Help with goniopora... doesnt look good.
 

hey guys,

Ive been reading on here for awhile now but have not posted.
I recently picked up a nice yellow goniopora from a LFS in Calgary and it was doing great up until the last couple days.

It looks like a jelly type membrane peeling off of it from the bottom.. and Im starting to see some skeleton! Im really worried about it and am wondering if you guys can help me figure out whats going on. My water perimeters seem fine and I supplement with ZEOVit CoralSnow and ZEOvit Pohl's Coral Vitalizer. Im still very new to this (4yrs) and have had my 125gal FOWLR tank running for the last three years with just adding coral recently.

Anyways... I'll post pics. These were taken with my phone so brace yourselves..

http://inlinethumb25.webshots.com/46...425x425Q85.jpg

http://inlinethumb06.webshots.com/49...425x425Q85.jpg

That's pretty common with those I believe. Poor survival rate. I had one in my very first reef tank and it looked exactly the same while it slowly died... only difference was mine was purple.

I'm amazed that rock is 3 years old... not a spot of purple?

Are you talking about the rock its on lacking coraline? They are mostly purple. I have been having a problem keeping that algae off my rocks lately. You can see it in the picture. Im sure i'll be posting something about that too.

gonipora are kind of tricky. mine didn't open up until i found the right amount of flow and a lowered the intensity of light.

I guess that's the charm of this hobby. Always some crisis to keep things 'fun' lol.

So I have a set of Aqualight Pros (72") If hes sitting high could that be the reason??? The MH's are just too much power for him and he should be moved lower?

I just looked at him on my lunch break.. I can't believe how fast this is happening.. hes lost about another half inch up his body from yesterday!

I would try taking it out and dipping it in a coral disinfectant

What would you recommend? Revive?

It almost looks like its just eating away at the Goniopora from the bottom up... and leaving nothing but skeleton. The parts that are still doing fine seem to be just that.. theyre out fully and seem healthy. Thats obviously not the case tho.

They usualy love metal halide. I never have as much extension with mine when I had it under T5 but when I put it in my main tank with MH the polyps really extend.

Gonioporas and alveoporas need some nutriment in the water. A good supplement is Magnaneese and iron as it prevent it from waisting away. Fauna marin make some good food for them and I regulary feed them with coral frenzy, DT live phyto and fauna marin ultra seafan.

I have mine for nearly 2 years now.

Now for the brown jelly...this can be a bacterial infection and the protozoare are slowly eating the xoozanthellea from it. It will be hard to cure but you can try a 20 minutes dip in Furan-2 mixed with tank water. That should kill the bacterias attacking it but it's not sure if it's going to heal because nothing that can kill the protozoares will be safe for the gonioporas.

Ive called around town and i am SOL on a dip... any other suggestions? I already got some coming for the next time i need it.

If the coral is still receding then......IDK.....try a freshwater dip maybe.......do you know any other reefers in the area that might donate some dip???

You could always cut the whilte jelly area away. Cut above the dieing area. You know like amputating a limb to save a life.

I was thinking about cutting it.. but it would be quite hard to do since its all hard skeleton underneath

I would not cut it. Gonioporas have a skeleton where the polyps can retract quite deep and you would probably kill it.

As for the dip, freshwater will probably kill it as well. Best thing to do is try with a mix of 50% tank water and 50% hydrogen peroxyde 3%. Take it out of the water then just put a bit of it on the affected area and try not to touch the healthy parts. This will fizz and bubble and leave it for a minute or 2 and put it back in the tank. That should kill the brown jelly.

It's the safest thing that will kill the brown jelly for sure and then you put it back in the tank and this is 100% safe for the tank as peroxyde dissolve into water and oxygen.

why would fresh water kill it?
have a read about hydrogen peroxide in the aquarium before you use it http://theaquariumwiki.com/Hydrogen_peroxide and here http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=1704746 ......if your gonna dip it with anything "household", dip it in diluted iodine(a few coral dips are Iodine based)......not sure on how much to dilute it though.....

Because freshwater is harsh on many coral and will NOT kill the bacterias attacking it. It's like curing the disease by killing the patient.

for the H2O2, I would not dip it totaly but only drip some mix of peroxyde and tank water on the affected area to desinfect it and make sure that the healthy part does not receive any treatment.

I did this with a duncan that had brown jelly and it killed the brown jelly right away and it healed fast and now you can't even see where it was. For the goniopora, it is very fragile and I would not dare do any dip on healthy polyps, rather treat what is already affected because that will spread and die anyway.

I did not suggest putting H2O2 in the aquarium, if you read. Iodine will NOT kill the bacterias causing brown jelly.....bin there done that already.

ummm didnt you post a while ago about how using hydrogen peroxide in the aquarium is great?????

wouldnt a fresh water dip be just as dangerous as h202 if used only on the infected ares??

not trying to be argumentative but one post always seem to differ from another....again not trying to spark something....

huh..nope. Never tried it in the tank so I would not say anything about that, only tried it as a dip for my zoanthids.

I killed a few zoanthids with freshwater dip...never killed one with H2O2 because it is simply tank water and extra oxygen. Beside, freshwater is useless against brown jelly so why do it???