Goniapora not doing well...

[William Spak]

Where did you get the rock from? Was it new dry rock? Or Live rock?

What kind of rock was it? If it was live rock or old live rock it could have had some dead organics on it that could cause an ammonia spike. I would check ammonia if you have not and make sure it’s zero

It was live rock... my goni was upset before then as well. The ammonia is normal to my knowledge

Thanks

 

[BeejReef]

I don't exactly follow your canister clean out procedure. It sounds like you clean it out, lose some saltwater, and the tank gets topped up with freshwater. Then you adjust your salinity back up by pouring in brine water?

Either way, that's a perfect opportunity to do a water change. Rather than fussing around with adding salt, just use your filter cleaning as an opportunity to refill to your fill-to line with saltwater already fully mixed to your preferred salinity.

From what I've read, gonis have pretty delicate cell membranes "skin" and are likely more susceptible to being injured by a stray salt crystal. Also, if your salinity had wandered way down to 1.018, it may not be enjoying the trip back to 1.025. A lot of people will refrain from feeding a struggling coral, unless a strong case can be made that it's being underfed. That doesn't seem likely as reliably as you have fed yours.

EDIT - another thing I remember seeing regarding feeding gonis, which also has to do with their delicate membrane, is not to fill them up with food like you might a favia or an acan. People who have been in the hobby a long time have videos where they show "wafting" food towards a goni. Basically, instead of blowing a cloud of reefroids into the polyps, they puff out small clouds of roids from their syringe/baster a good 2-3 inches away from the goni and let the flow delicately carry the food to it.

 

[William Spak]

I don't exactly follow your canister clean out procedure. It sounds like you clean it out, lose some saltwater, and the tank gets topped up with freshwater. Then you adjust your salinity back up by pouring in brine water?

Either way, that's a perfect opportunity to do a water change. Rather than fussing around with adding salt, just use your filter cleaning as an opportunity to refill to your fill-to line with saltwater already fully mixed to your preferred salinity.

From what I've read, gonis have pretty delicate cell membranes "skin" and are likely more susceptible to being injured by a stray salt crystal. Also, if your salinity had wandered way down to 1.018, it may not be enjoying the trip back to 1.025. A lot of people will refrain from feeding a struggling coral, unless a strong case can be made that it's being underfed. That doesn't seem likely as reliably as you have fed yours.

EDIT - another thing I remember seeing regarding feeding gonis, which also has to do with their delicate membrane, is not to fill them up with food like you might a favia or an acan. People who have been in the hobby a long time have videos where they show "wafting" food towards a goni. Basically, instead of blowing a cloud of reefroids into the polyps, they puff out small clouds of roids from their syringe/baster a good 2-3 inches away from the goni and let the flow delicately carry the food to it.

Hey, thanks for the reply

So I’ll do a water change this sunday when I clean my filter, and I’ll pre-mix the water. Sometimes during the week I add in fresh water because it evaporates... but if I do water changes every sunday I don’t think i’ll need to.

And what your saying is I shouldn’t feed it at all? Or should I “waft” as you were saying? Or maybe I should just broadcast feed?

Thank you so much for the input! I really appreciate it

 

[BeejReef]

Full disclosure, I am newish too.

I hate recommending people buy expensive equipment, but I just had this battle myself a few months ago.
That is an automatic top off system.

You say you've been having to work hard at maintaining salinity. It should't be very hard. With an ATO, it's downright easy.

I have no way of knowing what is ailing your Goni. You've had big swings in some of the major parameters (temp and salinity). I've been there too ;Bored

The approach I've seen a lot of successful reefers on here take is to start from where you are. We can speculate about what might have happened, or what might have triggered this or that, but we can never really know for sure.

With that in mind, you want to start eliminating variables. You've addressed temperature - check.

Next up is salinity. It's a big deal. When your salinity jumps up and down, so does almost every other parameter. Alkalinity, calcium, magnesium, and every trace element. They're essentially "watered down" when your salinity drops.

If you have, or see a tank with an ATO, you'll notice it makes minute freshwater additions several to a dozen times a day. Very small swings. Topping up with freshwater once a day is less than ideal, but it works. You start going 2,3,4 days, you're getting serious salinity swings.

If you prefer to keep topping up manually, be as precise as you can. Put a little piece of tape where your tank is "full." Get your salinity exactly where you want it, and only add freshwater to the tank to replenish any evaporation below that line.

On water change day, suck out saltwater, replace with new saltwater. Likewise with your canister maintenance. If you dump out saltwater, replace it with the same. Adjusting salinity in tank can and is done, but it's a pain and a risk, and finishes a distant second to maintaining stable salinity.

As to feeding.. I'm out of my depth there. I have a few Gonis and they're doing great, but my tank is 6 mo's old, so proves nothing. However, since being underfed is off the table, I'd say you run near zero risk of harm by not target feeding them for a week or two. Perhaps you're feeding them too aggressively or too frequently. Not feeding is just a way to eliminate that as a variable as well.

The only thing I can tell you fo-sho is that you won't regret getting an ATO

 

[William Spak]

Full disclosure, I am newish too.

I hate recommending people buy expensive equipment, but I just had this battle myself a few months ago.
That is an automatic top off system.

You say you've been having to work hard at maintaining salinity. It should't be very hard. With an ATO, it's downright easy.

I have no way of knowing what is ailing your Goni. You've had big swings in some of the major parameters (temp and salinity). I've been there too ;Bored

The approach I've seen a lot of successful reefers on here take is to start from where you are. We can speculate about what might have happened, or what might have triggered this or that, but we can never really know for sure.

With that in mind, you want to start eliminating variables. You've addressed temperature - check.

Next up is salinity. It's a big deal. When your salinity jumps up and down, so does almost every other parameter. Alkalinity, calcium, magnesium, and every trace element. They're essentially "watered down" when your salinity drops.

If you have, or see a tank with an ATO, you'll notice it makes minute freshwater additions several to a dozen times a day. Very small swings. Topping up with freshwater once a day is less than ideal, but it works. You start going 2,3,4 days, you're getting serious salinity swings.

If you prefer to keep topping up manually, be as precise as you can. Put a little piece of tape where your tank is "full." Get your salinity exactly where you want it, and only add freshwater to the tank to replenish any evaporation below that line.

On water change day, suck out saltwater, replace with new saltwater. Likewise with your canister maintenance. If you dump out saltwater, replace it with the same. Adjusting salinity in tank can and is done, but it's a pain and a risk, and finishes a distant second to maintaining stable salinity.

As to feeding.. I'm out of my depth there. I have a few Gonis and they're doing great, but my tank is 6 mo's old, so proves nothing. However, since being underfed is off the table, I'd say you run near zero risk of harm by not target feeding them for a week or two. Perhaps you're feeding them too aggressively or too frequently. Not feeding is just a way to eliminate that as a variable as well.

The only thing I can tell you fo-sho is that you won't regret getting an ATO

Wow, thank you for that all of that!

I haven’t actually seen an ATO but i’ll look into it- i’m a bit short on cash right now so we’ll see. I think my corals are definitely upset about salinity, because whenever I add salt, my ricordea also gets upset for like a week.

I’ll look into ATOs and stop feeding the goni, after a week i’ll start broadcast. I have been over feeding it probably.

Thank you so much!