Help! New Goniopora is dying!

[Uncle99]

Update. The goni has lost all of its polyps and is only skeleton now.... Super unfortunate. I know now that this is a much harder coral to keep. I will certainly be waiting a while before I give this a shot again, with more knowledge next time. Also, I got my calibration fluid today and calibrated my refractometer, it was .002+ SG off, so it's at 1.027 SG. I'm going to work to lower that with RODI replacement over the next couple of days. My new mag tester gets here tomorrow, so I'll test and dose appropriately.

I appreciate everyone's suggestions and tips, this was certainly a learning experience. I just wish it wasn't a case of "finding out the hard way".

We ALL find out that way.
Sorry for your loss.

I no longer subscribe to the difficult or almost impossible list.

Anything that dies is never replaced.

So far that includes Gonipora, Tracs, elegance and any star fish except brittle stars.

 

[Coral Memere]

I'm really hoping it can bounce back. It's crazy how fast it went from fine to polyp loss in a matter of a day. I'm going to do my best to save it.

Polyps retracted is different than polyps peeled away. Keep the faith.
You've gotten advice saying hight light, low light, raise your parameters, reduce your flow. I have 28 Gonis. Some are retracted and some are fully bushy.
Right now I'm experimenting with killing the T5 light, right over them, and they seem to be responding well. Unfortunately, it's learning, experimenting, losing and retrying.

You can see from my mountain, I have Gonis in all kinds of stages. The yellow arrows are retracted, but come out, now and then. The blue ones are improving daily. The green one? I found in the same the other day after MONTHS, facedown in the sand, and his polyps are peeking out more, each day.

 

[Coral Memere]

So I’m not a fan of most dips to be honest

They tend to be harsh

Iodine kills the critters you don’t want

You could also use a KCL dip to kill more critters but it’s also not harsh

But your problem probably wasn't critters.... (Although it's all I use to dip new corals because it DOES get the bugs.) Iodine also acts as an antibacterial, like on people, and helps heal infections.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hello all,

I'm hoping someone here can point me in the right direction to save a new Goniopora frag I got about 6 days ago. On the first couple of days the polyps were extending and it seemed happy. Now it's completely withdrawn and polyps look like they are peeling off! The flesh looks super pale where it's lost polyps. It's on a rock near the bottom of the tank and not in direct flow.

The coral was dipped in CoralRX when I got it as well, so I'm not sure if it needs another dip or what.

My DT is about 3 months old, cycled already with rock from last tank which was 3 years old.
It's a Waterbox MarineX90.3, the tank section is about 60 gallons. I have 2 AI prime 16hds that are running the BRS AB+ light schedule at about 58% intensity (it's in acclimation mode moving to 100% over 30 days.

Nothing else in the tank looks bad, just the Goniopora.

My parameters are:
pH: 8.1
Mag: 1260
Calc: 500
Alk: 9.2
Ammonia: 0
NO2: 0
NO3: 2.5
PO4: 0.05
Temp: ~77.5F
Salinity: 1.025 SG


I would really appreciate any advice to save this!

They like flow and need it to keep waste and sediment off of them. Often, they get angry when phosphate is elevated, salinity is low, too much light and lack of trace elements. Mine are happy when I add aminos which they need and occasional manganese

 

[Oninova]

Yikes! That's a big jump in the deep end for your first one. Have you been in touch with WWC for advice on what light and flow they had it at?

Yes, it was. It did not have a care level. But other goni on their site is listed as "easy" care. I contacted them and they said my nitrates were low.

 

[Oninova]

Polyps retracted is different than polyps peeled away. Keep the faith.
You've gotten advice saying hight light, low light, raise your parameters, reduce your flow. I have 28 Gonis. Some are retracted and some are fully bushy.
Right now I'm experimenting with killing the T5 light, right over them, and they seem to be responding well. Unfortunately, it's learning, experimenting, losing and retrying.

You can see from my mountain, I have Gonis in all kinds of stages. The yellow arrows are retracted, but come out, now and then. The blue ones are improving daily. The green one? I found in the same the other day after MONTHS, facedown in the sand, and his polyps are peeking out more, each day.

