2:1 NO3:PO4 and Goniopora help

[JayPat852]

Hi all,

I need a bit of advice for my Gonis. 3 days ago I tested my nutrients and I was at 2.5ppm NO3 (salifert) and 0.1 ppm Phosphate which I was happy with. All corals were doing great and are growing really well. However, yesterday I noticed 1 of my Goniopora and 1 of my Bernardpora closed up, They were both new additions about 2 weeks ago, Bought from separate LFS.
I then tested both PO4 and NO3 today and PO4 remained the same at 0.1 but NO3 was at 0.2. I didn't believe it at first so did another with the same result. All of the corals were doing great apart from those 2 new additions including my other green and blue/purple Goniopora which I had prior to the new additions. Regarding flow, both of them were recieving adequate flow and looked amazing.

Tank Specs: Display 25G, Sump 15G, Total 40G

All of my other parameters are stable:
-Temp 27C
- Salinity 1.025
- Kh 9.5
- Ca 400
- Mg 1300.

Dosing:
- 6ml All For Reef

WC:
- 5G a week

Nutrient export:
- Skimmer
- Refugium (10 hour photoperiod)
- Daily 2.5ml NitraPhos Minus

Feeding:
- Everyday (broadcast): fish flakes, pinch of reef roids, 5ml Redsea AB+.
- Twice a week (on top of the every day): Target feed 1 cube of mysis

Firstly, I thought the drop in nitrates resulted them to close up but surely I'd expect some of my other corals to be irritated aswell.
Then after going down the googling rabbit hole I saw a lot of info regarding Manganese and Goni's. So my thinking is, the 2 Goni's I had previously used up all of the manganese meaning the 2 new additions wouldn't have any to use. In my old tank I only had 1 Goniopora which after doing this research led me to believe it did well because it wasn't competing with other Goni's for Manganese. Adding onto this, does anyone if there is manganese in All for Reef to sustain Goni's?

Any advice/ help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Snowxcross]

Hi all,

I need a bit of advice for my Gonis. 3 days ago I tested my nutrients and I was at 2.5ppm NO3 (salifert) and 0.1 ppm Phosphate which I was happy with. All corals were doing great and are growing really well. However, yesterday I noticed 1 of my Goniopora and 1 of my Bernardpora closed up, They were both new additions about 2 weeks ago, Bought from separate LFS.
I then tested both PO4 and NO3 today and PO4 remained the same at 0.1 but NO3 was at 0.2. I didn't believe it at first so did another with the same result. All of the corals were doing great apart from those 2 new additions including my other green and blue/purple Goniopora which I had prior to the new additions. Regarding flow, both of them were recieving adequate flow and looked amazing.

Tank Specs: Display 25G, Sump 15G, Total 40G

All of my other parameters are stable:
-Temp 27C
- Salinity 1.025
- Kh 9.5
- Ca 400
- Mg 1300.

Dosing:
- 6ml All For Reef

WC:
- 5G a week

Nutrient export:
- Skimmer
- Refugium (10 hour photoperiod)
- Daily 2.5ml NitraPhos Minus

Feeding:
- Everyday (broadcast): fish flakes, pinch of reef roids, 5ml Redsea AB+.
- Twice a week (on top of the every day): Target feed 1 cube of mysis

Firstly, I thought the drop in nitrates resulted them to close up but surely I'd expect some of my other corals to be irritated aswell.
Then after going down the googling rabbit hole I saw a lot of info regarding Manganese and Goni's. So my thinking is, the 2 Goni's I had previously used up all of the manganese meaning the 2 new additions wouldn't have any to use. In my old tank I only had 1 Goniopora which after doing this research led me to believe it did well because it wasn't competing with other Goni's for Manganese. Adding onto this, does anyone if there is manganese in All for Reef to sustain Goni's?

Any advice/ help would be greatly appreciated!

Ya, goni's are finicky. I have a lot in my tank and also dose AFR. I did decide to go moonshiners way back when and since i dont really have my goni's shrink anymore, i mean sometimes they do but not like prior moonshiners and the reason i mention that is each day your adding manganese. So therefore i cant say AFR adds enough, but then again you only have 2 goni's i have a boat load. Think you're on the right track though.

 

[JumboShrimp]

Just curious, is that 6 ml of All for One dosed "daily", "weekly", or when?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

There is manganese in AFR, but manganese is rapidly depleted and it may or may not be enough based on your tank.

It's in Tropic Marin K+ elements, or you can diy, if you want to add more.

I'd personally feed more or dose ammonia to get the nitrate up if this was my tank.

 

[CHSUB]

They were both new additions about 2 weeks ago

Personally Ive seen corals take a month to start to react positively. Specifically a Goni purchased from WWC took about a month, now looks stunning. Have a leather from ORA that has not shown any polyp extensions going on 3 weeks since purchased and not worried

 

[JayPat852]

Just curious, is that 6 ml of All for One dosed "daily", "weekly", or when?

6ml Daily

 

[JayPat852]

There is manganese in AFR, but manganese is rapidly depleted and it may or may not be enough based on your tank.

It's in Tropic Marin K+ elements, or you can diy, if you want to add more.

I'd personally feed more or dose ammonia to get the nitrate up if this was my tank.

Ok Cheers!

Will do some research into TM K+ and other options. But with dosing this, say it is Manganese that is the issue. Would I not just be meeting the needs of the manganese consumption but raising all of the other trace elements. So would dosing manganese by itself in conjunction with AFR be a better alternative or am I missing something?

Will be going to get a 2 Bangaii Cardinals this weekend, hopefully they will boost nitrates a little more with the increased waste and feeding regiment.

 

[Billys_reef]

There is manganese in AFR, but manganese is rapidly depleted and it may or may not be enough based on your tank.

It's in Tropic Marin K+ elements, or you can diy, if you want to add more.

I'd personally feed more or dose ammonia to get the nitrate up if this was my tank.

+1

I think it is more likely to do with your nitrates. My nitrates bottomed out to 0 and for the past couple months I didn't know why my acros were turning brown/some gonis and euphyllias closed up. It wasn't until I started adding in ammonia to my tank to boost nitrates and is currently sitting at 5ppm. Everything seems to be perking up slowly.

I don't think it's a trace element problem and since you're only dosing 6mL of AFR to maintain alk, I don't think your tank is consuming that much trace elements at all. You can confirm this by doing an ICP.

 

[Faurek]

Manganese seems to be the new wave for gonis, it's worth the try, normally freshwater world is more concentrated on some of this micro elements that are used for plants, since the levels in the sea are not as intense generally.