Goni slow tissue recession

Sboling

Community Member
View Badges
Joined
Nov 13, 2019
Messages
54
Reaction score
31
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Hey everyone:

Lurked for about 6 months and recently joined. I have a Goni that has some tissue receding and I would like advice on treatment to stop recession and promote regrowth if possible.

The backstory is that I had to chase a fish down that was nipping at my lobo and in doing so stirred up the sand bed. This caused a little mini cycle that brought on some diatoms and type of short hair algae. The goni kept getting algae on It which I removed regularly while dealing with the algae issue. I dealt with the algae by running a skimmer, reducing phosphates which got up some after stirring the bed. I also dosed vibrant and wow the algae is gone.

The other corals are doing well including hammers (pretty large 6 head colony), lobo, leather coral, zoas (polyps still extending as they closed up for the month of dealing with algae), blue mushrooms, another new red Goni, a torch, and a candy cane coral that is growing well.

Parameters

kh 10, ph 8, cal 440, phos under .25 need better test here, nitrate 5, amm 0

This tank is 6 months old and is 36 gallons. I have had a 125 I kept with very few issues for about 5 years before I went to law school and couldn’t manage the large tank. Now I’m starting this smaller tank, which has been way more work by far. I haven’t had to revive a coral before so any help would be great. I’ll post photos of the Goni and other corals for reference.

9D0A16CD-ED1A-4790-85DD-352722B3B5DC.jpeg BE074493-35C6-4C9C-8F38-DFBC71D3229A.jpeg EA9D00FC-BD03-4343-BB80-06A4EBCB148D.jpeg 9DF03D77-ADF0-4997-BA56-60B9C066B093.jpeg 9FF7F06B-26F1-4E5E-A0DC-0EF2365A1D01.jpeg AD2773AD-B7AE-4BC6-A5BF-D771B9828285.jpeg FADA7A20-7EF6-48BD-B620-346F15C2A06A.jpeg 6500E4B7-5F75-4E37-847F-A32A2CBB759E.jpeg F0F09E3C-FA2A-48D3-B798-434EF2C1C4C7.jpeg
 

deahttub

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Feb 10, 2019
Messages
111
Reaction score
140
Location
Longwood
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Hey everyone:

Lurked for about 6 months and recently joined. I have a Goni that has some tissue receding and I would like advice on treatment to stop recession and promote regrowth if possible.

The backstory is that I had to chase a fish down that was nipping at my lobo and in doing so stirred up the sand bed. This caused a little mini cycle that brought on some diatoms and type of short hair algae. The goni kept getting algae on It which I removed regularly while dealing with the algae issue. I dealt with the algae by running a skimmer, reducing phosphates which got up some after stirring the bed. I also dosed vibrant and wow the algae is gone.

The other corals are doing well including hammers (pretty large 6 head colony), lobo, leather coral, zoas (polyps still extending as they closed up for the month of dealing with algae), blue mushrooms, another new red Goni, a torch, and a candy cane coral that is growing well.

Parameters

kh 10, ph 8, cal 440, phos under .25 need better test here, nitrate 5, amm 0

This tank is 6 months old and is 36 gallons. I have had a 125 I kept with very few issues for about 5 years before I went to law school and couldn’t manage the large tank. Now I’m starting this smaller tank, which has been way more work by far. I haven’t had to revive a coral before so any help would be great. I’ll post photos of the Goni and other corals for reference.
Id take it off the sand....ive had mine over 6 years and i cook mine under t-5’s....here is a pic of my red goni...

52981DA1-F86A-469B-AC8C-72E51BF33350.jpeg
 
OP
OP
Sboling

Sboling

Community Member
View Badges
Joined
Nov 13, 2019
Messages
54
Reaction score
31
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Id take it off the sand....ive had mine over 6 years and i cook mine under t-5’s....here is a pic of my red goni...

