Goniopora not doing well

iMi

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I can't figure out why my gonis are not doing well. Everything else is thriving.

Chemistry is spot on...

Salinity - 35ppm
Temp - 79° F
Alk - 8.4dKh
Cal - 440ppm
Mag - 1400ppm
Nitrates - 20ppm (a little high, but doubt it's the cause)
Phos - 0.08ppm

All softies, including hammers, frogspawn, zoas (which are exploding in growth) and all fish and inverts are doing great. The only corals closing up and struggling right now are the gonioporas. It's been a few weeks of decline. Two already bleached out and the remaining two are extending less and less each day and now barely extend at all. They were vibrant and doing well until recently. I would add that I have recently gone through a Dino outbreak, which has now been fully cleared up for about a month. Two 25% water changes have been done since. There are no visible issues at this time. All looks good.

Any idea what might be causing them to struggle?
 

Mr. Mojo Rising

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if chemistry is spot on and everything else is doing well, that just leaves light and flow. Try a different spot. Mine is in low light low flow
 
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iMi

iMi

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This is what the two strugglers look like...

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The rest of the inhabitants look healthy, like these, unless you guys can spot something I'm missing...

IMG_0397.jpeg

IMG_0398.jpeg
 

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iMi

iMi

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if chemistry is spot on and everything else is doing well, that just leaves light and flow. Try a different spot. Mine is in low light low flow

That was my first thought. Although the lights haven't changed in a while. I did turn them down a few days ago. I took the gyre pump out as it was blasting pretty hard. Added a smaller pump. Still plenty of flow but not as much. They are mid-tank.

The lights are RedSea LED 50 over the RedSea Nano Max (18x18x18). The new schedule is as follows:

IMG_0399.PNG


Previous schedule was 85% blue 20% white. Same times, more aggressive ramp up time.
 

Nikoliter

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I have a Red Sea 250 with two Red Sea 90’s. My goniopora hate it when I try to increase the white light. I have my goni on the bottom, and my amazeball hiding in the back corner. I keep adjusting my lights down. 15 percent white and 70 percent blue with the Goni sitting on the sand
 
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iMi

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I have a Red Sea 250 with two Red Sea 90’s. My goniopora hate it when I try to increase the white light. I have my goni on the bottom, and my amazeball hiding in the back corner. I keep adjusting my lights down. 15 percent white and 70 percent blue with the Goni sitting on the sand

Wow... Ok, I'll dial back the whites and keep the blues about the same for now. How long do you think it will take for them to bounce back if this is the cause?
 

Nikoliter

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I also spray them with reef Roids once a week, but I would try bringing some the white down. I also does Red Sea ab plus, but try some reef Roids and then down the lights
 

Nikoliter

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I broadcast feed reefroids once a week, so it sounds like feeding is definitely not the cause of the problem. Would you agree?
Yeah, that is what I do. The only other thing I have different is also read zero phosphate and nitrate, which I have been trying to increase unsuccessfully. My other parameters is close to yours. I will say you have some nice zoas. I have not been able to grow any with success, which I think is because the Red Sea lights blast out a ton of par and too much for the zoas in my tank
 

Pistondog

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As an experiment, eliminate the ab+ for some time. Dosing it everyday bothered my gonis. Try some phytogold broadcast or something else.
 
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iMi

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Yeah, that is what I do. The only other thing I have different is also read zero phosphate and nitrate, which I have been trying to increase unsuccessfully. My other parameters is close to yours. I will say you have some nice zoas. I have not been able to grow any with success, which I think is because the Red Sea lights blast out a ton of par and too much for the zoas in my tank

I had the same problem. Scrubbed the water clean and had a hard time maintaining any phosphate or nitrate readings… then the Dino outbreak came. That was unpleasant to say the least lol. Now I try to dial in the phosphates to at least 0.08ppm and nitrates at or above 10ppm. I think I got the rhythm going now. Fingers crossed.
 
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iMi

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As an experiment, eliminate the ab+ for some time. Dosing it everyday bothered my gonis. Try some phytogold broadcast or something else.

Thank your for your suggestion. I think that is a variable I haven’t considered and you’re onto something. I did, in fact, increase it to daily dosage a while back when the zoas started taking off… I’ll try eliminating it for a few days and see what happens.

Any recommendations for other food? I think I have some Seachem Zooplankton in the cabinet. Would that be a good alternative? Reef roids are also a staple here but I feed them sporadically because they seem to foul the water easily.
 

Pistondog

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Thank your for your suggestion. I think that is a variable I haven’t considered and you’re onto something. I did, in fact, increase it to daily dosage a while back when the zoas started taking off… I’ll try eliminating it for a few days and see what happens.

Any recommendations for other food? I think I have some Seachem Zooplankton in the cabinet. Would that be a good alternative? Reef roids are also a staple here but I feed them sporadically because they seem to foul the water easily.
Yes reef roids are high in phosphate. There was a video posted here about gonis and the guy said phytogold has the correct phyto size. Maybe Oyster eggs or marine snow. I dose live phyto daily and augment with one of the others mentioned.
 
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