Goniopora difficulty

[muggle0981]

Was always told goniopora are difficult and/or do not have long term success in aquarium

One of my lfs have some aquacultured which they feel are pretty hearty

Those who have-experiences with them?

 

[VintageReefer]

Was always told goniopora are difficult and/or do not have long term success in aquarium

One of my lfs have some aquacultured which they feel are pretty hearty

Those who have-experiences with them?

It’s a wild variation that nobody can explain and is unique for everyone.

I have a lps dominant reef and I have many Goni and sometimes they just get moody. I’ve had ones just stop opening and die. I’ve had ones that grow slow. Others Open daily but haven’t grown for months. Some have had significant growth. One has spent weeks not opening at all then randomly started again. Another (my first, a maricultured) has been open every day even when others are upset. I have some that extended 3” since arrival date and after 3-4 months, they only now extend 1” and I don’t know why

Pretty much, they do their own thing, and your tank conditions - lighting, flow, trace elements, nutrient levels have a huge impact. It could do fine at the store but hate your tank. There are tips people have on how to be successful with them but the reality is nobody knows for sure.

 

[taytay_1119]

It’s a wild variation that nobody can explain and is unique for everyone.

I have a lps dominant reef and I have many Goni and sometimes they just get moody. I’ve had ones just stop opening and die. I’ve had ones that grow slow. Others Open daily but haven’t grown for months. Some have had significant growth. One has spent weeks not opening at all then randomly started again. Another (my first, a maricultured) has been open every day even when others are upset. I have some that extended 3” since arrival date and after 3-4 months, they only now extend 1” and I don’t know why

Pretty much, they do their own thing, and your tank conditions - lighting, flow, trace elements, nutrient levels have a huge impact. It could do fine at the store but hate your tank. There are tips people have on how to be successful with them but the reality is nobody knows for sure.

+1
I’ve had several and each one was a different story. I have one now that survived a salinity crash. It was one of 5 corals out of 40+ to survive it.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

My oldest one is 5 years old, my others are several years old. I only had an issue with my very first one, I think its cause my tank was too new, but otherwise I have no issue with them. I have metal hallide lighting, so high lighting high flow and high nutrients.

 

[i cant think]

I have a 25G tank that is LPS dominated with mostly Goniopora - about 7-9 different variations. I absolutely love them as they’re surprisingly easy now, you just need decent stability, I run higher nutrients - 1.0 PO4 and 10 NO3 and 8-9dKh. I also dose manganese 3 times a week (Monday, Thursday and Sunday) at 1ml each day. They’re also in 3-400 PAR as I grow Maxima clams in this system and flow wise it’s pretty high for some of them but others are in very little flow where the polyps only move a bit - almost like twitching.

 

[muggle0981]

My par not enough

Im running maybe 200/225 at top pf tsnk and 80-100 on sandbed

 

[Gribbles]

What's the general consensus on PAR for these guys? I thought it was 100ish...?

 

[RSNJReef]

It’s a wild variation that nobody can explain and is unique for everyone.

I have a lps dominant reef and I have many Goni and sometimes they just get moody. I’ve had ones just stop opening and die. I’ve had ones that grow slow. Others Open daily but haven’t grown for months. Some have had significant growth. One has spent weeks not opening at all then randomly started again. Another (my first, a maricultured) has been open every day even when others are upset. I have some that extended 3” since arrival date and after 3-4 months, they only now extend 1” and I don’t know why

Pretty much, they do their own thing, and your tank conditions - lighting, flow, trace elements, nutrient levels have a huge impact. It could do fine at the store but hate your tank. There are tips people have on how to be successful with them but the reality is nobody knows for sure.

I 100% second this. I have multiple gonis and there doesn’t seem to be a rhyme or reason why one gets bitter for a week while all the others seem happy.

One thing I will note though is if I have multiple pieces of the same type, all of that type will act the same way.

Another thing, I used to melt gonis for a long time until I started keeping my magnesium above 1400 and dosing trace elements .

 

[RSNJReef]

What's the general consensus on PAR for these guys? I thought it was 100ish...?

I’ve kept them under everything from 80 par to 180 par. What I’ve always done though is start any new addition low at 80 par or so, then increase the par by about 20 or so every month (either increase the light or move them higher in the tank), and they got used to it. The key is go slow.

 

[VintageReefer]

I 100% second this. I have multiple gonis and there doesn’t seem to be a rhyme or reason why one gets bitter for a week while all the others seem happy.

One thing I will note though is if I have multiple pieces of the same type, all of that type will act the same way.

Another thing, I used to melt gonis for a long time until I started keeping my magnesium above 1400 and dosing trace elements .

I had 5 Goni arrive today from two companies

Company A) 4 Goni -
2 fully open as extending within 1 hour.
1 open and partially extending after a few hours
1 has polyps open but no extension even 8-9 hours after acclimation

Company B) 1 Goni
Acclimated 8+ hours ago, no polyps have even came out today

 

[paragrouper]

What's the general consensus on PAR for these guys? I thought it was 100ish...?

I have three in ~150. They are doing fine.

 

[jermzisurmom]

@Reefing_addiction

 

[VintageReefer]

Mine are all around 150

 

[JGT]

They are able to acclimate to a wide range of par. P04 and NO3 is more important for them to thrive. Needs to be available. See pic below. Left side of tank. Some at bottom, middle and at top. All fluffy and growing onto rocks.

 

[johnwwalkeriii]

It’s a wild variation that nobody can explain and is unique for everyone.

I have a lps dominant reef and I have many Goni and sometimes they just get moody. I’ve had ones just stop opening and die. I’ve had ones that grow slow. Others Open daily but haven’t grown for months. Some have had significant growth. One has spent weeks not opening at all then randomly started again. Another (my first, a maricultured) has been open every day even when others are upset. I have some that extended 3” since arrival date and after 3-4 months, they only now extend 1” and I don’t know why

Pretty much, they do their own thing, and your tank conditions - lighting, flow, trace elements, nutrient levels have a huge impact. It could do fine at the store but hate your tank. There are tips people have on how to be successful with them but the reality is nobody knows for sure.

This is how my Goni experience has gone so far. Some are doing great, then all the sudden gone. I have found that alveopora seems to be easier. At least for me.

 

[VintageReefer]

They are able to acclimate to a wide range of par. P04 and NO3 is more important for them to thrive. Needs to be available. See pic below. Left side of tank. Some at bottom, middle and at top. All fluffy and growing onto rocks.

Thanks for this pic. I find it interesting your top ones have so much extension. Typically my belief was that they should be lower, as their would encourage them to extend more, to get closer to light.

Do you find any correlation between par and extension?

 

[JGT]

Thanks for this pic. I find it interesting your top ones have so much extension. Typically my belief was that they should be lower, as their would encourage them to extend more, to get closer to light.

Do you find any correlation between par and extension?

None whatsoever. Flow more than par. Lotta flow up top.

 

[JGT]

Extension wise, this guy gets crazy extension. Down low but good flow where he is. Those polyps are 8/9” long. Nuts!

 

[slythy]

This is my life with my goni’s. The one on the right I bought 2 weeks ago never opened up in the spot. I have torches and lots of SPS growing well and figured maybe that guys just a dud. The one on the left has been open since it left the bag…

No change or anything…. Just mad lol

 

[JGT]

Extension wise, this guy gets crazy extension. Down low but good flow where he is. Those polyps are 8/9” long. Nuts!

Same for these…all diff positions in tank.