living_tribunal
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dank reefer
IG: dankreefer_IG
Anytime my man!First Acro went into the tank today, thanks @Jose Esteves !! Great looking healthy frag of Oregon Tort.
Cant wait to see this baby in 3 months time.
sfin52
So many pedestrians so little time
Very nice very niceSome pics:
OP
OP
Magellan
2500 Club Member
Thanks! The purple hammer was my first frag, and tried really really hard to be my first coral that died...but I brought it back from the dead and it’s got a lot more color now than when I got it! Finally started splitting too
New&no clue
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Can you share any pearls of wisdom on your Goniopora? It looks amazing and I know you worked really hard to achieve that. I think mine is surviving, but definitely not thriving.
crusso1993
7500 Club Member
Coming here asking this guy for "pearls of wisdom"? Holy moly! You must really be hurting! ;Hilarious
;Hilarious
New&no clue
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Coming here asking this guy for "pearls of wisdom"? Holy moly! You must really be hurting! ;Hilarious
Lol I'm new I'll take pearls from whoever is giving them out... honestly I'll take a rock of wisdom as well if you have any.
crusso1993
7500 Club Member
My pebble of wisdom is to steer clear of this thread! Lol
I leave any input on your Goni to the GoniMeister, as you originally requested, but will say that, as I'm sure you know, solid consistency is a big key in this hobby. Even if your parameters aren't "perfect". I never was a big numbers chaser as much as I was a consistency chaser.
I'll be looking forward to what Mr. Ferdinand has to say for you!
living_tribunal
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@Robin Haselden you called it
OP
OP
Magellan
2500 Club Member
You aren’t exaggerating at all! It’s routine now, but oh man was this thing doing its best to give me grey hairs...
first off, what kind do you have? More photosynthetic species seem to enjoy higher light and flow, like what @living_tribunal has in his tank. (I think those are Australian). Mine comes from Indonesia, and it’s natural habitat is low par, gentle flow, and available food supply. I didn’t have consistent success until I happened to see one in a video that Jake Adams posted of him diving in the ocean. There was a huge Goni colony in one of his shots (a Stokesi just like mine) and it was barely getting any flow at all, and was sort of in a crevice and not getting much light either. I immediately changed my flow to give it the least amount possible, and it started coming out more and more. Didn’t move it to the bottom of the tank until much later, but it should have always been there (much happier with low light, similar to my Ricordea Yumas in that regard). Was slowly beginning to lose color on the side closest to the light before finally my urchin (clearly smarter than I am!) knocked it off it’s original perch.
However, it’s relatively easy to give one low light and low flow. (Even if it took me a while to figure that out!) The key is to FEED it, specifically a mixture of phyto and meaty foods. Species like this are filter feeders, in the wild they are getting regular meals of phytoplankton. I give my tank a daily broadcast of Reef Nutritions Phyto-Feast Live, and later in the day Oyster Feast as well. Sometimes reef roids too, but not very frequently for those. I used to target feed, but my cleaner shrimp would relentlessly steal food from it and I felt like that was doing more harm than good. If I broadcast the shrimp can’t find a source
I also turn my flow off when I feed frozen mysis, and I always make sure that some gets to the Goni as well. You will know it’s eating if it shrinks to about half size. If you target feed, make sure the food floats onto it rather than getting launched, or it will close up as a defense mechanism.
my tank definitely took some time to adjust to the extra and regular feedings. I had to add biomedia and phosguard, but surprisingly I don’t have any issues with algae, nitrates, or phosphates. Not running a skimmer helps as well imo, or at least turning the skimmer off when you feed. Preferably for the entire photo period - if the Goni is extended, it’s trying to filter the water for food! Dosing amino acids helps as well. There is a trace element, Manganese, that is really useful for LPS like these (your hammers/euphyllia will benefit also). It is in products like Fuel, and pretty much anything else that contains trace element additives. Even my Reef Fusion 2 part has it.
most importantly: (and this is almost redundant) STABILITY! obviously all corals benefit from stability, but this one is sensitive enough that if it’s happy I know I don’t need to check my water. I call it my tank barometer, I look at it and know immediately if everything is good
another thing that might not seem obvious is temperature. It’s happier in warmer water, (Indonesia = warm water!) I let my tank get as hot as 79.5 during the day. At night 77.5, but then let it warm up and my Goni will come out more and more. If I felt like my corals and fish were fine with it I would let it get warmer than that!