52981DA1-F86A-469B-AC8C-72E51BF33350.jpeg
The one on the sand is doing well. That is just in moonlights and it’s new so I’ll just acclimating in the sand. I’ll separate the one not doing well. It’s polyps barley extend at the moment and some recession. Great looking Goni you have!

917FF010-83B9-4FC1-8516-965A255DC3DA.jpeg
 
OP
OP
Sboling

Sboling

Community Member
View Badges
Joined
Nov 13, 2019
Messages
54
Reaction score
31
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Beautiful!! +1 for getting it off the sand
F52650FA-B1F6-4EDC-A875-F95AAB3B52FB.jpeg
This is the problem one. It’s on a rock about midway up. The other one is on the sand acclimating to light. It’s new to the tank and I’ll likely be moving it to a rock this week. Great looking tank!

F1A6464D-FB0D-4C4E-8DF5-DE399B64B705.jpeg
 

Magellan

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Apr 13, 2019
Messages
2,965
Reaction score
12,474
Location
Charlotte
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
thank you!!!

after keeping mine for a while now, I can tell you that it’s very sensitive and hungry! What’s your salinity, and have you recently had any swings, or changes to light and/or flow? Are you feeding the Goni anything? Do you run carbon? Dkh might be a little high for it as well, mine seems happiest around 8.
 
OP
OP
Sboling

Sboling

Community Member
View Badges
Joined
Nov 13, 2019
Messages
54
Reaction score
31
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
thank you!!!

after keeping mine for a while now, I can tell you that it’s very sensitive and hungry! What’s your salinity, and have you recently had any swings, or changes to light and/or flow? Are you feeding the Goni anything? Do you run carbon? Dkh might be a little high for it as well, mine seems happiest around 8.
Salinity is 1.025. I’m spot feeding benepets reef food twice a week-just what the salt LFS has and they don’t have much. They do commercial tanks but are open on weekends for food, RODI sales, and a few corals and fish. I’m looking into other food suggestions. I’m running an ac 70 with sponge, a little floss, chemipure blue, and occasional phosguard as needed.

There was some swing when I disturbed the sand bed but not with alk, ca. Ammonia went up to .50. For about a few days, and of course algae became a problem for about a month. I removed the fish (just two clowns) to QT to avoid any danger and they are back and fine. Besides the ammonia for that short period there was no swings. The algae was the issue covering just that coral some on the edges which then caused the start of the recession. Then this week when everything is looking good,the recession spread some.

I was thinking maybe there was some dips or something I could do to help it out. There is so much info on how to handle it though-its hard to tell what works.
 

MnFish1

10K Club member
View Badges
Joined
Dec 28, 2016
Messages
22,561
Reaction score
21,791
Rating - 100%
1   0   0
Im not sure there is any reason to take Goni's off the sand - at least mine did fine on the sand. (At least I dont think this is your problem).
 

MnFish1

10K Club member
View Badges
Joined
Dec 28, 2016
Messages
22,561
Reaction score
21,791
Rating - 100%
1   0   0
Do you have a picture where it looked 'good'? Could it have been stung by something in that area - thats now getting worse?
 

Magellan

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Apr 13, 2019
Messages
2,965
Reaction score
12,474
Location
Charlotte
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Try some oyster feast, a small dose at least 4-5x a week. Goni’s are filter feeders and would normally be eating plankton all day in the wild, plus whatever else they can catch! I feed mine a small amount of phyto feast and then oyster feast by Reef Nutrition at separate times during the day, sometimes I’ll broadcast a little reef roids as well. My intent is to try and keep a small amount of food in my water column throughout much of the day, to more accurately mimic its natural habitat. Manganese is also important to them, I dose Fuel, as well as Reef Fusion 2 part which both have manganese.

B44A550B-AA6A-468D-B91A-DD974A5D736D.png

Important to note that most Goni’s will starve to death within a few months, they are rather difficult to keep, especially in a newer and less established tank.
 

