Coralkin honest saltwater & reef care

🌸 Coral Trouble Card

Ricordea Mushroom Coral Trouble Card

The one page to have ready when a coral starts to slip. Corals almost never need a vet — recovery is a water-chemistry, light/flow, or pest fix. This walks you through the checks in order. Print it, keep it by the tank.

Black & white saves ink and prints cleanly on any printer.

Not sure it's serious yet? Run the symptom checker or the water-test checker first — many worries turn out to be a husbandry fix.

Coralkin honest saltwater & reef care · coralkin.com
Ricordea Mushroom — Coral Trouble Card

🔬 There's no vet for corals — diagnose the water & environment

Corals almost never need (or have) a vet. A struggling colony is a chemistry, lighting/flow, or pest problem you fix yourself. Work these Coralkin tools:

📇 Fill this in now

My system
What I'm seeing
Recent changes

🚨 Trouble signs now?

  • Fading or bleaching colour — too much light; move it lower or shadier.
  • Not opening fully or detaching — too much flow, or it's been disturbed; give it a calmer spot.
  • Shrinking or melting — a water-quality problem; test and stabilise.

🚗 First things to check

✅ Do

  • Test the full parameter set — salinity, alkalinity, calcium, magnesium, nitrate, phosphate and temperature — and compare to targets.
  • Check the lighting and flow at this coral's exact spot.
  • Look for pests and for irritation from aggressive neighbours.
  • Check for recent changes — new livestock, a dosing change, a big water change.

⛔ Don't

  • Don't reach for OTC “cures” or dose blindly.
  • Don't change everything at once — stability matters more than any single number.
  • Don't keep a badly-failing colony next to healthy ones without isolating it or fragging off the healthy tissue.

📋 This coral's targets

Colony / form
A rounded disc covered in bubbly vesicles; splits into new discs once happy.
Lighting
Low to moderate (≈50–120 PAR) — too much light washes out the colour.
Water flow
Gentle to moderate, indirect — strong flow keeps it from opening and can detach it.
Placement
Low rock or the sand-rock interface in a calm, slightly shaded spot; let it attach and settle.
Temperature
75–82°F (24–28°C).
pH
8.1–8.4.
Specific gravity
1.023–1.026 (reef-standard ≈35 ppt).
Other targets
Soft corals and mushrooms don't draw down calcium and alkalinity like stony corals — just keep salinity and the usual reef parameters stable.
Feeding
Mostly photosynthetic; will take tiny meaty foods — an occasional feed boosts growth and colour.
Growth & spread
Multiplies by splitting once happy — a single ric can become a colourful colony.
Natural range
Caribbean / Western Atlantic.

🌸 A struggling coral is almost always telling you about its water, light, flow, or a pest — not an infection a vet can treat. Stabilise your parameters to target, confirm the light and flow suit this coral, and rule out pests and aggressive neighbours before changing anything drastic. Sudden swings are themselves a stressor.

❓ Work through

  • Is a parameter off-target?
  • Is the light or flow wrong for this coral?
  • Any pests, or aggressive neighbours?
  • What changed recently?