What gives?

So I was wondering if anyone else here has issues raising "easy" corals like zoas, rics, and mushrooms. For the life of me, I can't seem to get them to prosper in my tank. They last for awhile and just seem to whither away. I've checked for zoa eating nudis but can't find any. I also currently have several other corals prospering and growing such as frogspawn, hammer, torch, acans, brain, candy canes, an SPS, and a clam. I don't know what the deal here is. Could it be a case of "too clean" like with xenia?

 

Possible too clean, maybe your tank's environment is just not right. If you start another one that one maybe perfect for the coral you can't keep and you would have difficulty with the one you keep successfully.

 

Zoas are the worst for me. I cannot keep them alive let alone get them to thrive like others. I always heard they were easy but they just close up and melt away in my tank. I have check my water params and moved them around higher or lower light, more flow less flow, but notheing seemed to work. When my tank was newly set up they did fine but now they are a no go. Everything else seems to do well, SPS, LPS, rics, and softies all do very well. Even the clams I have are doing great.

 

I can not keep cloves alive in my tank, GSP no problems

 

Mushrooms, unfortunately. A tank featuring a large mushroom garden with a variety of colors is one of my favorite tank types, always wanted one. Ricordia no problem, any variation on mushrooms like hairy and such do fine, but not regular mushrooms.

 

I have trouble with xenia, and my GSP isn't "taking over the world" or even growing that I can tell. It's not declining, and seems to look good, it's just not growing. We always have nitrates of 20 in our tank, and the zoas and shrooms seem to be thriving and growing like crazy.

 

i cant grow sps =)

 

I can not keep xenia but everything else grows fine I don't know what it is =P

 

I'm seeing a possible trend here. I have crazy paly growth, but my zoas are the same. I have only had them for 4-5 weeks now, but comparitively to the palys, it is obvious they are not growing. My xenia is growing well, and i have zero nitrates, and 0.1 phosphates.

What are your paramaters for nitrates and phosphates?

 

Tough to keep a mixed reef. Also, some corals just have certain quirks. Light, flow, water parameters, unknown trace elements - too much or too little etc... I've found some corals to be impossible in some tanks and weeds in others. Too bad they don't talk I guess.

There really is no such thing as an easy or tough coral. There is just some corals that like the environment you provide and others that don't. Any coral is easy or hard depending on how good a match it is to the system.