Help my poor struggling Gonipora.

R33fDaddy

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I've been holding off making this post but my poor Goniopora are struggling big time. Everything was fine until I deep cleaned my sand bed about six months ago. The deep cleaning spiked my Nitrates through the roof to 200ppm and my Gonipora hasn't been fully extended since. Currently my Nitrates are around 40 PPM and I'm trying to get them down to the undectable levels they were prior to the disaster. I got an Algae Scrubber about three weeks ago and it has taken off big time, long bright green Algae growth. Water changes did not really affect the Nitrate level so that's out. I'm thinking about dosing NoPox along with Algae just to get things under control. Any advice would be appreciated.

Nitrates 40 ppm
Phosphates 0.25 ppm
Nitrite 0
Alk 11
Ph 8
Calc & Mag test on the way.
Saltmix: Red Coral Pro

Gonipora: Purple, Yellow and Blue.

It's been about 5 months since I've seen extension.

All other Corals are fine.

They all look like this now :(
20210611_195953.jpg
 
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Zer0

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Water changes not affecting your nitrate levels doesn’t sound right. Water changes should always be the go-to method to quickly removing excess nutrients. If your nutrient export methods + water changes are not dropping nitrates below 40ppm, then you have something that is leaching nitrates at a heavy rate. And disturbing old sandbeds is just never a good idea. If I were you I would keep up with significant water changes, because 40ppm is still too high.
 
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R33fDaddy

R33fDaddy

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Water changes not affecting your nitrate levels doesn’t sound right. Water changes should always be the go-to method to quickly removing excess nutrients. If your nutrient export methods + water changes are not dropping nitrates below 40ppm, then you have something that is leaching nitrates at a heavy rate. And disturbing old sandbeds is just never a good idea. If I were you I would keep up with significant water changes, because 40ppm is still too high.
Unfortunately I can't keep up with the water changes at that pace. I did 25% water changes weekly for 2 months and ran through a bunch of Saltmix and RODI. I guess the water changes did help get me from 200ppm to 40ppm but I've been stuck at 40, any other suggestions? What do you think about doing Nopox in conjunction with the scrubber?
 

Pistondog

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Nopox or any carbon dosing will help, just takes a couple of weeks to build bacteria to reduce nutrients
Any vodka or vinegar about?
 
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R33fDaddy

R33fDaddy

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This! I find Goni’s especially hate high phosphates
My Nitrates and Phosphates are high :(

Nitrates 40 ppm
Phosphates 0.25 ppm

Should I do Vodka dosing?

This is what both sides of my Algae Scrubber looks like after 2 Weeks.
VideoCapture_20210611-222244.jpg
VideoCapture_20210611-222325.jpg
 

Pistondog

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1 ml vodka per 25 g per day for a week then double. Nitrates should start to come down after 2 weeks.
 
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R33fDaddy

R33fDaddy

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Keep us updated!
Sure thing.

Nitrates are still coming and are around 33PPM at the moment which is a significant drop in only six days (of dosing Nopox).

Today I increased to the recommended dose of 6ml (bumping up from 4ml). Once my Nitrates go below 5 I plan to decrease the amount I'm dosing.

My Yellow Goni peaked out of its skeleton for the first time in about 3 months yesterday. I didn't know coral could be withdrawn for months and still live.
20210617_142411.jpg


My Blue Goni is still totally withdrawn into the skeleton but if I look into the skeleton I can see Polyps glowing so I know it's still alive. Maybe I should dip this one or maybe I should just leave it alone?
20210617_142501.jpg


One other thing is that since I've been dosing Nopox I've had to increase the water level in my skimmer in order to produce skim mate. I'm also running an Algae Scrubber so may be that's out competiting the Skimmer for those broken down Nitrates.
 
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R33fDaddy

R33fDaddy

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I wanted to post some pictures of some of my other corals in case a trained eye can spot something I can't. I believe the Nitrates are only affecting my Gonipora but here is the majority of everything else in case someone sees differently.
20210617_154424.jpg
20210617_154332.jpg
20210617_154413.jpg
20210617_154315.jpg
20210617_154254.jpg
20210617_154248.jpg
20210617_154238.jpg
20210617_154222.jpg
20210617_154213.jpg
20210617_154159.jpg
 
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R33fDaddy

R33fDaddy

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Lights haven't came on yet but I can see a little bit of extension which I haven't seen in months. Do you'll think I should get a toothbrush and brush that Algae off or just leave it alone?
20210618_105513.jpg
 

RocksNStuff

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I wanted to post some pictures of some of my other corals in case a trained eye can spot something I can't. I believe the Nitrates are only affecting my Gonipora but here is the majority of everything else in case someone sees differently.
20210617_154424.jpg
20210617_154332.jpg
20210617_154413.jpg
20210617_154315.jpg
20210617_154254.jpg
20210617_154248.jpg
20210617_154238.jpg
20210617_154222.jpg
20210617_154213.jpg
20210617_154159.jpg
These corals all look great to me!
 

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