Goniopora shrinking

[Reefer_Marc]

How your gonio after coupke weeks? I have couple gonio and i notice they open more with less flow and less light, specially, when they new. After when they are more open and adapte to your system you can give more flow and more light gradually. Maybe try less flow?

They are doing a bit better. I moved them to low flow low light and they extended nicely, but started to not extend after some days and lose colour. So i moved them to a higher light low flow space. Theres two gonios on the same frag, one is opening goodly the other one not much. But thats since the start.
Sadly dont have a picture currently and we are on holiday, so cant show it off :)

 

[reefverse_]

I think you should raise your Alk and safely dose manganese.

 

[BubbleAlgaeFarmer]

I think you should raise your Alk and safely dose manganese.

I agree, his alk is too low in my opinion. Wonder what his salinity is.

 

[Eagle78]

They are doing a bit better. I moved them to low flow low light and they extended nicely, but started to not extend after some days and lose colour. So i moved them to a higher light low flow space. Theres two gonios on the same frag, one is opening goodly the other one not much. But thats since the start.
Sadly dont have a picture currently and we are on holiday, so cant show it off :)

I have 2 gonio that was close since i clean the wavemarker, they did not like the flow and strong light, now i just let those in my frag tank with less less flow and light and they get better, not full open and colorfull yet but much better. Can see some tentacle coming back.

 

[Reefer_Marc]

Thanks guys for your opinions! I am currently trying to raise my alk to 8.5.
I test weekly and add balling alk to raise to 8.5, and then adjust my dose of AFR to keep it. Still dialing it in but definitely not overlooked!
As for manganese, my plan is to send another icp when i get back home and go from there.

 

[Reefer_Marc]

Oh and salinity is at 1.026

 

[BubbleAlgaeFarmer]

Oh and salinity is at 1.026

Oh, your salinity is high vs too low as i was suspecting. Not sure how others feel but i’ve been told to not exceed 1.025.

 

[Reefer_Marc]

Oh and salinity is at 1.026

Oh, your salinity is high vs too low as i was suspecting. Not sure how others feel but i’ve been told to not exceed 1.025.

My lfs just told me to keep it between 1.025 and 1.026, so thats what i did.
Also weirdly, when i kept it at 1.025, the icp said it is at 32ppt and i should increase it, which led me to up it to 1.026.

 

[BubbleAlgaeFarmer]

Interesting, my lfs told me to lower mine from 1.026 to 1.025. I did and fwiw, i’ve seen no real difference

 

[Euphylliaphyle]

I am a new reefer this year, so take this all with a grain of salt, but fwiw:
My goni frags really started to do well when I achieved random, turbulent flow. Polyps sway back and forth gently, not as if they are in a wind storm. PAR is at 120-130. I keep my Salinity per Tropic Marin glass hydrometer at specific gravity 1.0265 with no goni problems. I think recommendations for lower salt are based on hydrometer error potential and/or evaporation potential. I keep my tank covered to limit evaporation and top off with RO/DI diligently (I do not have ATO on my 36 gal.)
So far for me the keys to my gonis have been (1) gentle, chatotic turbulence, (2) lighting (3) above all, stability of (1) & (2), and (4) target feeding 2x/week with fine powdery plankton-based foods (sized for SPS), mixed with a little tank water and let stand for 10 min to rehydrate, then add a little amino acids, mix and gently target from 3-4 inches away with all flow off while feeding and for 20 minutes afterward. Don't blast! If the polyps retract quickly while feeding, go even slower. With gonis, notable retraction is more of a defensive reflex than a feeding response. You probably aren't going to feed them yet, per se (due to their retracted state), but you may want to dose a little amino acids (broadcast) meanwhile to whet their appetite.
If you could post a short video of the gonis to show the flow, that would be helpful.
Also, were your gonis frags mounted to a rock, or wild collected? It apparently makes a difference in survivability, with frags performing better typically.
A final note on hermit crabs: they are reckless. When they trample my gonis, the corals pout (retract tightly). Sometimes for the rest of the day. You may want to get up well after lights-out to see if the gonis are in a high-traffic area for any of your nocturnal livestock.

 

[Euphylliaphyle]

Here are my goni frags, showing flow that they like:

 

[Euphylliaphyle]

Here is my second one:

 

[Eagle78]

I am a new reefer this year, so take this all with a grain of salt, but fwiw:
My goni frags really started to do well when I achieved random, turbulent flow. Polyps sway back and forth gently, not as if they are in a wind storm. PAR is at 120-130. I keep my Salinity per Tropic Marin glass hydrometer at specific gravity 1.0265 with no goni problems. I think recommendations for lower salt are based on hydrometer error potential and/or evaporation potential. I keep my tank covered to limit evaporation and top off with RO/DI diligently (I do not have ATO on my 36 gal.)
So far for me the keys to my gonis have been (1) gentle, chatotic turbulence, (2) lighting (3) above all, stability of (1) & (2), and (4) target feeding 2x/week with fine powdery plankton-based foods (sized for SPS), mixed with a little tank water and let stand for 10 min to rehydrate, then add a little amino acids, mix and gently target from 3-4 inches away with all flow off while feeding and for 20 minutes afterward. Don't blast! If the polyps retract quickly while feeding, go even slower. With gonis, notable retraction is more of a defensive reflex than a feeding response. You probably aren't going to feed them yet, per se (due to their retracted state), but you may want to dose a little amino acids (broadcast) meanwhile to whet their appetite.
If you could post a short video of the gonis to show the flow, that would be helpful.
Also, were your gonis frags mounted to a rock, or wild collected? It apparently makes a difference in survivability, with frags performing better typically.
A final note on hermit crabs: they are reckless. When they trample my gonis, the corals pout (retract tightly). Sometimes for the rest of the day. You may want to get up well after lights-out to see if the gonis are in a high-traffic area for any of your nocturnal livestock.