Beautiful tank! I'm certainly going to wait a long time before I try gonis again.

 

[Coral Memere]

Beautiful tank! I'm certainly going to wait a long time before I try gonis again.

Oh, it's not beautiful, but thank you. It's filthy. It's crawling with hair algae, the canister filter is broken. The flow is all off. It's alk and pH are too low. I'm just trying to isolate 1 reason at a time what's ticking off some and not the others.

 

[Coral Memere]

Yes, it was. It did not have a care level. But other goni on their site is listed as "easy" care. I contacted them and they said my nitrates were low.

Yes, they were. I go for 20-40. Around 1500 mg. Phos stays at .3, for some reason... And like many have said, here, I saw a HUGE improvement women I started dosing aminos and trace elements. (On all corals)

Everything I'm learning about Gonis came from @Reefing_addiction. I can't keep track of where the post fell, but back a couple pages, she made a great summary.

 

[Saffer1]

Update on Magnesium testing. I got a new Hanna checker last night and tested my mag twice, it's at ~1415ppm, so my expired salifert test kit was just giving me low readings. I'm going to hold dosing mag as it seems to be in an appropriate range. Also the goni is completely bleached white coral now, don't think it's coming back.

I also learnt the hard way, my salifert po4 test kit showed zero, so I started dosing. The result? I lost half my LPS.
Always, always check the expiry date.

 

[VintageReefer]

Update on Magnesium testing. I got a new Hanna checker last night and tested my mag twice, it's at ~1415ppm, so my expired salifert test kit was just giving me low readings. I'm going to hold dosing mag as it seems to be in an appropriate range. Also the goni is completely bleached white coral now, don't think it's coming back.

Keep in mind magnesium and manganese are different. Gonis tend to like manganese, and it depletes very fast. Usually needs a few drops added daily just to stay above zero

 

[Reefing_addiction]

You’ll notice my MAGNESIUM is 1695

My Manganese is .92
NO3 is 12 (I fight keeping this number up - I’d rather it be higher)
PO4 is .24

 

[FernBluffReef]

Update on Magnesium testing. I got a new Hanna checker last night and tested my mag twice, it's at ~1415ppm, so my expired salifert test kit was just giving me low readings. I'm going to hold dosing mag as it seems to be in an appropriate range. Also the goni is completely bleached white coral now, don't think it's coming back.

Hanna MG always tests high for me. If your getting 1415. I'd figure your MG is probably a bit low. Just saying .

Keep in mind Hanna MG, isn't all that accurate. +/- 5% so if your reading is 1400 it could be anywheres from around 1300 to 1600 and as mentioned in my experience the delta is ofter greater and to the high end. Usually reading about 100-150 higher than a RedSea test.

Example this morning I tested my display tank and Hanna gave a reading of 1,560. I know if I retest with RedSea which has an advertised accuracy of +\- 20 that it will probably read in the low 1300s. I've baselined against newly mixed saltwater and always find the RedSea test reads around where it should be and the Hanna is 150-200 higher.

None of the above is to be a knock on Hanna. Just to caution that different tests can vary widely especially for MG so it's best to adopt one and shoot for stability. My guess is your sailfert isn't as far off as you think it might be. As I understand the dyes do weaken over time hence start to read lower but likely not as far as thinking here.

I personally prefer and use the Hannas as I find them much easier to use / read. They all work great save CA you have to very cautious of contamination hence use lab graded distilled water as part of the test and for cleaning cuvettes else it will read high. If done right the CA test is very accurate / stable. The MG will read higher then what I noted above if you don't rinse your vials in quality distilled water that has no MG or CA added back in which many do. Unlike CA, I've not found a way to improve the consistency of MG testing with Hanna, beyond that, so I only use as a guide and I generally assume it's 150 high

Hope that helps. Also try testing some newly mixed saltwater where you have a general idea what the MG level should be. That may give you a better idea how close the two tests are to reality. It did for me and an ICP test also confirmed

 

[Oninova]

Keep in mind magnesium and manganese are different. Gonis tend to like manganese, and it depletes very fast. Usually needs a few drops added daily just to stay above zero

Yep, understood.

