My Two- Tone Gonipora will not open anymore.

[WinterHarkins]

I’ve got all kinds of other corals, including Gonipora , that are open and happy. What’s the deal?

 

[AydenLincoln]

I’m just curious what app/equipment is this?

 

[WinterHarkins]

I’m just curious what app/equipment is this?

AquaticLog. It’s completely free. I mean there’s some additional things if you pay. But the app works great without paying.

 

[AydenLincoln]

AquaticLog. It’s completely free. I mean there’s some additional things if you pay. But the app works great without paying.

Thanks!

 

[WinterHarkins]

Thanks!

I use Salifert for testing and use the app to log it.
No problem!

 

[Tuan’s Reef]

your numbers looks good. Do you dose anything? Do you dose trace elements? what test kits are you using? what Par levels and flow? Some reefers have a problem with a particular species while other corals is healthy and thriving. Do you feed reef roids, benepets, etc?

 

[HuduVudu]

@WinterHarkins gonis need iron.

Almost all salt mixes remove iron from the mix.

 

[WinterHarkins]

your numbers looks good. Do you dose anything? Do you dose trace elements? what test kits are you using? what Par levels and flow? Some reefers have a problem with a particular species while other corals is healthy and thriving. Do you feed reef roids, benepets, etc?

As you can see from the below pictures this is what I’ve been dosing.

par is around 100-120 and flow is moderate.
It was open for a while. And now has closed.

I use mainly Aqua Vitro products (seachem private line) and I’m going to send out an ICP test and start the Reef Moonshiners Method.

I did recently up my dose of NO PO X to bring my NO3 and PO4 down as these levels are a tad high for my liking. However the questionable frag has been closed for about 10 days. It was open for a month before that.

 

[WinterHarkins]

Just for more info I try to keep these lines as straight as possible!

 

[WinterHarkins]

@WinterHarkins gonis need iron.

Almost all salt mixes remove iron from the mix.

I’m dosing Fuel weekly to the tank which has iron 15 micrograms in it

 

[Tuan’s Reef]

looks like you are keeping up with your tank and will prove invaluable to you for future references. I don't see trace elements being added. what salt mix are you using? whats your water change schedule? It could be IRON like Huduvudu mentioned.


edit : Seachem fuel does have trace elements:

• Fuel™ is a comprehensive carbohydrate, vitamin, amino acid, polyunsaturated fatty acid, and trace element supplement developed to address nutritional requirements commonly associated with corals

 

[HuduVudu]

I’m dosing Fuel weekly to the tank which has iron 15 micrograms in it

That is for the entire bottle. That bottle is 150ml, so that is .01ug/mL or 1ug/L.

Just looked at one of my old ATI tests. They are suggesting .44ug/L as an optimal amount of iron. If your tank is say 40L then you will need 20L of the Fuel to get the tank to aproximately .44 (it woudl be .5). I am not thinking that you are dosing that much. Also the goni will be consuming the iron by some amount. I do not know how much they consume but IME it is a lot.

The low amount of iron in the Fuel is inline with the reality that iron will fuel algal growth. People don't want or like algae so a supplement is going to go very light on the iron to not anger their customers with algal growth but they will say that there is iron in the supplement to have their customers believe that they are doing something meaningful with their tank.

I dose iron filings everyday on my tank. I use the small red Salifert spoon to dose about a 1/10th of the spoon. The spoon is .05ml so approx .005ml of pure iron per day. For those that want to jump on this I do realize that this iron will be oxidized.

FWIW

 

[WinterHarkins]

looks like you are keeping up with your tank and will prove invaluable to you for future references. I don't see trace elements being added. what salt mix are you using? whats your water change schedule? It could be IRON like Huduvudu mentioned.


edit : Seachem fuel does have trace elements:

• Fuel™ is a comprehensive carbohydrate, vitamin, amino acid, polyunsaturated fatty acid, and trace element supplement developed to address nutritional requirements commonly associated with corals

So I have been doing monthly water changes as I’m beginning my Reef Moonshiners method. Currently waiting on my first ICp results.

I was using Reef Crystals but I’ve now switched To Fritz RpM Blue because I don’t like the Alk spike from Reef Crystals.

 

[WinterHarkins]

That is for the entire bottle. That bottle is 150ml, so that is .01ug/mL or 1ug/L.

Just looked at one of my old ATI tests. They are suggesting .44ug/L as an optimal amount of iron. If your tank is say 40L then you will need 20L of the Fuel to get the tank to aproximately .44 (it woudl be .5). I am not thinking that you are dosing that much. Also the goni will be consuming the iron by some amount. I do not know how much they consume but IME it is a lot.

The low amount of iron in the Fuel is inline with the reality that iron will fuel algal growth. People don't want or like algae so a supplement is going to go very light on the iron to not anger their customers with algal growth but they will say that there is iron in the supplement to have their customers believe that they are doing something meaningful with their tank.

