Is it unrealistic to expect no losses ever?

happyhourhero · Jul 12, 2017

I have had my system going for about 2 years and aside from a move where I lost a poci and a birdsnest in the tubs waiting for the tank to be set back up, I have never lost a coral.

Right now I have one single frag that it very slowly STN from the base. I have had high nutrients which I have brought down fairly slowly and I have lowered my Alk fairly slowly as well.

I am planning on just keeping my nutrients lower and keeping stable but it is killing me watching this guy slowly die.

Is it just part of it sometimes?

saltyfilmfolks · Jul 12, 2017

happyhourhero said:
Is it just part of it sometimes?

Yes.

Sometimes the learning curve is steep.

Daniel@R2R · Jul 13, 2017

IME it's just part of the hobby. Sometimes we can avoid issues, but even in (what appears to be) a perfect system, things will still die for unknown reasons.

Tuffyyyyy · Jul 13, 2017

You could also break off some and try to start a new frag.

ahiggins · Jul 13, 2017

Its unrealistic to think youll never lose anything.
Even if you do everything right...theres always *something* that can happen lol I had a weird bacterial outbreak last year and lost 80% of my paly colonies. Thankfully a few heads from each survived but I was devistated.
Worst part, not a single person (at LFS or 3 forums) knew what it was or how to treat it

Stuff happens lol.

BigJohnny · Jul 13, 2017

Yes, definitely part of the hobby. Sanjay had rampant stn in his tank a while ago and never figured it out. There is still so much for us to learn. I'd say your doing pretty well

revhtree · Jul 13, 2017

I just saw where @Brad Syphus was having a RTN issue with one of his giant sps colonies. If you have seen his tank you know he does it right. Sometimes there is no rhyme or reason. For me there is always reason! HA!

acro-ed · Jul 13, 2017

There's always a reason, but finding it may elude us.

Good example: I had a frag system up for years and the last year or so the corals just always looked marginal; not really dying but just less vibrant and less growth. When I finally tore it down I realized the float switch was leeching electricity. I would have only figured this out if I had my hand in the tank "as" it was filling. So the corals were being periodically subjected to stray voltage, but I would have never figured it out.

I killed off a bunch of nice acro colonies when DIY LED first hit the scene years ago. I had 4xvho supplement and took that off for 2 LED bars that I made with royal blue leds. They didn't seem that strong, but with 3w chips on a non-dimmable ballast I burned a bunch of holes in some beautiful corals. I lost a ton of stuff and didn't really understand until a year or so later when more trial and error was posted on the forums.

I've seen other people have equipment malfunctions (chillers, dosers, reactors, etc.) nuke entire tanks.

Between the equipment and the unknown biology of it there will always be losses. It's a reality in this hobby.

revhtree · Jul 13, 2017

Well there is at least one reason that we can't control.

Scorpius · Jul 13, 2017

If you haven't lost an sps yet, just wait it'll happen.

Brandon McHenry · Jul 13, 2017

I hate to say it but I think that there is always the possibility of loss. We do our best to control everything and prevent things from dying but sometimes things happen.

Logan27 · Jul 14, 2017

Last week, my water got cloudy. I tested for everything and my corals started to look sick especially my polyps,, It was frustrating, That happened just when everything looked better than ever. I thought I was going to lose them but thank God they're coming back. My red monti digi started to bleach and that one is not improving too much so we will see.

Bruce Burnett · Jul 14, 2017

Even if you don't do something wrong corals grow and fight for space. If you don't trim one will lose the fight.

BoomCorals · Jul 14, 2017

Loss is inevitable. I'll have a single frag I've had for 2 months RTN for no apparent reason in a tank full of frags that never show a hint of an issue. It just happens sometimes.

erk · Jul 16, 2017

I've lost countless amounts of coral. Always frags, thankfully. Most my fault and some not. I've learned to take it in stride and learn from the experience. Now, 4 yrs later, I feel far more comfortable with my husbandry skills and am not surprised by much of anything except the resiliency of coral. Just amazing how easily they can regenerate if the conditions are right. I've learned that the coral will tell you if things are going well, but also the flora/fauna that we consider hitchhikers or pests. For example, spirorbid worm populations are usually a barometer for me. They boom and bust quickly. Same for certain types of algae. Now to just get the coral to grow into large colonies. If only it was as easy as growing gorgonians.