Edit: just realized I spent 20 minutes typing out a post and didn't specifically address a single parameter other than temperature. I try to keep my tank close to NSW levels, and my corals are happy. But many tanks with many different levels are happy, and I don’t think the specific numbers matter as much as keeping those numbers the same. @crusso1993 is right at least as often as a broken clock
Last edited:
crusso1993
7500 Club Member
You aren’t exaggerating at all! It’s routine now, but oh man was this thing doing its best to give me grey hairs...
first off, what kind do you have? More photosynthetic species seem to enjoy more light and flow, like what @living_tribunal has in his tank. (I think those are Australian). Mine comes from Indonesia, and it’s natural habit is low par, gentle flow, and available food supply. I didn’t have consistent success until I happened to see one in a video that Jake Adams posted of him diving in the ocean. There was a huge Goni colony in one of his shots (a Stokesi just like mine) and it was barely getting any flow at all, and was sort of in a crevice and not getting much light either. I immediately changed my flow to give it the least amount possible, and it started coming out more and more. Didn’t move it to the bottom of the tank until much later, but it should have always been there (much happier with low light, similar to my Ricordea Yumas in that regard). Was slowly beginning to lose color on the side closest to the light before finally my urchin (clearly smarter than I am!) knocked it off it’s original perch.
However, it’s relatively easy to give one low light and low flow. (Even if it took me a while to figure that out!) The key is to FEED it, specifically a mixture of phyto and meaty foods. Species like this are filter feeders, in the wild they are getting regular meals of phytoplankton. I give my tank a daily broadcast of Reef Nutritions Phyto-Feast Live, and later in the day Oyster Feast as well. Sometimes reef roids too, but not very frequently for those. I used to target feed, but my cleaner shrimp would relentlessly steal food from it and I felt like that was doing more harm than good. If I broadcast the shrimp can’t find a source
I also turn my flow off when I feed frozen mysis, and I always make sure that some gets to the Goni as well. You will know it’s eating if it shrinks to about half size. If you target feed, make sure the food floats onto it rather than getting launched, or it will close up as a defense mechanism.
my tank definitely took some time to adjust to the extra and regular feedings. I had to add biomedia and phosguard, but surprisingly I don’t have any issues with algae, nitrates, or phosphates. Not running a skimmer helps as well imo, or at least turning the skimmer off when you feed. Preferably for the entire photo period - if the Goni is extended, it’s trying to filter the water for food! Dosing amino acids helps as well. There is a trace element, Manganese, that is really useful for LPS like these (your hammers/euphyllia will benefit also). It is in products like Fuel, and pretty much anything else that contains trace element additives. Even my Reef Fusion 2 part has it.
most importantly: (and this is almost redundant) STABILITY! obviously all corals benefit from stability, but this one is sensitive enough that if it’s happy I know I don’t need to check my water. I call it my tank barometer, I look at it and know immediately if everything is good
another thing that might not seem obvious is temperature. It’s happier in warmer water, (Indonesia = warm water!) I let my tank get as hot as 79.5 during the day. At night 77.5, but then let it warm up and my Goni will come out more and more. If I felt like my corals and fish were fine with it I would let it get warmer than that!
Edit: just realized I spent 20 minutes typing out a post and didn't specifically address a single parameter other than temperature. I try to keep my tank close to NSW levels, and my corals are happy. But many tanks with many different levels are happy, and I don’t think the specific numbers matter as much as keeping those numbers the same. @crusso1993 is right at least as often as a broken clock
Hey, thanks for giving me a call out about being right. I know how hard that must have been for you!
OP
OP
Magellan
2500 Club Member
I snuck that part in at the endHey, thanks for giving me a call out about being right. I know how hard that must have been for you!
How did I do? that was 10 months of trial and error and research in one post!
ScottR
Surfing....
Cool. Are you feeding it to the hammer? ;HilariousFrom today, Sunday will be 1 week in the tank
OP
OP
Magellan
2500 Club Member
Only if it dies
it has plenty of room don’t worry. Plus I glued it to a snail shell first, and then glued the shell to the rock just in case I do need to move it at some point.
ScottR
Surfing....
Collect all of your sissy sticks (poop coral guy’s name for SPS) and make a calcium reactor.Only if it dies
it has plenty of room don’t worry. Plus I glued it to a snail shell first, and then glued the shell to the rock just in case I do need to move it at some point.
