Goniopora

[MoFugEr]

When I started up my first tank a friend gave me a piece of Goniopora. I know I have seen the banners "Don't Buy Goniopora". Well I can't just throw this poor coral out, it seems to be doing fine (has only died back in one spot where I put my finger while adding it to the tank). Is there anything I can add to the tank to feed it or help it grow back over the spot I killed?

[hughem]

Nope. Chances are, THAT dead spot will not be lonely pretty soon. :(

[Adam]

mofuger,

I think hughem is being justifiably pessimistic, but the evidnence is mounting that the "trick" to goniopora is indeed food, and they really don't need much to get by. Wild goniopora guts contain mostly phytoplankton. There are now many comercially available phytoplanktons you could try.

Most success stories that I have heard involving goniopora have two things in common: Deep, very live sand beds, and low kelvin lighting (and not necessarily a ton of it)

HTH, and good luck.

Adam

[hughem]

Adam,

Could you expand in the "low kelvin" light? Would this be closer to 6500k or closer to 10,000k?

[moeb]

a friend of mine gave me a goniopora in 1997 and i put it in my 150 it did ok for about a year i didnt think it was going to make it in 1998 i purchased a 360 and i put it on the sand in the middle of the tank and gave it good current(like with a wave maker)and good lighting and now in the past 2 years it has doubled in size . i dont do any thing special to it but you know it is my favorite coral in my tank i wish you luck wiyh yours keep me posted

[Adam]

Hughem,

I would say 10,000K or less. One of the best successes I know of was a guy that had a prop system in a greenhouse. Most of the light was high latitude natural sunlight (probably 6500K or less). There were 8" fine grain sandbeds that had a couple of years to mature.

HTH

Adam

[billsreef]

Check out this thread:
http://archive.reefcentral.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?threadid=6795