Finally Encountering the Reef

I've been wanting to play Reef Encounter for a long time, and a BGGer named Drew kindly offered to teach Daren and I on Spielbyweb. I feel like I'm someone who's generally able to pick up on rules and mechanics quickly, but this thing had me soooo baffled. The tile-laying and shrimp eating came along fine, but the alga container...whoa, that was impenetrable.

Then, on my next-to-last turn, it just clicked. I saw what things did, and how they worked. I'm still struggling to see the strategies, but I get the game now. And it's a good one.