Goni help

[simion3]

What amount of lighting would be best? I've got 440W of VHO, 2 12k and 2 actinic. It is right on the bottom of the aquarium in med flow. I was thinking of moving it up higher on to the rocks, good idea? I'm also going to be building another hood and gonna change the lighting to T5's, 6x54W driven by IC660 ballasts so maybe I should leave it if I do? Any help would be great thanks.

 

[simion3]

any thoughts?

 

[justincognito]

You may want to try to narrow down what species it may be. Some are bottom dwelling with lower light and tons of food (G. stokesi) others are higher flow and more light (G. somaliensis)
Google Goniopora and check out goniopora.org and Justin Credabel's Goniopora articles

 

[simion3]

I think mine is goniopora stokesi.

 

[simion3]

Also I got it from somebody who had it under 96W of PC lighting and it was about half way up in his tank. It was a 65 gallon. I've had it for about 5 months now and since than the tissue has lightened up a bit. It used to be pretty brown and now it's lighter and seems to be more green. So maybe it's getting too much light?

 

[justincognito]

Stokesi perfer soft substrate, they need to eat a lot!!! at the very least 3 times a week. I recommend using a iron supplement like Kent Iron to counteract the bleaching. Also start using phytoplankton if you aren't already. This will increase zooplankton populations and increase bioavailble Iron. It sounds like its hungry.

 

[simion3]

I've been trying to feed it phyto as often as I can and cyclopeeze too.

 

[justincognito]

They really don't ingest and digest the phyto directly, it helps boost the overall tank zooplankton populations. They eat cyclop-eeze and other smaller meaty foods. Freeze dried brine shrimp cubes mixed with the cyclop-eeze and stuff like frozen rotifers, decapsulated brine shrimp eggs, and oyster eggs.
It also helps to tell it you love it the whole time your feeding it.

 

[John Kelly]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9063077#post9063077 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by simion3
Also I got it from somebody who had it under 96W of PC lighting and it was about half way up in his tank. It was a 65 gallon. I've had it for about 5 months now and since than the tissue has lightened up a bit. It used to be pretty brown and now it's lighter and seems to be more green. So maybe it's getting too much light?

Yes. It is slowly losing zooxanthellae from the higher intensity light. The green fluorescent proteins becomes more intense and the brown zooxanthellae disappears. It is a stress reaction to the light. The same thing happens with many sps corals when they are "colored up". As long as there is at least some zooxanthellae that remains around the base of the tentacles (surrounding the mouths), the coral will be fine. If that disappears, then the coral will be "bleached" and begin to decline rather quickly. It needs to keep at least some brown in it's tissue, so you may have to shade it some. It is a fine balance. Also, I feed mine pretty heavily once every three days. As Justin said, they need to eat a lot. It does help to give it a name and treat it like a delicate pet.