melev

No reef is ever perfect, no matter how much you want it to be. One thing declines as another improves. Here are some examples from yesterday:

Declining: These Blastos were happy, but now the right side is dying off. Could be the vermetid snail beneath (bright pink thing on the right), or the sponge that appears to be growing between the sclerites of the coral. I'll have to pull it loose and scrape away the sponge and have a run at that vermetid as well.

Improving: Drew's Acropora has taken off with growth over the past few months.

Improving: The Bird of Paradise birdsnest is getting its color back after a sudden decline in late April.

Declining: the Red Planet is now mostly green, but mainly because the Staghorn acropora above is shading it more and more every day. I'm going to have to relocate this coral soon to get it a good dose of 'sunshine' again. And then kill the majanos that are cropping up in that general area.

Improving: the red acropora from Sea World is looking better. It took more than half a year for this coral to settle in and begin to show some forward momentum.

Competing: These corals are going to duke it out for space, or already are in-the-thick-of-it daily.

Improving: The scroll coral has merged patches and will soon be a solid mass again.

Next week, Gary Parr will be visiting my reef with his camera in hand. Will he hop up on the walkboard and try a few top downs? We'll see.

The 265g polytank is empty, so I'll be filling it up again for a new batch of saltwater.