5 Corals I Regret Buying...and Why? 

UK Coral Frags - www.prestigereef.co.uk Aquarium Consultancy Service - prestigereef.co.uk/collections/merchandise/products/1-hour-consultancy

I was keeping acros in the 90s with ungodly amounts of wattage sunk into halides, VHOs and chillers. I just burnt out. I bought a mechanically operated auto topoff from an engineering PhD student and nothing else was automated. It such a PITA to keep brown sticks alive. Even with 400 watts of actinic they just weren't importing pretty stuff back then most of the time. The thing I regret the most is how little care we gave to animal husbandry 20 years ago. We treated coral like it was a rock and just bought more and more(all wild) to replace them. I wish we had the foresight to figure out coral farms decades ago. Reefing has a bad rep because of how irresponsible we were for so long. Sorry for ramlbing.

A couple of years ago i set up a "pest" tank. Xenia, Majano anemones, bristleworms, crabs, mantis shrimp ( the small green ones) and asterina. The filtation was an old hob. Nothing else, no other sources of flow. Lighting was a blue and white par from Amazon. Vol was 10 gallons. The hardscape was some real unquarantined/seasoned live rock. When some of my reefing buds came to visit, do you know which tank they were all fascinated by? Yep! The pest tank! There was always something going on in there, macro algae would suddenly appear, weird little crustaceans, worms and mollusks would swarm and then just as suddenly disappear. The xenia was thick, healthy and incredibly lively, maybe because of the low flow. And oddly it didn't overun the tank, maybe again because low flow, lame filtration and low temps ( no heater). As for the majano anemones, some grew the most amazing colors, almost iridescent. It was a great little tank but it was really just an experiment. It ended crashing ( water changes weren't a priority) .

Good video. I thought I would mention for those xenia lovers out there there are 2 species that you can keep that won’t overtake your tank. The Red Sea Pom Pom xenia and the giant Bali xenia. These species will not overrun your tank and are easy to trim back. I’ve kept them for years and spread them around to friends who have had the same results. Unfortunately they are hard to find and often mislabeled. I received mine from a vendor in the US called Marine Farmers. Great corals!

I'm glad to hear how you have grown and the patreon link for coral is an exceptional idea. Keep up the great work 👍🏾

Great video, I appreciate your personal views and feedback

Well, this video has just saved me from making a massive purchase mistake. Sincerely, much appreciated!

I love my scoly and trachy. I keep them in a slightly colder temperature mixed reef. Yes, 24,5C will make corals grow a little slower but is benefit for my gorgonians and scolys. I have never kept sun coral before but if I do i will keep it in a deep sea themed aquarium with Randall’s anthias

I agree with high end Acro’s Been in hobby since I was 16 with a biocube over 22 years in hobby I go on vacation or business trip then suddenly all white colony’s it’s so frustrating. Even though I love them I’m actually starting to lean away from them sticks

For me acropora was easy to keep as long as the parameters stay rock solid like you've mentioned in the video. I have power backup and continuous 3 part dosing and testing water as much I can. As my tank is now 12 years old, there's nothing much i do into the maintenance. Everything is self sustained now.

Xenia does not spread in a low nutrient system! It's also my favourite coral. And does behave

Xenias are my favorite.! 😅😅

I am very fortunate that I don’t really like sps. Any of them. I find them extremely boring looking. I can’t think of a single one I would actually spend money on or trade anything for. They may as well be rocks to me. I couldn’t care less.

Never understood why people hate xenia, ive had one in my tank for 2 years and its managed to stay on the tiny island i put it on. Ive had to trim it a few times but its never jumped to my main rock structure. Guess im lucky.

5:52 Try 2 or 3 Orange Spotted File Fish....

Learn to feed the sun polyps during the lights on so they can used to stay open during the day. It’s what worked for me for over 15 years. All new heads would learn to eat during the day light and would all stay open during day lights schedule

The only thing that I regret buying so far is a coral banded shrimp, he ate on fish and I caught him trying for more.

