Any goni tips?

[jasonvan]

just get a 5pack from fauna. honestly not that expensive. especially if you have corals worth a few hundred alraedy. just do 2 like 1 month apart and you will know how much to dose.

but yea. goni like maganese. dose some trace. usually your other elements are low like chromium, cobalt, boron, flouride.

 

[The Ugly Phase]

Yes, you can start dosing per these instructions... though ideally you should get ICP test.

IMHO manganese is an element that you can overdose a little with out causing issues in your tank

i have just ordered some tropic marin pro and that comes with a free ICP i have changed salts cause i found out the salt i am currently using NYOS has very little to none manganese

 

[The Ugly Phase]

Thanks for all the help guys and gals appreciate it

 

[Sam7]

If you want an easier one to start get the ORA Red Goni

 

[unchainedcoot]

With respect, I just don’t think this is the case. I dose both AFR and TM K+ daily and it is still hit or miss. I have 2 that love life and 1 that does not. 1 I’ve had for 2 years and 2 newer additions.

I only dose A and K trace elements (low demand) so whatever manganese they need, they are only getting from that and water changes. This isn’t to say it’s not important, just believe it’s more complicated than dosing manganese=goni success

 

[Ziggy17]

Yes, even if you dose manganese and make everything else as perfect as you can, you can still have some Goni that will not do good in your tank. However I think dosing manganese gives your Goni the best chance at survival in your tank.

Even in your case you're dosing 2x manganese... there's manganese in AFR and manganese in Tm K+

I agree it gives them a better chance. They historically have been coral that people hated as they never seem to be dependably happy, and I have witnessed this first hand with mine. I wish someone can bottle Goni lightning but I think we are stuck banging our heads off the wall.

 

[fishnchips17]

just believe it’s more complicated than dosing manganese=goni success

I don't think anyone is saying dosing manganese =Goni success

Of course there's lots of other factors. What we know is that Gonis in general are just really finicky and a hard coral to raise in our tank environment. I think having close to ideal water params will go a long way to giving gonis a fighting chance at survival in our tank (this applies to all corals in general). Ideal water params means having some level of manganese. Since manganese depletes very quickly, there's a very good chance most people's manganese level is too low unless your dosing it in some form, hence the general dose manganese advice.

Granted some gonis like the red varieties are just about bullet proof and can survive in just about any condition. Without knowing the particular demands of the OP goni variety telling him to get an ICP test to get his water params close to ideal and pay close attention to manganese level is good advice... How would you advise the OP if he wants this goni to thrive in his tank?

 

[unchainedcoot]

I don't think anyone is saying dosing manganese =Goni success

Of course there's lots of other factors. What we know is that Gonis in general are just really finicky and a hard coral to raise in our tank environment. I think having close to ideal water params will go a long way to giving gonis a fighting chance at survival in our tank (this applies to all corals in general). Ideal water params means having some level of manganese. Since manganese depletes very quickly, there's a very good chance most people's manganese level is too low unless your dosing it in some form, hence the general dose manganese advice.

Granted some gonis like the red varieties are just about bullet proof and can survive in just about any condition. Without knowing the particular demands of the OP goni variety telling him to get an ICP test to get his water params close to ideal and pay close attention to manganese level is good advice... How would you advise the OP if he wants this goni to thrive in his tank?

You cropped out the part where I didn’t disagree about the manganese portion so don’t spin what I said. To be clear, testing and dosing manganese seems like a fine idea. I don’t have the answer/magic bullet for Goni success. I’ve had over a dozen different types in my tank and I’ve only struggled (still currently) with one and that’s after fragging so I obviously did something to it. All the dips, reef roid soaks and any other attempt has produced zero results.

Before fragging

balding hairline now



For my two cents, all my gonis are at about 100 par or lower. This isn’t to say you can’t condition them to higher par, I just believe your margin for error shrinks considerably. I don’t do anything special for flow. Two gyres at the opposite end and running whatever random or stepped flow setting. I don’t keep any of them on the sand bed. I believe it’s too easy for them to collect junk and make them prone to infection. I don’t feed them specifically. Dose phyto to the tank 2-3 times a week but nothing else for corals specifically.

 

[fandaga]

I find Gonis really hard. So far, I’ve only been able to keep one out of four alive for greater than a year. I just received another Goni in an order from Marine Farmers last week. It was dead in one day, likely due to cold shipping temperatures. Most other corals in the shipment did survive (hammer, galaxea, sympodium, paly grandis, red mushroom) and two survived for several days (ruby red Xenia and Fiji yellow leather).

I dose 1 mL Mn from aquaforest once per week to my 47 gallon mixed reef and test monthly with Fauna Marin ICP-OES. I also use 10 mL daily AFR, which I believe has additional Mn. The last test Mn came in at an “ideal” level. I keep my Goni in medium to high flow and around 150 par.

The only Goni that I’ve had any success with:

In terms of reefing difficulties, I find gonis harder than torches but less difficult than acros. Granted, they each have their own challenges. I would love to get an Amazeball one day but definitely need to have more sustained success with lower end gonis.

 

[fandaga]

Also, I should mention that my LFS, Reefco in NJ, has tons of gonis including high end ones that they’ve been aquaculturing for years. I often ask what their secret is. I don’t think they’re doing anything special except excellent and stable water quality. They don’t specifically dose Mn outside using B-ionic with TM K+ and A-. The pink Goni that survived for me came from them but so did two that failed (ORA red and a green one).

What my recent Goni looked like on its way to Goni heaven:

Day 1:

Day 2: