Algae ID needed

hotelbravo

hotelbravo

Active member
I was posting on the for sale page all my variety of Algae i am trimming back and when i got to this algae i got stumped.. the only thing it resembled to me was Caulerpa Brachypus but now i am second guessing myself.
Could anyone give me a positive ID on this??

 
How do you like that macro? Is it too fast-growing and invasive?

I ask because I have gotten rid of my caulerpa racemosa peltata (I hope), and I wonder if I need another good export medium. However, I don't want another invasive macro - just something that grows at a medium speed.
 
Michael Hoaster said:
How do you like that macro? Is it too fast-growing and invasive?

I ask because I have gotten rid of my caulerpa racemosa peltata (I hope), and I wonder if I need another good export medium. However, I don't want another invasive macro - just something that grows at a medium speed.
Click to expand...

This is the fastest growing macro I've owned and would advise against if you don't want something like that.
 
Most all caulerpas are fast growers under the right conditions. The C. brachypus is really small so even though it grows fast isn't any more invasive than C. prolifera. I like the brachypus because it can overgrow rocks or carpet the sand bed. It looks like a fresh water ground cover plants so good for aquascaping a macro tank. I used it in one of my 10 gallon macro tanks. These pictures are from 2008 or so.

It seems odd that about half the posts in this forum are about whether to keep or get rid of macros. :)
 

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More good info, BlueCat1949. I appreciate it.

It IS odd. The FEAR OF PLANTS! It's hard for me to imagine a tank without them. Not taking advantage of nature's most useful tool for us seems nuts.

On the other hand, having your aquarium overrun by a plant you never planted can be frustrating. So I understand when reefers wander down to the 'macro section' for advise. Having to prune back caulerpa racemosa almost every week for 2+ years has gotten old for me. I much prefer laying on the couch staring at the tank, to the drudgery of pruning.

A byproduct of running hypo salinity in my display is the apparent eradication of caulerpa. I see this as a chance to replace it with something less prolific, hence my questions on different caulerpas. With just the info I've gotten from this thread, I think I will avoid all caulerpas going forward.

It's a familiar conundrum I encountered with fresh water planted tanks as well. When starting up a new tank, you want something (anything!) to grow, so you choose easy, fast-growing plants. Later, when everything settles down, easy plants can become too prolific, and almost impossible to eliminate. Seasoned aquarists tend to gravitate towards slow growing plants for this reason.

So I guess I'm becoming 'seasoned'. I'd like to have a plant that gradually covers most of my foam back wall, without being too prolific. Any suggestions?
 
If you notice in my last picture floating on the top of the water is some codium I've been growing out. It's slower growing and non evasive. I'd suggest something like that. It can be glued to a rock
 
Thanks for the suggestion, hotelbravo.

I love codium. I've tried some, with no luck. There are still a few scattered fragments in my tank. I think I keep my water too warm for them. Do you know their preferred water temp? I'd consider lowering it to accommodate them. From what I've read they are a cool water plant. I doubt I could maintain cool temps in the summer with a 400 watt metal halide light.
 
I have never ran a heater or chiller in my tank it stays at 78 ish. It seems to be doing fine in this temperature
 
For awhile, I ran my tank at 81. That was during the period when my codium went from a golfball size to softball... I couldn't tell you which codium spp that was however.
 
Yeah, I did some looking into the literature (it's great to have access from my employer :) )... looks like codium is a big invader in many cool-water ecosystems. The research shows it can thrive in harsh conditions, shows an increased growth with higher temperatures, and can persist in temperatures upwards of 86F.

Sorry for the thread hijack OP. I'm excited to get some macros from you and see how they grow.
 
JZinCO said:
Yeah, I did some looking into the literature (it's great to have access from my employer :) )... looks like codium is a big invader in many cool-water ecosystems. The research shows it can thrive in harsh conditions, shows an increased growth with higher temperatures, and can persist in temperatures upwards of 86F.

Sorry for the thread hijack OP. I'm excited to get some macros from you and see how they grow.
Click to expand...

No problem at all. I know you said you had some codium before but idk if you still have some. If you would like I can trim off a branch or two of codium to send with the rest of the macro you are getting from me.
 
BlueCat1949 said:
It seems odd that about half the posts in this forum are about whether to keep or get rid of macros. :)
Click to expand...

Really? I have a tank full of expensive, slow growing corals and I get concerned about a super fast growing, invasive algae and that seems odd to you?

Now if everybody were doing a planted tank, that would be a different story. But even in a semi-planted tank it can be an issue. I have a 4'x2'x14" shallow reef with only things I collect from the Gulf of Mexico or the Florida Keys in it. And a rock that came in with a Caulerpa that grew SUPER fast quickly became an issue as it attached to everything in the tank and grew inches per day! I have other algae that grow slower and work well in a mixed (algae, inverts, fish and some corals).
 
Ron Reefman said:
Really? I have a tank full of expensive, slow growing corals and I get concerned about a super fast growing, invasive algae and that seems odd to you?

Now if everybody were doing a planted tank, that would be a different story. But even in a semi-planted tank it can be an issue. I have a 4'x2'x14" shallow reef with only things I collect from the Gulf of Mexico or the Florida Keys in it. And a rock that came in with a Caulerpa that grew SUPER fast quickly became an issue as it attached to everything in the tank and grew inches per day! I have other algae that grow slower and work well in a mixed (algae, inverts, fish and some corals).
Click to expand...

Just the fact that there are some of us who want to grow algae to make a SW planted tanks and the other half want to get rid of macros. So it goes back and forth on how do I grow marcos and how do I kill macros. One man's nuisance algae is another man's treasure.
 
Maybe if RC had a separate forum for 'problem algae' we'd have less of those posts.

On the other hand, I think it's good that the reef guys come by to visit occasionally. It exposes them to a very different world of aquariums, and all the radically different ideas they wouldn't otherwise encounter. Look at all the reefers dosing nitrate these days, for example.

So it's all good! We all want the same thing - a cool-looking tank, no matter what flavor.

Some pretty good info and discussion in this little thread! It may have gotten a little hijacky, but I'm grateful for what I've learned here!
 
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