DSEKULA

Well-Known Member
View Badges
Joined
Apr 20, 2019
Messages
903
Reaction score
1,607
Location
Earth
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Gonis are notoriously finicky, it's possible your recent nutrient swing is the issue. Remember that as the swing "disappears" it is really another swing back to the stable parameters. I'd leave it where it is and concentrate on keeping everything stable. Moving it and dipping it in various things will just stress it more. Did you take any action to get the tank back to normal (like prime, carbon dose, gfo)? If you stripped the nutrients to fast that could be an issue too. If there is an algae issue choking it out you can try peroxide dips but I don't see any noticable amount in the photos. But again that will also potentially stress the coral so I wouldn't do that unless there's a really bad problem.
 
OP
OP
Sboling

Sboling

Community Member
View Badges
Joined
Nov 13, 2019
Messages
54
Reaction score
31
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Do you have a picture where it looked 'good'? Could it have been stung by something in that area - thats now getting worse?
It’s a short polyp. It’s not near anything that can sting. The only coral near it is a cabbage leather coral which I don’t think is a problem. It looked like the photo until some cyano was getting on it a bit. I got that under control mostly but then I had some brown short hair like algae that was getting on it. Now that nutrients are down to deal with the algae, I have a tiny bit of cyano on the sand but nothing dramatic.

5A0EE83F-550F-4B95-8AEA-6D1D2E3C1AB3.jpeg
 
OP
OP
Sboling

Sboling

Community Member
View Badges
Joined
Nov 13, 2019
Messages
54
Reaction score
31
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Gonis are notoriously finicky, it's possible your recent nutrient swing is the issue. Remember that as the swing "disappears" it is really another swing back to the stable parameters. I'd leave it where it is and concentrate on keeping everything stable. Moving it and dipping it in various things will just stress it more. Did you take any action to get the tank back to normal (like prime, carbon dose, gfo)? If you stripped the nutrients to fast that could be an issue too. If there is an algae issue choking it out you can try peroxide dips but I don't see any noticable amount in the photos. But again that will also potentially stress the coral so I wouldn't do that unless there's a really bad problem.
I used phosguard to lower the phosphates in small amounts so as to try not to strip them entirely all at once. Ultimately when the algae was staring to bother particularly that coral and to some extent the zoas, I used vibrant which got the diatoms on the sand to disappear overnight and the short brown hair algae (which was on one rock, oddly not the Rock with the Goni, but also took a liking to the rock the Goni is encrusted on.) to be gone within a few days. It took about two weeks after that for all the other corals to really get happy again. I’ve only doses vibrant once two weeks ago.
 

DSEKULA

Well-Known Member
View Badges
Joined
Apr 20, 2019
Messages
903
Reaction score
1,607
Location
Earth
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
sounds like you likely striped the tank too fast, id test your nutrients asap. Then test right after feeding then again a few hours later. If there's little to no nutrients a couple hours after feeding compaired to directly after id bet the vibrant is still in the water striping out nutrients (for example a 3 po4 to a .01). You can run a low nutrient system but the coral will need time to adapt to different parameters and you will likey lose a couple. You evidently had nutrients bound up in the system before so even if you were tracking them it could be a false 0 or low. You'll have to make a choice to either continue running lower levels or let the tank shift back to roughly where it was before. If you want to shift back id do some larger wc daily or so and keep monitoring nutrients. I'd also get on some sort of schedule to sift that sand (you or a tank animal) so this doesn't happen again.

If on the other hand you feed the tank and there's no difference in nutrients and they keep climbing you some how messed up the biofilter and I'd find some bacteria cultures to add to the tank (I like mb7 but there are many) and start a daily mild dose.
 

