Need Goniopora help/advice - No longer opening

[ixxy]

I'm a new reefer and need a little help. I got (as a gift) a goni frag from a reefer in my area. It was beautiful (and free!) so I accepted it. (side note: I realize now that gonis are NOT beginner corals) It seemed fine in my tank for the first couple of weeks, not full extension, but 3-4 polyps at least. Now it's been over a week and it hasn't opened. Does it need less light? More/less flow? Are my parameters off? Do I leave it alone?

My tank:
13.5g
no skimmer
mini homemade refugium
AI prime 16HD (mostly blues at 45% peak for 5 hrs with 1hr ramp up and down)
AI nero3 running random @ 15% during the day; 8% pulse at night
2g weekly water changes (filtered ocean water from my LFS)

Water Parameters:
Nitrate: 0.0
Phosphate: 0.02
Calcium: 520
Alkalinity: 7.5
Magnesium 1280
Salinity: 1.025
PH: 8.5

Feeding: Spot-feeding reef roids 2x weekly and broadcasting AB+ every other day

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Seansea]

Is that nozzle from your return pointing right at it. Hard to tell from pic. They dont like direct hard flow. Maybe bring nitrates up a bit too. 0 nitrates not so good for any coral.

 

[DJF]

Likely needs nitrates.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

It looks like your nutrients are pretty low. Actually, the goni doesn't look too bad, the duncan looks worse. Alk is a little bit lower than normal IMO, but not a very big deal

Buying water from the LFS is always a red flag for me. Who knows how clean they keep their equipment or how they store their water.

 

[ixxy]

Is that nozzle from your return pointing right at it. Hard to tell from pic. They dont like direct hard flow. Maybe bring nitrates up a bit too. 0 nitrates not so good for any coral.

Sorry for the crappy photo... The nozzle is pointing above and forward from the goni. There's some movement where the frag is, but not much. What's the best way to raise nitrates in a tiny tank?

 

[Seansea]

I dose neo nitro from brightwell.

 

[ixxy]

It looks like your nutrients are pretty low. Actually, the goni doesn't look too bad, the duncan looks worse. Alk is a little bit lower than normal IMO, but not a very big deal

Buying water from the LFS is always a red flag for me. Who knows how clean they keep their equipment or how they store their water.

did you mean the Blasto? Cause that's not doing well either.

As for the water, I'm working on getting an RO system so I can mix my own.

 

[ixxy]

I dose neo nitro from brightwell.

I'll try that! thanks

 

[ixxy]

Likely needs nitrates.

Just bought Neo Nitro Seansea suggested. Hopefully that works!

 

[Uncle99]

This coral doesn’t do well long term no matter what you do.

 

[Seansea]

Just aim for nitrate between 5-10. That works for me

 

[DJF]

Just bought Neo Nitro Seansea suggested. Hopefully that works!

Go slow a little goes a long way. Actively test nitrates (1x day couple hrs after adding) while you are adjusting. Getting it past 2ppm gets you out of the danger zone then around 10ppm you’ll realize how colorful they really can be. They’ll look good at 5ppm but much more vibrant closer to 10ppm.

I went years with low nitrates thinking things looked great- when I bumped them up it was a game changer