[karimwassef]

34cygni - yes. I've maintained my cryptic zone. It's so cryptic that a couple of fish have gotten in there and I have no way to get them out without tearing it apart.

They've lived there for 6 months now. Eating whatever pods they find, I assume.

The sponge-coral mucus loop is interesting. I have two Jebao propeller pumps that are on near continuous fast pulse mode, except at night... They continue to jam because of sponges that grow inside the pump against the intake slots. As they swell, they eventually grip the impeller. I have to scrape them out and dump them into the cryptic zone. Those tend be dark sponges - no idea where they came from.

I also have bright yellow sponges that grow on my concrete man made rock. They pop up all over the place. Those may be tunicates though. I have no idea what else is living in my cryptic zone since it's very hard to see in there. It's deep and dark. The acrylic front gets covered up with tiny featherdusters and coralline (that won't grow in my DT). I think the acrylic acts like an optic fiber carrying just a little light down its depth. That small amount of light is what the coralline uses to grow against the plastic in the dark. That makes the cryptic zone even darker, of course.

When I rip it up, I'll have to document my findings.

My corals do produce a tremendous amount of mucus. It's not bad. They expand their polyps and I think they sometimes use it to trap food since the polyps are out while the mucus is blowing. I thought it had to do with my massive surge that creates an intense flowrate against the polyps. I should take a video of that too. It's a little 'violent' but they grow fast in it.

so I have cryptic zone, surge, lots of food, lots of coral, lots of mucus and sponges that pop up wherever there is flow. My biggest pests are featherdusters though. They encroach on all my corals and rocks.