Gonis experts wanted

SaltyDaddy

Clamchowder
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#1
What do y’all recommend, need your experience what makes a goni extend and thrive.
Flow? How strong?
Direct or indirect flow?
constant? Or pulse? 1 or 2 second? Or reef crest?
lighting?
spectrum?
how strong?
parameters?
nitrates?
Phosphates?
alk? Magnesium? Cal?
Feed?
try build a Goni island but never really have had success.

any suggestions are welcome.
 

BgFish

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#3
I keep mine - in medium flow but not directly beating in it. I have a mp40 on crest mode, Neptune WAV on constant plus two returns. 110gal tank.

light I believe in somewhere between 150-200 par- I’m running pretty blue- whites at 15-19% throughout day- and down to 3% in evening.

Here’s my parameters:
Temp - shoot for 78 (been difficult with this heat)
Ph 8.0 and up
Salinity 1.025-1.026
Alk 9.5
Cal 459
Mag 1350
No3 10 or less
Po4 .03 or less

I keep sps- and try to keep no3/po4 low but in the past Goni’s I’ve had didn’t mind a littler higher no3/po4.

i personally don’t target feed. I occasionally dose phyto (weekly) and broadcast reef roids (bi-monthly)

other then regular Water changes- I dose small amount of iodine- (half what bottle says) also acro power amino acids. Not sure if goni cares about this or not but it gets dosed

I find small frags sometimes struggle- but once it starts grow from the base they seem to settle in and thrive.

I am no expert. But this is what I do and have had decent success with most I have. Hope this helps

happy reefing!
 

SaltyDaddy

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#4
I keep mine - in medium flow but not directly beating in it. I have a mp40 on crest mode, Neptune WAV on constant plus two returns. 110gal tank.

light I believe in somewhere between 150-200 par- I’m running pretty blue- whites at 15-19% throughout day- and down to 3% in evening.

Here’s my parameters:
Temp - shoot for 78 (been difficult with this heat)
Ph 8.0 and up
Salinity 1.025-1.026
Alk 9.5
Cal 459
Mag 1350
No3 10 or less
Po4 .03 or less

I keep sps- and try to keep no3/po4 low but in the past Goni’s I’ve had didn’t mind a littler higher no3/po4.

i personally don’t target feed. I occasionally dose phyto (weekly) and broadcast reef roids (bi-monthly)

other then regular Water changes- I dose small amount of iodine- (half what bottle says) also acro power amino acids. Not sure if goni cares about this or not but it gets dosed

I find small frags sometimes struggle- but once it starts grow from the base they seem to settle in and thrive.

I am no expert. But this is what I do and have had decent success with most I have. Hope this helps

happy reefing!
I really appreciate your response, thank you for Taking the time of your day answering my questions! 😁
 
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#5
I have had success with some Gonis since my reefing journey started in 2020. I see most of them are happy with indirect flow mid-low placement. My green goni is the happiest of them all as it keeps budding offspring.

I do a water change every other week, using TropicMarne salt. I broadcast feed my tank with Oyster feast twice a week & reef roids once a week. I also dose 30 ml of @OGFrenchHorn phyto daily.

3 MP 40's
12:00 am - 2:00 pm - Lagoon 3%
2:00 pm - 8:00 pm - Short Pulse 35%, 2s
8:00 pm - 12:00 am Nutrient Transport 20%

Lighting, Radion G5
AB+ template, 60% schedule intensity from 12:00 pm - 10:00 pm (maybe 11pm)

Parameters: (Neptune readings)
Temp - 77-78
Ph 7.7-8.23
Salinity 34-35
Alk 8.5-9
Cal 420-430
Mag 1400 or higher
No3 10 or lower (been lower than 5 this past month)
Po4 .09 or lower

thumbnail_IMG_0848.jpg thumbnail_IMG_0851.jpg
 

SaltyDaddy

Clamchowder
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#6
T
I have had success with some Gonis since my reefing journey started in 2020. I see most of them are happy with indirect flow mid-low placement. My green goni is the happiest of them all as it keeps budding offspring.

I do a water change every other week, using TropicMarne salt. I broadcast feed my tank with Oyster feast twice a week & reef roids once a week. I also dose 30 ml of @OGFrenchHorn phyto daily.

