While the bird situation is under control, and we wait for further developments, I thought I'd catch up on the reef tank.
It's doing quite well. I've put the lights on a timer (something I should have done ages ago), and almost all the nuisance algae is simply gone. The glass is clear, the sheets of cyano have vanished, and the only greenery is the stuff I've allowed to stay on the very scientific basis of "it looks cool." This is some chaetomorpha macroalgae, a tough, hard algae that grows fairly slowly, and some feathery caulerpa. Caulerpa can be a pest, but if you keep it trimmed it's containable.
The zooanthids are very happy -- they spend all day open. The leather has taken to budding off little frags (chunks) of itself, whether to repair some damage or reproduce, only it knows for sure. The first bit to let loose I missed, and it drifted away into the caves. The second time I was ready; I sliced it off with a sharp knife, macgyvered (is that a verb?) a little isolation chamber for it, and it attached within days. I ended up using one of the little plastic boxes baby food comes in; it was clear, clean, and easy to make some ventilation holes in.
When I took it out and put it the rock on the sand Monday night, I noticed that the first bit had drifted out of the caves in a desperate bid for life. It even had a few polyps extended hopefully towards the light. I reset my isolation chamber, and it's looking even healthier today. Soon I'll be looking for homes for all these frags, since a tank full of leathers would be a little boring!
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