volume and maturity but my dose is 7ml per day. Even Redsea calculates your dose of Nopox at 9-10ml day.

I am always Leary of some predator, like a crab, when some corals die, and the others thrive.

Love your PBT!
very nice, tank looks fine, stick with corals that work in your system, there’s tons.

 

[PeterC99]

Wait a minute? You say your torches are doing very well?

My experience tells me they are one of the most difficult corals to keep. Slightest parameter change and they bail!

You have to be doing something right to successfully be keeping torches!

 

[adsf430]

Do you have temperature and PH probes to check if the levels are moving around during the day for any reason? The issue could really be doing too much on your tank. 20% per week is really a lot. I keep a nano with everything from a goni garden to acropora colonies and have found that very light feeding and small weekly water changes of about only 10% is best. Was having very little success until I just started depending more on dosing everything and keeping my hands out of the tank as much as possible. Also making sure PH always stays above 8 makes a huge difference. I'd recommend letting the tank stay at it's current levels but be less diligent about removing the filter socks, changing GFO and carbon etc and just feed very light and do small weekly water changes around 10%. Have even had a few corals come back from what I thought was the dead doing this method, crossing my fingers. Also may want to use chemipure blue to lower your phosphate. And i'd stop dosing NOPOX, much more natural to just feed less then use chemicals to keep levels low, that could be the main issue.

 

[blaxsun]

Every. Single. Day. Populated by altogether brief moments of euphoria when something actually works out.

 

[JumboShrimp]

Go FOWLR, Go SOFTIES, and start enjoying life. ;Happy

 

[G Santana]

You are in the same boat most folks in this hobby are in. IMO tanks really take a long time to fully mature and tanks started with dry rock are on the longer side of that equation.
Not all corals will thrive initially regardless of what folks say.
I've taken the approach of going very slow, 7 months in and very few corals and fish in my 130 gallon.
I'm looking for stability before I try anything advanced in the tank.
And like some folks have said sometimes some corals won't do well in a particular tank and there is no rhyme or reason.
Keep the faith and move forward with what is doing well in your tank and wait it out.

 

[Bouncingsoul39]

There is an answer forr this and I don’t at all agree that “some tanks just can’t keep certain corals. total malarkey. Some reefers can’t keep certain corals because of user error.

Here a start: keep salinity at 1.026. This needs to stay stable. Zero reason for a fluctuation. Lower dkh to 7-8. Stop dosing all chemicals especially NoxPox. Feed your fish a small amount once a (one cube) day, feed your corals 1/2 the recommendEd dose reefroids or similar every other day. Stop with the weekly carbon and phos media. Change that to the prescribed amount by the manufacturer once per month.
turn the chaeto light to run only 12 hours on a reverse cycle.
wait two weeks. Turkey baster the rocks and vacuum and stir the sand with a 25% water change. wait two weeks. See how the tank reacts and post here again.

 

[wareagle]

Were you trying with aquacultured or mariclutured goni ? Goniopora has a reputation for not doing well, but the ORA red aquacultured is probably your best bet if that isn't what died in your tank.

 

[NowGlazeIT]

You may need to stabilize your phosphates swing. Some coral really hate that, my Goni is one of them.

 

[Matt Winstead]

It is a common problem that sometimes a certain tank just won't support certain corals. If you read about the variable results that the brs guys had with different tanks and different methods one gets the sense that sometimes you just have to put in what works now and wait it out.

To reduce frustration, I'd suggest just sticking with what is easy right now, and simplify your system for your own sanity. NOPOX and Carbon and a fuge sounds like a hassle.

You still have a great looking tank!

Thanks! It's a struggle to keep the nutrients down it takes it all combined

 

[Matt Winstead]

You may need to stabilize your phosphates swing. Some coral really hate that, my Goni is one of them.

I've tried but still don't know how to keep the phosphates stable. The GFO will drop them drastically and then they rebound right back again and the cycle repeats. The skimmer and water changes and NOPOX aren't enough to keep them down

 

[Matt Winstead]

Were you trying with aquacultured or mariclutured goni ? Goniopora has a reputation for not doing well, but the ORA red aquacultured is probably your best bet if that isn't what died in your tank.

Good question got them at LFS and not sure.

 

[Matt Winstead]

There is an answer forr this and I don’t at all agree that “some tanks just can’t keep certain corals. total malarkey. Some reefers can’t keep certain corals because of user error.

Here a start: keep salinity at 1.026. This needs to stay stable. Zero reason for a fluctuation. Lower dkh to 7-8. Stop dosing all chemicals especially NoxPox. Feed your fish a small amount once a (one cube) day, feed your corals 1/2 the recommendEd dose reefroids or similar every other day. Stop with the weekly carbon and phos media. Change that to the prescribed amount by the manufacturer once per month.
turn the chaeto light to run only 12 hours on a reverse cycle.
wait two weeks. Turkey baster the rocks and vacuum and stir the sand with a 25% water change. wait two weeks. See how the tank reacts and post here again.

If nutrient are too high why stop the NOPOX and why slow the chaeto growth if those are export methods ?

 

[Ocean’s Piece]

Everyone gets frustrated with the hobby at one point of another. You just have to learn to cope with the issues you have and turn them into learning opportunities or action plans. Some things you really can’t do anything about, which may come off as frustrating, but what I do is think of my reef as a person. Most of the time, I’m not going to change what it likes, what it doesn’t like, what it does, and what it doesn’t do, etc. Hope this helps