February was a rather uneventful month in the life of Tank 72. We have continued to monitor the widespread brown anemone and the hammer branch, mushroom, and Euphyllid corals we have put in place to combat it. While our hope was that the reduction of the anemone would have made a greater amount of progress by this time, it has seemed to just continue to grow around the corals we have introduced. In addition to its continual growth on the live rocks, some polyps of the invasive brown anemone have broken off and budded and thus attached to some of the sides of our tank.
Our daily measurements of temperature and salinity have been fairly consistent this month as well. Yet, earlier in the month, the salinity was a bit high at 1.026 specific gravity. This was taken back into the normal range by adding a certain amount of reverse osmosis for a few days. The temperature has also hovered around the higher part of the acceptable range, 78°F, throughout the month.
Although we had first proposed that the hammer branch corals would be the best to put in our tank in order to combat the brown anemone, we have found more success with the mushroom coral. The mushroom coral, which we have in our tank, is a small frag, yet it has responded to the anemone quite fiercely. It has continued to keep the invasive brown anemone away from its area on the live rock in the center of our tank, while the brown anemone keeps growing on the base of the hammer branch corals. Along with the hammer branch and mushroom corals, the Euphyllid in our tank shows no great sign of progress. When we first put this coral in our tank, it was nearly always completely extended. Yet, in the past month its tentacles have rarely shown more than one inch.
Needless to say, we are hoping March will be a much more eventful month!
Our daily measurements of temperature and salinity have been fairly consistent this month as well. Yet, earlier in the month, the salinity was a bit high at 1.026 specific gravity. This was taken back into the normal range by adding a certain amount of reverse osmosis for a few days. The temperature has also hovered around the higher part of the acceptable range, 78°F, throughout the month.
Although we had first proposed that the hammer branch corals would be the best to put in our tank in order to combat the brown anemone, we have found more success with the mushroom coral. The mushroom coral, which we have in our tank, is a small frag, yet it has responded to the anemone quite fiercely. It has continued to keep the invasive brown anemone away from its area on the live rock in the center of our tank, while the brown anemone keeps growing on the base of the hammer branch corals. Along with the hammer branch and mushroom corals, the Euphyllid in our tank shows no great sign of progress. When we first put this coral in our tank, it was nearly always completely extended. Yet, in the past month its tentacles have rarely shown more than one inch.
Needless to say, we are hoping March will be a much more eventful month!