New addition

[kmacc05]

New addition I picked up yesterday. It's awesome! I have come to find out Goniopora doesn't seem to last long. Anyone have any tips for it?

Also got this piece of monti from Ban. It looks like it is doing great. Polyps always sticking out. It is really bright green. I don't know the actual name of it if anyone can help out there. And if anyone has any tips for it as well I would appreciate it. Does it look ok from the pic? Hard to get a decent shot of it where it's located.

Edited November 15, 2012 by kmacc05

[Juiceman]

My Goniopora did best when my tank was dirty! When I had a very clean tank, It ended up dying on me, i'm pretty sure it starved. Make sure it's not in too much flow, and throw some coral food its way every now and then and you should be good.

Where'd you get it from by the way?

[FarmerTy]

That looks like a monti spongades or monti confusa. I never really knew the difference but pretty hardy, high light and higher flow should keep it happy and bright looking.

The flowerpot goniopora usually has a dismal survival rate, even more so in newer tanks. Pretty as all get out but pretty hard to keep alive and typically starts withering away slowly in about 6-9 months. They say its easier to keep them alive now with the availability of smaller food sources (DTs, cylopeeze, oyster feast... etc) but I still haven't seen one alive in someone's tank for more than a year. And with the food sources, you'd almost end up having a phosphate or nitrate problem with the amount of food you need to keep in suspension in your tank to keep it alive.

The red encrusting goni's have a better survival rate than the flowerpots. If you want to keep a goni, I would look in that direction. Start with alveopora also... they are way hardier and I've seen several reefers in our area keep those alive and they are growing and dropping babies colonies all the time.

Does anybody on ARC have a good experience with the flowerpot variety of gonioporas? I mean, keeping it alive for more than a year? And maybe not just alive, but actually growing?

[FarmerTy]

Here's a good... but older article on goniopora.

http://reefkeeping.c.../nftt/index.php

You more than likely have Goniopora stokesi or Goniopora lobata. They are unfortunately the type that usually lives in darker, dirtier water that is hard to replicate in a reef system. Unless you have a large, natural refugium-based system with a large volume of water (like in the 300 gal + range), they will more than likely die on you.

I keep an assortment of alveopora and encrusting red goni's in my SPS tank (I think you might have seen them in the left corner when you came by last) that are doing well in my system. The long-term health is still to be determined but most have been there for at least 8 months and showing tissue growth so... keeping my fingers crossed. I do not supplemental feed them.

-Ty

[kmacc05]

@Juiceman, I got it at Aquatek. I had a few rocks of zoas that I couldn't find a place for so I just traded them in. They had two others about the same size as this one. It is pretty as hell. I hope it can stay alive for a while.

@Ty, I will look into that link later tonight. I have heard about the red goni being a little hardier than this one. Also about the alveopora. And the monti is up in the tank in the brightest parts and in a lot of flow. Since I moved it there, I have been noticing the polyps coming out. So it must be happy I guess.

[JamesL]

I think a lot more is known about goniopora's, so there stands better chances at keeping them alive. I had an aveleopora in my previous 29g ... one of the impulse buys I did without research ... it unfortunately did not make it.

[Juiceman]

I had my first one for about 8 months before I started running low nutrient. It withered pretty quick without lots of stuff in the water.

[kmacc05]

Hopefully mine will last a decent amount of time. Now i know for the future i guess