Help! New Goniopora is dying!

[steveschuerger]

Lowish Mag and raise the nitrate level. And yeah Gonis can take the PAR in many cases. And good random flow. I know some who have Gonis in with Acros and they’re blasted with flow and seemingly quite happy.

 

[Oninova]

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

Yah, i was super worried about introducing nasty pest, even from a place like WWC that's been pretty good. I'm hoping the iodine helps it heal.

 

[Oninova]

Acclimation mode is usually only used when you have corals already and are switching lights

Ok, i think I'm going to pop the intensity up and monitor my tank to see if it affects anything negatively.

 

[Oninova]

Lowish Mag and raise the nitrate level. And yeah Gonis can take the PAR in many cases. And good random flow. I know some who have Gonis in with Acros and they’re blasted with flow and seemingly quite happy.

Yah id like to up those nitrates, I'm adding some reef chili every 2 days to help nutrients. I may push my filter sock change out time a little. I'm also do 10% weekly water changes to be consistent, and I expect I'm stripping down nutrients a bit.

Beautiful goni btw!

 

[Oninova]

Update. I just got home and moved the goni to the sand bed and a spot with much less flow. Most of the polyps are gone at this point, so it looks like it dying quick or is already a goner. Lugol's comes this week and I'll work to dip and it then dose with Manganum.

 

[hoffmeyerz]

I've got two XR15 G6's on a 75g with them at 100% and getting about 80 on the sand bed. Tank is 16" deep. Some gonis like more light than others. The orange goni near the top in my latest video in my build thread is getting about 150-175.

Wow, I'm running two xr15 G5's on my 75g but only at 30% right now. The thought of them all the way at 100% is blinding!! I've had a new goni frag in for about 1 1/2 weeks now and it's love'n life so I'm hesitant to change anything.
To the op, I've heard it said many times, even in this thread, gonis can be finicky and sometimes are lost seemingly out of the blue.

 

[KTTX]

I would recommend raising Nitrate to 5 to 10.

 

[Oninova]

Wow, I'm running two xr15 G5's on my 75g but only at 30% right now. The thought of them all the way at 100% is blinding!! I've had a new goni frag in for about 1 1/2 weeks now and it's love'n life so I'm hesitant to change anything.
To the op, I've heard it said many times, even in this thread, gonis can be finicky and sometimes are lost seemingly out of the blue.

Yah it's really unfortunate that it's going to poorly. I'm holding out hope it turns around after so extra care.

 

[Oninova]

I would recommend raising Nitrate to 5 to 10.

I'm going to work towards this with some extra feeding and delaying switching out my filter socks so often.

 

[smitten with ocean life]

im just going to chime in to say dont throw it out too soon. i had one that i was positive was a goner. i just never got around to throwing it out. i was SO sad it had died. then low and behold the thing came back! i couldnt believe my eyes! you never know!

 

[Oninova]

im just going to chime in to say dont throw it out too soon. i had one that i was positive was a goner. i just never got around to throwing it out. i was SO sad it had died. then low and behold the thing came back! i couldnt believe my eyes! you never know!

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.

 

[smitten with ocean life]

this is the one that came back

 

[Saffer1]

I agree, you need to up your Mg. Would also suggest you dose amino acids. I use the one from AF twice a week.

 

[ReefStable]

I would agree that magnesium is low. I would also do an iodine dip, and dose manganese. But you'll also want to run an ICP to keep up on things. Gonis are finicky. Not a beginner coral by any means.

To chime in on some other items:
- Hydrometers need to be calibrated with 35 (or so) calibration fluid. When calibrated with RO water, the tolerance is at the upper end, and can be off by a reasonable amount. Being mechanical, it can be off calibration by setting it down too hard, dropping, or a number of things.
- Most* goni like low to moderate flow, usually sand bed levels.
- Most* goni like low light. 75-125 PAR
- Goni can get bacterial infections really easily. Iodine dipping helps with that. Cipro is another option, but for this one I think it is too late to try to order cipro.
- Trace and minors (namely Manganese) play a role for goni. ICP tests are ideal because there really aren't many options (any that i found) for checking this.

That's just my $0.02. But as was mentioned earlier, some gonis just don't survive. They're easily stressed.

 

[Uncle99]

This coral very challenging.
Here today, Goni pora tomorrow.
Some have great success.
Many perish…

 

[Oninova]

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".

 

[smitten with ocean life]

again, leave it in for awhile just in case!

 

[FernBluffReef]

Gonis / Alvepoera that I got never extended, slowly died even though parms were spot on. I was about to throw in the towel on them.

Once I started dosing trace elements they started to perk up. Did an ICP to find virtually no iodine, manganese and a couple of other lessers consistent with what others mentioned on this thread. Since addressing the trace elements I have three gonis and one alvepora that are extending lots more. My tiny goni frag went from occasionly extending a polyp or two to now extending lots and for long distances (having to move corals to prevent fighting.). My alvepora quadrupled in size over a week or so. Obviously it did not grow that fast just polyps extended 3-4 times in length and size.

Recently my nutrients got a bit higher then I wanted so tried to lower them a bit and overshot. That.ticked off one of the gonis. Raises the levels and quickly back to happy camper.

So my advise. If the basic element parms.are in order along with nutrients look towards trace elements as my gonis at least are very sensitive to the absence of and very responsive to improving those levels.

 

[Oninova]

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.

 

[SueAubu]

Fruit Loops

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?