 

[Oninova]

You’ll notice my MAGNESIUM is 1695

My Manganese is .92
NO3 is 12 (I fight keeping this number up - I’d rather it be higher)
PO4 is .24

Yah at some point I would like to get ICP test done.

 

[Oninova]

Hanna MG always tests high for me. If your getting 1415. I'd figure your MG is probably a bit low. Just saying .

Keep in mind Hanna MG, isn't all that accurate. +/- 5% so if your reading is 1400 it could be anywheres from around 1300 to 1600 and as mentioned in my experience the delta is ofter greater and to the high end. Usually reading about 100-150 higher than a RedSea test.

Example this morning I tested my display tank and Hanna gave a reading of 1,560. I know if I retest with RedSea which has an advertised accuracy of +\- 20 that it will probably read in the low 1300s. I've baselined against newly mixed saltwater and always find the RedSea test reads around where it should be and the Hanna is 150-200 higher.

None of the above is to be a knock on Hanna. Just to caution that different tests can vary widely especially for MG so it's best to adopt one and shoot for stability. My guess is your sailfert isn't as far off as you think it might be. As I understand the dyes do weaken over time hence start to read lower but likely not as far as thinking here.

I personally prefer and use the Hannas as I find them much easier to use / read. They all work great save CA you have to very cautious of contamination hence use lab graded distilled water as part of the test and for cleaning cuvettes else it will read high. If done right the CA test is very accurate / stable. The MG will read higher then what I noted above if you don't rinse your vials in quality distilled water that has no MG or CA added back in which many do. Unlike CA, I've not found a way to improve the consistency of MG testing with Hanna, beyond that, so I only use as a guide and I generally assume it's 150 high

Hope that helps. Also try testing some newly mixed saltwater where you have a general idea what the MG level should be. That may give you a better idea how close the two tests are to reality. It did for me and an ICP test also confirmed

Good tips, I use Tropic Marin pro reef salt. I'll test my next batch to see if it falls into range and take that into consideration when testing tank water.

 

[Uncle99]

Yah at some point I would like to get ICP test done.

I think ICP is good data, but, sometimes suggests problems exist that are not problems and send us on wide goose chases.

 

[Oninova]

I think ICP is good data, but, sometimes suggests problems exist that are not problems and send us on wide goose chases.

Yah I've heard this from a couple people. I certainly don't want to try to correct non-existent issues when the standard stuff needs some work to get stable.

 

[VintageReefer]

Best done on a regular schedule to establish trends and get a baseline. If something is low/high, but always is low/high, then it probably doesn’t matter

If something is depleting month after month after month, then something is consuming / needing it, and it might be important to supplement.

If something is building month after month, then you’re adding too much of something

 

[Uncle99]

Yah I've heard this from a couple people. I certainly don't want to try to correct non-existent issues when the standard stuff needs some work to get stable.

The problem with various ICP tests is “their” view on what perfect parameters should be. From test to test, these vary. Don’t get me wrong, the data is useful when used in combination with other tests we do ourselves on a regular basis, but, it’s only a picture at one specific moment.

While hobby grade tests “may” be less accurate, if done regularly, gives me a better overall picture of changes over time. That’s more important IMM.

 

[Reefing_addiction]

The problem with various ICP tests is “their” view on what perfect parameters should be. From test to test, these vary. Don’t get me wrong, the data is useful when used in combination with other tests we do ourselves on a regular basis, but, it’s only a picture at one specific moment.

While hobby grade tests “may” be less accurate, if done regularly, gives me a better overall picture of changes over time. That’s more important IMM.

There are plenty of things hobby grade test don’t test for…..

I don’t run an ICP often. Maybe once a year …this year I did it at two different times. Pre starting to dose my self made manganese’s solution and the start of AF lab component pro and then a couple months later