I dose iron filings everyday on my tank. I use the small red Salifert spoon to dose about a 1/10th of the spoon. The spoon is .05ml so approx .005ml of pure iron per day. For those that want to jump on this I do realize that this iron will be oxidized.

FWIW

So maybe I should dose Iron? Would that explain my slow Chaeto growth as well?

 

[Tcook]

Do you feed phyto? Might want to get your sg to 1.026 but that is likely not the issue. Some people can keep these no problem. I've tried gonis and alveo and they do well for a few months then crap out.

@ReefSquad

 

[WinterHarkins]

Do you feed phyto? Might want to get your sg to 1.026 but that is likely not the issue. Some people can keep these no problem. I've tried gonis and alveo and they do well for a few months then crap out.

@ReefSquad

I feed 3ml of Phyto every day. And yes I agree. I’ve been doing water changes with a 1.024 mix to slowly bring it down.

 

[WinterHarkins]

Also for a reference this is a 25gal with a 7 gal sump. So 32gal total volume.

I use a sock, protein skimmer, about 40lbs of LR, and a chaeto Refugium.

 

[HuduVudu]

So maybe I should dose Iron? Would that explain my slow Chaeto growth as well?

It would indeed.

Iron is VERY essential in low doses for all plant growth. Including the algae that populate coral. It seems that gonis are more sensitive to low iron than others.

One word of caution.
I had a tree in my front yard. The previous owners used iron poles to stabilize the tree. Instead of removing the poles from the ground when the tree had matured enough to stand on it's own they left the poles in the ground and used them to water the tree. When I bought my house that tree was dieing. I spent 4 hours working to get those poles untangled from the roots and out of the ground. After about three years the tree turned around, and started to grow again.

The lesson here is iron is neccessary for plant life but too much iron is destructive. Like all thing biological balance is key. It is a bit tricky to find that balance.

I would suggest a stronger supplement. I would then use the goni as your guinea pig. Dose up until the goni comes out and then back off until it goes in. Repeat this process until you get an approximation of how much you should be using of the supplement. When I started dosing the iron filings the response was pretty immediate. You should see something similar. If you don't then there is another parameter out of whack, and if that is the case you get to play the multivariable game, that we as aquarists are so often confronted with. I would if that is the case keep dosing small amounts of iron and then try to figure out what else is at play. Your parameters look to be in line so hopefully this won't be the case.

Also one other note, your alk is jumping around too much it needs to stay rock solid. Food for thought.

 

[WinterHarkins]

It would indeed.

Iron is VERY essential in low doses for all plant growth. Including the algae that populate coral. It seems that gonis are more sensitive to low iron than others.

One word of caution.
I had a tree in my front yard. The previous owners used iron poles to stabilize the tree. Instead of removing the poles from the ground when the tree had matured enough to stand on it's own they left the poles in the ground and used them to water the tree. When I bought my house that tree was dieing. I spent 4 hours working to get those poles untangled from the roots and out of the ground. After about three years the tree turned around, and started to grow again.

The lesson here is iron is neccessary for plant life but too much iron is destructive. Like all thing biological balance is key. It is a bit tricky to find that balance.

I would suggest a stronger supplement. I would then use the goni as your guinea pig. Dose up until the goni comes out and then back off until it goes in. Repeat this process until you get an approximation of how much you should be using of the supplement. When I started dosing the iron filings the response was pretty immediate. You should see something similar. If you don't then there is another parameter out of whack, and if that is the case you get to play the multivariable game, that we as aquarists are so often confronted with. I would if that is the case keep dosing small amounts of iron and then try to figure out what else is at play. Your parameters look to be in line so hopefully this won't be the case.

Also one other note, your alk is jumping around too much it needs to stay rock solid. Food for thought.

So I’ve been trying to stay from 7.7-8.3 on my Alk. However that spike you see was a water change using reef crystals. Which is why I’m getting off of that salt.

how do you stabilize your Alk?
I’m manually dosing, top off, and testing daily.

 

[HuduVudu]

So I’ve been trying to stay from 7.7-8.3 on my Alk. However that spike you see was a water change using reef crystals. Which is why I’m getting off of that salt.

how do you stabilize your Alk?
I’m manually dosing top off and testing daily.

If the jump was from a water change then I would change the salt (as you planned) or spread out the water changes. Often the salts that are NOT "reef" or "pro" have higher alks because they are intended to be used for fish only systems that do not likely supplement. This ensures that the acidity caused by nitrification can be dealt with through the alk.

As to manually dosing. I would highly suggest that you purchase dosing pumps. I can not tell you what gawd send this has been for me as a long time aquarist. I use dosing pumps for everything because spikes are my enemy. Being able to spread something out over an extended period is important to ensure stability. Sadly powder dosing isn't a thing (yet), so I dose the iron manually.

Also IME water changes are a source of quick change and I do not do as many as I used too. I do not recommend someone with a newer tank do this getting maturity and stability takes time and you will know when the water changes need to slow down.