- Joined
- Feb 11, 2019
- Messages
- 241
- Reaction score
- 292
I have two clarkii clowns that evidently cannot resist stirring the sand bed. All. Of. The. Time.
It seems to be making my devil’s hand leather retract all of its polyps for weeks at a time. It’ll finally open up and then when I check back on it, the polyps will be filled with grit and detritus and it’ll then close for another week(s) +. The polyps pulsate when open, so it only pulsates for a few hours before the clowns stir it up long enough to clog the polyps and stop the pulsating again.
The detritus and stirring of sand doesn’t seem to be impacting my 4 varieties of zoas, 2 varieties of shrooms or my finger leather.
Do I just need to catch the clowns somehow and remove them? Any other ideas?
FYI: I try not to run a filter sock right now because I am attempting to increase my nitrate levels. I also haven’t run a skimmer or a filter sock in 4+ weeks. Finally, I am registering some small levels of nitrate. All other corals are expanding and growing excellently despite the tank being a low nutrient system at the moment.
parameters:
1.023 salt
Nitrate .5
Temp: 79
Ph: 8.2
Haven’t measured phosphate this week.
It seems to be making my devil’s hand leather retract all of its polyps for weeks at a time. It’ll finally open up and then when I check back on it, the polyps will be filled with grit and detritus and it’ll then close for another week(s) +. The polyps pulsate when open, so it only pulsates for a few hours before the clowns stir it up long enough to clog the polyps and stop the pulsating again.
The detritus and stirring of sand doesn’t seem to be impacting my 4 varieties of zoas, 2 varieties of shrooms or my finger leather.
Do I just need to catch the clowns somehow and remove them? Any other ideas?
FYI: I try not to run a filter sock right now because I am attempting to increase my nitrate levels. I also haven’t run a skimmer or a filter sock in 4+ weeks. Finally, I am registering some small levels of nitrate. All other corals are expanding and growing excellently despite the tank being a low nutrient system at the moment.
parameters:
1.023 salt
Nitrate .5
Temp: 79
Ph: 8.2
Haven’t measured phosphate this week.