I’m stumped, Goni won’t extend polyps

[vetteguy53081]

My favorite coral has been struggling for 6 months and I’m not sure why! It seems to be alive (surprisingly) but the polyps have been completely retracted since November. I have 75G w 20G sump Mixed reef (soft and LPS.. no SPs). A summary of my journey:

Around the time the Goni retracted I had a Sudden issue w hair algae and bryopsis that seemed to be tied to local water quality (my LFS just down the road suddenly experienced same thing). i had never tested phosphates (bc never had algae issues) but water tested 1.0 and bryopsis was getting out of control. Long story short, treated with Flux and killed algae but phosphates were still out of control. Tried PhosphoGuard but couldn’t stabilize levels. Got a skimmer, changed the RODI cartridges, and also started using GFO in media bag. Phos is finally stable and down to ~0.1 (Salifert) as of a month ago.

other parameters which have been relatively stable over these 6 months
SG: 1.025
pH 8.2
Alk: 8-9
Nitrate: ~10
(Red Sea)

Also tried moving Goni rock recently to slightly more light but less flow. Attached are before and after (current) pics. Goni was homegrown (not wild caught) from local Reefer.

ideas are MUCH appreciated.
View attachment 3145077View attachment 3145067

Ive had both of mine a long time. They can challenge the most experienced hobbyists and can be great one day and wither the next. Goni's are photosynthetic and obtain their energy source from light for color and energy. Inadequate light will cause them to change color and even shrink. If you had a change in lighting, you will have a base for determining one possible issue. Same applies to Water flow - too much flow will affect its cells. They only need moderate to medium flow to keep their tentacles swaying to keep debris off of them and deliver food in which they regularly. Adding aminos and manganese to the tank for their health.
Some foods to feed are hikari chopped krill, mysis shrimp, phyto and zooplankton. Im not a fan of powdered plankton foods as they can raise phosphates quickly but they work good with goni and alveopora.
Assure no3 and po4 Not elevated. Keep Mag at 1300-1350 to help stabilize CA and ALK consumption

Here are mine:

 

[coralbeauties]

I currently have about a dozen frags of reds. Of them one stopped extending. It stayed that way for quite some time and turned a pale pink. I was recommended the KFC dip method for coral infections. I was dipping a couple shrooms that werent doing well so I said what the heck and added the retracted goni frag. Well within a couple of days it started to slowly extend its polyps. About 2-3 weeks later it was almost completely back to normal as the others. Not sure if it was the dip but it sure seemed to be what fixed it.
Jeff

 

[taulgrl]

Ive had both of mine a long time. They can challenge the most experienced hobbyists and can be great one day and wither the next. Goni's are photosynthetic and obtain their energy source from light for color and energy. Inadequate light will cause them to change color and even shrink. If you had a change in lighting, you will have a base for determining one possible issue. Same applies to Water flow - too much flow will affect its cells. They only need moderate to medium flow to keep their tentacles swaying to keep debris off of them and deliver food in which they regularly. Adding aminos and manganese to the tank for their health.
Some foods to feed are hikari chopped krill, mysis shrimp, phyto and zooplankton. Im not a fan of powdered plankton foods as they can raise phosphates quickly but they work good with goni and alveopora.
Assure no3 and po4 Not elevated. Keep Mag at 1300-1350 to help stabilize CA and ALK consumption

Here are mine:

View attachment 3146157View attachment 3146158

Thanks so much! Your Goni’s are so lush and magnificent!!

 

[taulgrl]

I currently have about a dozen frags of reds. Of them one stopped extending. It stayed that way for quite some time and turned a pale pink. I was recommended the KFC dip method for coral infections. I was dipping a couple shrooms that werent doing well so I said what the heck and added the retracted goni frag. Well within a couple of days it started to slowly extend its polyps. About 2-3 weeks later it was almost completely back to normal as the others. Not sure if it was the dip but it sure seemed to be what fixed it.
Jeff

Huh! That isn’t something I’d heard of but at this point it can’t hurt to try. I think I have most of the ingredients already. Thank you!

 

[Luke Schnabel]

No real trick. Rock steady parameters, .02 po4 and 5 nitrate sitting around 150 PAR

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

Following as I NEVER had luck with gonis since I first tried them in iteration reefing 2.0 back in 2015.