Evolution...Hobby Wise

[christyf5]

Originally Posted by fishytime

Christy, I noticed you got rid of all your M. caps? Also where were all your corals in the pic with all the algae?

My caps were munched on by some montipora eating flatworms. I did take them out to treat them but then couldn't fit them back in. Several were just too far gone as well. I kept frags though, they're in there somewhere.

The pic with the algae was dinoflagellates and caulerpa. For most of that year I battled the war with these two algaes. The dinoflagellates would smother everything, I would siphon, lights out, high pH whatever I could think of. I'd finally get rid of them, then the caulerpa would proliferate and I'd go in and prune it. They'd release some sort of substance (I was told it was caulerpines) and the dinos just loved it and they would go to town once again. In the midst of this I lost every coral I had except for the pink pavona and yellow porites which I still have, as the algaes would just smother them out. It was a horrible year and I didn't get rid of the dinoflagellates until I restarted the tank with no sand.