This is an interesting quote from an article by Justin Credabel, The Successful Aquarium Culture of Goniopora Species, "Our display system has many things in common with people who have had success in the past. They often had no mechanical filtration, little or no skimming, deep sand beds, and refugiums. The use of some or all of these methods in system design encourage the growth of a variety of small zooplankton and plankton-producing organisms (by spawning, larvae in water column). All of the systems I keep Goniopora in also support Acropora, Montipora, Porites, and other SPS".Thanks!
Recommendations:
1.) Scour the net for as much as you can on these. Posting your success/struggles and asking for input (like this thread) help not only you, but the rest of us Goni lovers.
2.) <150 PAR (as previously mentioned.
3.) I have run a wide range of nitrates 1-25ppm and PO4 (0.006 - 0.060 ppm). I for one cannot say any of these are bad (or necessarily ideal.
4.) I read to feed the fish hard so they poop a lot. I've done that and my Goni's survived a number of months at ULNS - - before I started dosing NO3 and PO4.
5.) I added a macro refugium to help steady my nutrients (NO3, PO4) and provide pods for my mandarin gobi and my Goni's. I highly recommend a macro refugium - - but, if I recall correctly, you have one already.
6.) Stability, consistency and keep things as constant as possible (is that redundant? ). I think this is the key and is more important for G.Stokesi than even for most SPS.
My sense on point 6 is more about the bacteria and other microbes on our corals. After reading/watching some recent scientific findings on bacterial infections of corals, I am starting to think that harmful bacteria are always present on our corals, but the coral keep ahead of those "bad" bugs so long as the coral stays healthy and strong. Healthy coral must be hosting some other micro fauna that keep the "bad" bugs to low enough level or they produce enzymes and proteins that do that. I believe Julian Sprung also postulated this about a decade ago.
further "Goniopora is a genus of coral. When most people think of Goniopora, they think of Goniopora stokesi. No wonder everyone thinks you can't keep Goniopora successfully; those things are hard! Goniopora stokesi comes from turbid, nutrient-laden water on a soft substrate. They eat a lot. When I do not feed them five times a week, they shrink".