3 MP 40's
12:00 am - 2:00 pm - Lagoon 3%
2:00 pm - 8:00 pm - Short Pulse 35%, 2s
8:00 pm - 12:00 am Nutrient Transport 20%

Lighting, Radion G5
AB+ template, 60% schedule intensity from 12:00 pm - 10:00 pm (maybe 11pm)

Parameters: (Neptune readings)
Temp - 77-78
Ph 7.7-8.23
Salinity 34-35
Alk 8.5-9
Cal 420-430
Mag 1400 or higher
No3 10 or lower (been lower than 5 this past month)
Po4 .09 or lower

View attachment 101718 View attachment 101719
Thank you so much for your input!!! Great
Info!!! Tank looks awesome!!! Thank you for taking time out of your day and helping me out I’m sure others as well
 

drexel

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#7
So here's my take of keeping corals (no matter what species or group). Strive for stability no matter what, it's the fluctuations that cause most issues in our tanks. Don't get hung up on numbers, this is the wrong way of looking at keeping a reef tank. What works for someone else's tank won't necessarily work in yours. Each tank is it's own unique ecosystem, so observation is the key here. Shoot for NSW parameters at first and adjust from there. With LPS, you need to consider that part of how they intake nitrogen is through direct feeding, whether that be from your hands or from just feeding your fish and let the extra food and fish waste feed the corals (which is what I do). On top of that you need to consider certain trace elements being replenished, either through routine water changes or direct dosing of certain elements. If you're dosing trace elements directly, then you need to test for the things you're dosing. Besides keeping the big 3 stable, Goni's benefit from additions of manganese, iron and iodide (iron and manganese being the most important). Again, if you're dosing it, test for it. Also, dosing phyto on a regular basis does wonders for any reef tank, especially those with corals. Phyto is the start of the food web that really helps increase biodiversity in our tanks (and the reefs). Nutrient levels are probably where most people go wrong and have the hardest time dealing with, either too much or too little. If you can measure nitrates with a test kit, you have enough and most people will be fine with a few ppm of NO3. The biggest issue is PO4, this is where people really get into trouble. In new tanks you should try and keep PO4 between 0.05 to 0.1ppm (somewhere in the middle or on the lower end of this range is usually best), this helps you keep algae under control until you can stabilize the balance between PO4 and NO3 (and there needs to be a balance). Once your tank matures, PO4 can be a little closer to 0.1ppm (give or take a couple, think 0.08 to 0.12ppm). So here's the caveat with these numbers, it's really based on how you feed your tank? If you're a heavy feeder like me (I mean several small feedings throughout the day, not one big feeding, which is the worst way to feed your tank/fish), then it's probably safer to be at or just below the 0.1ppm mark and still have room to work with. If like me, heavy in/heavy out, then direct feeding isn't really necessary. But if you have a light feeding approach, then supplemental feeding will be very helpful, reef roids, oyster feast, etc. Usually your PO4 is closer to the 0.02 to 0.05 range, so this supplemental feeding will help. If anyone tells you about the Redfield ration, run as fast as you can in the opposite direction, because they have no idea what it really means and how it has nothing to do with our tanks whatsoever. Sorry, I got sidetracked, if you're able to grow algae on the glass every couple days, you're good. I know this is an old school way of approaching this, but it works. And for those worried about algae because of certain numbers, you don't have an algae/nutrient problem, you have a herbivore problem. The numbers that I listed here are merely guidelines/ranges and are not set in stone, like I said, each tank will be different, you just have to find the range that works best for you. Hopefully there's some useful info here?
 

