The Clavularia is still going wild and grows across the substrate fairly quickly. Every few weeks we pick and peel large sections off the substrate. The substrate was picked clean last week but here is a shot showing how fast it is growing.
Substrate after being cleaned 1 week ago
We did move an urchin into the tank to discover if it would eat some of the evil clavularia. We dropped it into the tank, watched it crawl up on the rock and it hasn't moved much in almost 24 hours. Hopefully it is chowing down and when it moves over a bit we'll find some bare rock..... we hope! We're not sure what urchins will eat so we're keeping a close eye on this one. If it misbehaves..... then back into the fuge it goes!
Will this urchin be the salvation of our tiny tank?
Our pink palys are having a tough go in another part of the tank with all the clavularia crowding them. We discovered that these two have moved around the corner and seem to be surviving. Hopefully these ones will spread out and claim some real estate from the demon clav!
Just had to snap a pic of the underside of this green paly. I like the texture and how the light makes the paly appear translucent.
We had our bubble coral placed next to this frogspawn because I thought that they were related and could coexist. It was only after the bubble started to look like it was failing that I discovered my mistake. Since moving the bubble, the frogspawn has regained some of its former size. (The bubble isn't looking good at all and might not make it. Another example of how much I still don't know!)
The slimer is definitely on the mend after changing our bulbs to a different colour and its polyps are now plush and moving in the current. It hasn't regained its original dark green colouring yet.
We have dozens of brittle stars in this tank and we love watching them strain the water column for food. It is surprising how quickly they can pull in a morsel and get their legs back out. You can also see how thick the clavularia has covered everything.
One of our pices of live rock came with a twig of some type of Gorgonian that wasn't in the best of shape. In fact I was originally going to cut it off and throw it away because I thought it was dead. However, it has since recovered quite nicely and has been spreading a mat of polyps across the rock. Here is a pic showing another branch beginning to sprout from the mat and up into the water column.
always love your pics