Yeah a approve, flow and light are the keys

 

[Reefer_Marc]

I am a new reefer this year, so take this all with a grain of salt, but fwiw:
My goni frags really started to do well when I achieved random, turbulent flow. Polyps sway back and forth gently, not as if they are in a wind storm. PAR is at 120-130. I keep my Salinity per Tropic Marin glass hydrometer at specific gravity 1.0265 with no goni problems. I think recommendations for lower salt are based on hydrometer error potential and/or evaporation potential. I keep my tank covered to limit evaporation and top off with RO/DI diligently (I do not have ATO on my 36 gal.)
So far for me the keys to my gonis have been (1) gentle, chatotic turbulence, (2) lighting (3) above all, stability of (1) & (2), and (4) target feeding 2x/week with fine powdery plankton-based foods (sized for SPS), mixed with a little tank water and let stand for 10 min to rehydrate, then add a little amino acids, mix and gently target from 3-4 inches away with all flow off while feeding and for 20 minutes afterward. Don't blast! If the polyps retract quickly while feeding, go even slower. With gonis, notable retraction is more of a defensive reflex than a feeding response. You probably aren't going to feed them yet, per se (due to their retracted state), but you may want to dose a little amino acids (broadcast) meanwhile to whet their appetite.
If you could post a short video of the gonis to show the flow, that would be helpful.
Also, were your gonis frags mounted to a rock, or wild collected? It apparently makes a difference in survivability, with frags performing better typically.
A final note on hermit crabs: they are reckless. When they trample my gonis, the corals pout (retract tightly). Sometimes for the rest of the day. You may want to get up well after lights-out to see if the gonis are in a high-traffic area for any of your nocturnal livestock.

Thank you for your detailed answer!
I try to do the random flow, but its hard to find a good spot. I rhink i found an ok onenow. I do try to feed all corals directly once or twice a week and i dose aminos daily. I do have an ATO and my salinity is stable whenever i check it. I will post a viseo of them when i get back home to the tank at 8th of january.
I got the frags mounted on a frag plate from a breeder, i think they are fragged and not wild caught, but could be mistaken.

They look like this about 3 weeks ago: the one in the back extending ok, the one in front was always quite closed, already at the store.

 

[Reefer_Marc]

I am a new reefer this year, so take this all with a grain of salt, but fwiw:
My goni frags really started to do well when I achieved random, turbulent flow. Polyps sway back and forth gently, not as if they are in a wind storm. PAR is at 120-130. I keep my Salinity per Tropic Marin glass hydrometer at specific gravity 1.0265 with no goni problems. I think recommendations for lower salt are based on hydrometer error potential and/or evaporation potential. I keep my tank covered to limit evaporation and top off with RO/DI diligently (I do not have ATO on my 36 gal.)
So far for me the keys to my gonis have been (1) gentle, chatotic turbulence, (2) lighting (3) above all, stability of (1) & (2), and (4) target feeding 2x/week with fine powdery plankton-based foods (sized for SPS), mixed with a little tank water and let stand for 10 min to rehydrate, then add a little amino acids, mix and gently target from 3-4 inches away with all flow off while feeding and for 20 minutes afterward. Don't blast! If the polyps retract quickly while feeding, go even slower. With gonis, notable retraction is more of a defensive reflex than a feeding response. You probably aren't going to feed them yet, per se (due to their retracted state), but you may want to dose a little amino acids (broadcast) meanwhile to whet their appetite.
If you could post a short video of the gonis to show the flow, that would be helpful.
Also, were your gonis frags mounted to a rock, or wild collected? It apparently makes a difference in survivability, with frags performing better typically.
A final note on hermit crabs: they are reckless. When they trample my gonis, the corals pout (retract tightly). Sometimes for the rest of the day. You may want to get up well after lights-out to see if the gonis are in a high-traffic area for any of your nocturnal livestock.

Finally back home and took a video of the flow my gonis are in:

View attachment 20260110_142052_03D41BDF-4FB5-43F7-BB89-A8E37159848C.mov

 

[Euphylliaphyle]

The flow looks good to me for Gonis. Here is a video that I found very helpful for Goni care:

 

[Euphylliaphyle]

Finally back home and took a video of the flow my gonis are in:

@Reefer_Marc , I had this afterthought: Have you researched the green coral next to the affected Goni? How aggressive is it? They are pretty near each other. Maybe the Goni is getting stung overnight?

 

[Reefer_Marc]

Finally back home and took a video of the flow my gonis are in:

@Reefer_Marc , I had this afterthought: Have you researched the green coral next to the affected Goni? How aggressive is it? They are pretty near each other. Maybe the Goni is getting stung overnight?

Thanks for the video, i will check it out!
The green on the left is a leather, and the one on the right is a montipora.
But i had the problems long before the gonis were near those two corals. Didnt see any aggression so far, but i will keep an eye on it and check for a place a bit further away from them

 

[Euphylliaphyle]

Neither Montipora nor Leather corals should give any problem with stinging.