I had a spike when a/c went out and only 2 corals died! Scoly and a fat head dendro! I almost bought another but my water stays around 80. I live in Fl and keep indoors 78. Other then that the scoly was easy! and I got it cheap at about 125! I have a green zoa that is like a zenia that i regret It s growing everywhere!

In my case I had trouble with a pink chalice , fast growing coral beautiful pink color and very aggressive tentacles. That kill a lot of my corals

Where’s the torches on this list? I have a love hate relationship with those guys.

Xenia destroyed my whole tank . I put a gyre pump set it at the lowest setting but It may have been strong still for some of my corals . One of my colony of Xenia get irritated and relieved chemical warfare in the tank and all my other corals bleached out and when I got home the smell coming from the tank was horrible . I love Xenia because as a beginner it gave me hope and I saw them growing very fast and it pulsed so nice when you turn your pump down but I don’t plan on getting them anytime soon unless that’s a softie tank build

Man you guys in the uk are lucky Thai man gives y’all access to a coral wholesaler .badass

Can you make a video per poly toxins. Heard of a family getting sick when an uneducated hobbyist boiled a coral to remove it from a rock. 1 year later family still on med. The dog got ill too.

IT SEEMS YOU HAVE STOLEN MY LIST OF REGRETS. I AGREE 100% WITH OUR LIST !

I love acros but they are difficult. I wouldn’t say I have a bunch of expensive equipment, but I pay the expense in manual labor I guess.

I had suns, acro’s and of course Xenia on my list as well. My problem with acro’s has always been two parts. The first, as you mentioned the equipment, a calcium reactor and (ideally) metal halides are a must. The second, while the colors are absolutely gorgeous, I find after a while they become boring. With no movement they’re basically pretty rocks. I personally got bored with that and wanted to go back to something more visually stimulating

I just pushed a xenia it's on a rock by itself but if it starts to spread on sand it's coming out lol

Solid five in my opinion if we're all honest with ourselves 😂

i know how to contain xenia. surround it by galaxea.

You have to diside where Is the best place to put the coral. No all corals get alone.

Scolymia are beautiful but they just sort of sit there. They don't do much growing or reshape the environment. Regarded as hardy, many are just dying slowly and never fluff up to full potential. However, I still like them very much.

Xenia deserve a species specific tank

I had to get rid of my Xenia's. I wasn't able to contain it

My xenia colony sends out scouts that attach themselves to random parts of the tank.

Your dislike of Xenia is 2 videos dedicated to it strong 😂 great video though and interesting to know about Scoly liking lower temps and Galaxea sweepers! 👍 Also Reef Dork might file a copyright claim on the "life finds a way" quote 😅

Took a friend with me to the reef shop the other day, he has dubbed solymia "oh, the unicorn butt holes"

Trade your corals for tiny frags and let them grow out get high end for free

Nice triggerfish!

I got into soft corals about a year/year 1/2 ago give or take. i got pests because i didnt know what i was doing and bought from un trustworthy stores, would the coral pests have died out over the year? basically what im asking is can i start over or will the previous pests still be alive and living in my tank waiting for more coral. thanks

Add clove polyps to that list. Or encrusting sps. Ugh.

I am adding acans and yumas, perhaps euphyllias to the DONT BUY list smh

I HATE ACROS.... u look at them funny, you tell a bad joke to them, you cheat on them with another coral, and BAM.. they imediately go STN without a way to reverse it unless you are fast enough to clip a portion of it that hasn't started to STN and frag it by itself.

Hi mate you need a few years off reef keeping

6:03 what type of fish is this?

Good Lordess . . . 15 years experience and he can't grow Acropora? Xenia as a "tank killer"?!?!?

Be prepared to buy a coral and it looks crap in your tank..... Lol

Rubish, xenia made me hundreds of dolars :)