MnFish1

10K Club member
View Badges
Joined
Dec 28, 2016
Messages
22,561
Reaction score
21,791
Rating - 100%
1   0   0
It’s a short polyp. It’s not near anything that can sting. The only coral near it is a cabbage leather coral which I don’t think is a problem. It looked like the photo until some cyano was getting on it a bit. I got that under control mostly but then I had some brown short hair like algae that was getting on it. Now that nutrients are down to deal with the algae, I have a tiny bit of cyano on the sand but nothing dramatic.

5A0EE83F-550F-4B95-8AEA-6D1D2E3C1AB3.jpeg
When I have seen algae on coral - its only when the skeleton is damaged - then the algae grows on it. Leather coral - and some LPS do not get along that well - it looks like when I have either damaged (like dropped) a coral - or something has stung it. Does the part thats not damaged ever open back up to where it was in that (nice) picture
 
OP
OP
Sboling

Sboling

Community Member
View Badges
Joined
Nov 13, 2019
Messages
54
Reaction score
31
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
When I have seen algae on coral - its only when the skeleton is damaged - then the algae grows on it. Leather coral - and some LPS do not get along that well - it looks like when I have either damaged (like dropped) a coral - or something has stung it. Does the part thats not damaged ever open back up to where it was in that (nice) picture
It was opening up even with the edges a bit rough pretty well until I stirred the sand bed causing a lot of diatoms and that hair algae. Until a about 5 days ago, it was opening up where the tissue is healthy. Then the tissue was kind of loose where the skeleton it exposed and I inspected it closer in the tank and that fluffy tissue just came away. It’s been opening a bit over the last few days-kind of just sticking the top of the polyps out so it’s trying to hang on I think.
 

MnFish1

10K Club member
View Badges
Joined
Dec 28, 2016
Messages
22,561
Reaction score
21,791
Rating - 100%
1   0   0
It was opening up even with the edges a bit rough pretty well until I stirred the sand bed causing a lot of diatoms and that hair algae. Until a about 5 days ago, it was opening up where the tissue is healthy. Then the tissue was kind of loose where the skeleton it exposed and I inspected it closer in the tank and that fluffy tissue just came away. It’s been opening a bit over the last few days-kind of just sticking the top of the polyps out so it’s trying to hang on I think.
Do you think its possible that when you stirred something up - that It knocked your leather into it? And BTW - I have seen this with Goniopora this type of thing starts (for no apparent reason) - though I think some of the chemical things you did might have done something - and it slowly wastes away. Im sorry for you though - its a very nice coral.
 
OP
OP
Sboling

Sboling

Community Member
View Badges
Joined
Nov 13, 2019
Messages
54
Reaction score
31
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Do you think its possible that when you stirred something up - that It knocked your leather into it? And BTW - I have seen this with Goniopora this type of thing starts (for no apparent reason) - though I think some of the chemical things you did might have done something - and it slowly wastes away. Im sorry for you though - its a very nice coral.
The stirring up happened chasing a fish down that was nipping some zoas about 6 weeks ago. It was opening well and doing well until the algae sprang up over the next two weeks and ammonia went up some as well. When chasing the fish, I bumped a power head that blew into the sand down to the bottom in a corner. But it was opening and well until the algae started encroaching.
 

MnFish1

10K Club member
View Badges
Joined
Dec 28, 2016
Messages
22,561
Reaction score
21,791
Rating - 100%
1   0   0
The stirring up happened chasing a fish down that was nipping some zoas about 6 weeks ago. It was opening well and doing well until the algae sprang up over the next two weeks and ammonia went up some as well. When chasing the fish, I bumped a power head that blew into the sand down to the bottom in a corner. But it was opening and well until the algae started encroaching.
My guess is that this is coincidental to another problem - or a reaction you to tho the perceived problem. Unless your sand has a huge anaerobic area - which was disturbed, etc. IMHO - something else is the cause - since I routinely mess up my sand. with no problem. No offense - its my opinion - perhaps someone else has a better answer - and in any case - I hope you figure it out.
 
Back
Top