SaltyDaddy

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#8
So here's my take of keeping corals (no matter what species or group). Strive for stability no matter what, it's the fluctuations that cause most issues in our tanks. Don't get hung up on numbers, this is the wrong way of looking at keeping a reef tank. What works for someone else's tank won't necessarily work in yours. Each tank is its own unique ecosystem, so observation is the key here. Shoot for NSW parameters at first and adjust from there. With LPS, you need to consider that part of how they intake nitrogen is through direct feeding, whether that be from your hands or from just feeding your fish and let the extra food and fish waste feed the corals (which is what I do). On top of that you need to consider certain trace elements being replenished, either through routine water changes or direct dosing of certain elements. If you're dosing trace elements directly, then you need to test for the things you're dosing. Besides keeping the big 3 stable, Goni's benefit from additions of manganese, iron and iodide (iron and manganese being the most important). Again, if you're dosing it, test for it. Also, dosing phyto on a regular basis does wonders for any reef tank, especially those with corals. Phyto is the start of the food web that really helps increase biodiversity in our tanks (and the reefs). Nutrient levels are probably where most people go wrong and have the hardest time dealing with, either too much or too little. If you can measure nitrates with a test kit, you have enough and most people will be fine with a few ppm of NO3. The biggest issue is PO4, this is where people really get into trouble. In new tanks you should try and keep PO4 between 0.05 to 0.1ppm (somewhere in the middle or on the lower end of this range is usually best), this helps you keep algae under control until you can stabilize the balance between PO4 and NO3 (and there needs to be a balance). Once your tank matures, PO4 can be a little closer to 0.1ppm (give or take a couple, think 0.08 to 0.12ppm). So here's the caveat with these numbers, it's really based on how you feed your tank? If you're a heavy feeder like me (I mean several small feedings throughout the day, not one big feeding, which is the worst way to feed your tank/fish), then it's probably safer to be at or just below the 0.1ppm mark and still have room to work with. If like me, heavy in/heavy out, then direct feeding isn't really necessary. But if you have a light feeding approach, then supplemental feeding will be very helpful, reef roids, oyster feast, etc. Usually your PO4 is closer to the 0.02 to 0.05 range, so this supplemental feeding will help. If anyone tells you about the Redfield ration, run as fast as you can in the opposite direction, because they have no idea what it really means and how it has nothing to do with our tanks whatsoever. Sorry, I got sidetracked, if you're able to grow algae on the glass every couple days, you're good. I know this is an old school way of approaching this, but it works. And for those worried about algae because of certain numbers, you don't have an algae/nutrient problem, you have a herbivore problem. The numbers that I listed here are merely guidelines/ranges and are not set in stone, like I said, each tank will be different, you just have to find the range that works best for you. Hopefully there's some useful info here?
Wow! You couldn’t have made it anymore clear. I’ve been in the hobby a little over 4 years but as we all do we forget about the basic of course and get lazy with resting 😅🫠…… But you’re right everything you said refreshed my memory and makes sense again!! I really appreciate you taking the time for writing me an essay lol… but I appreciate it!.
Everything in my tanks thrives, but I just have a never have had luck with gonis in general I just don’t know how keep them happy But here are my numbers as of today
9/13 19:00
Alkalinity 7.6
Phosphate .10
Nitrate .05 I know, I know I’m raising it I promise
Calcium 470
Magnesium 1380
 

drexel

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#9
Wow! You couldn’t have made it anymore clear. I’ve been in the hobby a little over 4 years but as we all do we forget about the basic of course and get lazy with resting 😅🫠…… But you’re right everything you said refreshed my memory and makes sense again!! I really appreciate you taking the time for writing me an essay lol… but I appreciate it!.
Everything in my tanks thrives, but I just have a never have had luck with gonis in general I just don’t know how keep them happy But here are my numbers as of today
9/13 19:00
Alkalinity 7.6
Phosphate .10
Nitrate .05 I know, I know I’m raising it I promise
Calcium 470
Magnesium 1380
No worries. Every once in a while I go overboard :LOL: If you need to raise NO3 a little, just make yourself some NO3 to dose (I would dose about .5ppm every evening). Just use this calculator. Buy food or lab grade sodium nitrate and mix with RO. You'll use the potassium nitrate in the calculator (it's close enough) and make a small amount, probably less than 200mL is fine. You can make a solution so that 1mL is equal to .5ppm to make dosing it much easier. If you're not a big water change person, then I would look into the Reef Moonshiners method, it's what I use and it does wonders for reefs.
Cheers!
 

drexel

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#10

Here are the two I currently have and I took this pic just before fragging them. This is about a year and a half of growth, both from frags. For reference, that’s a 4” tile under the caulastraea furcata.

Here they are a week after fragging both.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

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