Top 5 Reasons Your Corals Are Dying

There are 2 types of people in this hobby: those who lose corals from time to time, and liars! I take a look at the most common reasons for coral mortality. And tell you how you can avoid or fix things.

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[curt]

Thanks for taking the time, Alex. Cheers! 👍

[delsere]

Really impressed with the quality of advice in your videos. I've been in the hobby for 5 years and I like keeping up to date on the latest best practices and other aspects of reef keeping. I have a SPS dominant 25G nano and a mixed RS250 reefer and I can say that I've encountered all of these issues at some point or another despite being quite meticulous. My RS reefer has been more or less on auto pilot and I've lost two of my clams, an alveopora, and a ORA hawkins echinata over the course of about 12 months. Further inspection would find that the rear of one of my vortech MP10s is rusting, the submersible magnet on my hydor koralia in the sump was completely rusted and I was able to break it apart with my fingers. Lastly, I've been fighting diatoms for about 12 months with periods of success. It was only lately that I suspected my TDS meter on my RODI unit was inaccurate an I'm in the process of replacing most of the media. Spot on advice from the friendly Reef Dork!

[MettaTrance]

I started my first reef tank just over a month ago and one of my corals is refusing to open up now. I'm so new to this I don't even know how to identify the coral but my LFS said he should be fine for a newer tank. They have decades of reefing between them so I trust them and put it down to the algae bloom i'm currently suffering!

Awesome video - alongside Bulk Reef Supply you have everything covered. Subscribed :)

[drew-shourd]

Good video m8. @1:07, that hammer is rubbing, stinging and killing that SPS, the dying colonies are very clear. Like you said, in a mixed reef tank, location in everything...

[bearded-flipflop]

Just watched. Thanks for the info. My cant keep coral are acans I've tried. I can grow euphillias. I think either lights or when I had issues it was zero phosphates causing my issues and I lost my acan and all my digitata.

[alfst]

Great video Alex, for ages I could not keep corals for the life of me, but since I have changed to NSW, I now have several different varieties of coral, plus I now add All-For-Reef daily and everything’s seems pretty stable, phew, I got there in the end lol

[RustyShacklefardd]

Thank you. I have been obsessively thinking over every possible thing that I can do to make my zoas happy. I have one little frag and I’ve been trying to research the best lighting for a pico set up

[thereefaholic]

Another great video. On the alkalinity issue I would add that it is frustrating to find the sweet spot of where your alkalinity needs to be. Some tanks can have an alkalinity is high is 11 and not have any issues we’re other ones everything will die as soon as it goes 9. With that said, your SPS corals will have a better tolerance to alkalinity swings if the nitrates are above zero. Ultra low nutrient systems are notoriously intolerant of any alkalinity swings.

[BigGuyAl]

Nice one Alex
Q I had problems with ausie lps corals! Dieing for no reason. Proamiters are fine! Everything is fine. Took me £500 worth or corals to find out what it was! Well I hope it's that! Cheers

[shabbir]

"Corals love stability but us hobbyist love to tinker" well said 👍👍👍👍👍👍

[barretharms]

I've had the best results with corals with a 2000 gallon tank. Because when a change is made in a 2000 gallon tank it is so slow it is almost seasonal

[opethmike]

I'd like to expand on the alkalinity point. While I agree that the stability of the number is important, the number itself (that 7 to 11 range) does matter as it relates to nutrients. Basically, if you have high alk but low/no no3/po4 that can cause burnt tip and STN issues.

[metalldanny]

Woaw you have pretty high waves in your tank!!!! 🌊🌊🌊🌊
Never wet floor ??!

[fuffoon]

Here is lots of good troubleshooting advice.

[RealtorAshfaque]

another great episode...Thanks for sharing..

[itsdezzire]

whats a good routine for hand dosing a fluval 13 a 2 part system for alk and calc

[pauldeacon]

Hi Reef Dork! your tank looks absolutely amazing! Can u tell me please? Does keeping your tank lights on 8 hours a day for corals, work out expensive!! 😀👍

[marcelrodriguez]

I found out the reason ive lost %80 of my corals ( was gonna trash the tank and leave the hobby ) was because surprisingly my kalk container was leachign copper somehow. Im amazed that a plastic jug had so much copper on it idk how.

[karennation]

I have one coral losing tissue and had many shipped recently! This is the only one i ididnt dip! Stupid I know! I had my eye on this big moselya colony for a while at my lfs. Should I dip it now or would it be to stressful? Should I use coral rx or a iodine dip? Its on the sand bed and notice I am getting dinos I think! I have been blowing it off corals and this plus chalice are only two losing tissue. I have had bad luck with chalice in the past and also sandbed corals. This moselya is on sand bed. Look liked at first like it was bleaching. I have moved it to lower light area, but sand bed should be to high! Every thing else fine. Not sure what to do! HELP! Its a gorgeous and rare colony! Dont want to lose it!

[kenedicharco]

I just had a question.
My sps coral is bleached almost completely. Only the very tips have any sign of life. Would fraging the branches be beneficial or should I just wait if it jumps back?
Any advice would be helpful