Caulerpa issue

[dugg]

Well, i have a problem i think. I have grape caulerpa and cheato in my sump. They have done well together for a long time now, but recently, the cheato started taking over and engulfing the caulerpa. Now even though i keep it under 24/7 lighting, it has done the nasty on me. I was sitting here and noticed the tank clouding up a little, so i started looking to see what was up, and noticed all of the caulerpa was white. I pulled every scrap of it out, but have never experienced this before, and not sure what if anything to do now. The water is a little clouded, but not bad, just hazy. Anyone had this happen before that can tell me what i am in for lol, and what i should do, would be greatly appreciated.

 

[pwhitby]

Skim as wet as possible,

beg steal borrow saltwater

perform water change

dont put caulerpa back...ever....

keep fingers crossed.

You should be fine, but plan on getting as much water filtered, changed as possible. Do you have carbon?

Paul.

 

[dugg]

Yeah, just bought fresh carbon last week. I wasn't sure about the water changes, i didn't want to feed the frenzy lol. I have more water on reserve then the tank has in it, so i will do a series of changes over the next few days. I think i caught it early in the act, so i hope it will be fine. It's actually already starting to clear back up some.

Thanks

I guess this means the first of next week might be best for the shipping lol. Actually the corals and clams seem to be having a feast. Everything is wide open and has feeders out lol.


On another note Paul, for some reason your name hasn't shown up as online for a few days now. I see you posting, but no name up top. Just thought i would let ya know may need to relog or something.

 

[eddybabyhd]

i had this refuge do the same thing it nearly wiped out my tank. All my fish with the exception of a couple. Since the move to this newer tank. I am not running this algea any more. I loved the way it removed stuff, and grew like mad.

These are some progression pics from when i set up the refuge, them three weeks later, then the white

I think they call it going sexual or something

day one

three weeks later

and then a few weeks after that, this happened

 

[dugg]

So far so good. I think i may have gotten real lucky. I guess that is one of the perks to sitting at the computer all day with the tank right in front of you lol. I caught it within 10 minutes or so of starting to cloud up. All the fish seem fine, and the corals and clams are expanded actually better then normal. I have done a 10 gallon water change, added almost a quart of fresh carbon, and cranked the skimmer on high. You barely can see any haze in the water at all now, so unless something really goes crazy, i think i'm in the clear. That will be the last of the caulerpa for me. I thought i was safe having it lit 24/7, i was wrong lol.

 

[captbunzo]

Caulerpa is NEVER safe.

 

[djc1026]

I had it in my seahorse tank and noticed this one day:

Fortunately, I removed it and didn't find any that looked burst open and no ill effects to the tank. I only had it about 5 weeks in the tank.

Dave

 

[nIx_tank]

When I first got my tank, the previous owner had a bunch of different species of macro algae.

I left it in there, since I didn't have a fuge at the time. (I also didn't know any better).

I came how one day to see the tank was absolute white, as a large section had gone sexual.

The only thing that I had done was run carbon, and it was gone in less than a day.

I never lost anything, but at the time, the only thing that I had in there was some fish and inverts.

I have found that a bunch of species of macro, beyond just grape will go sexual.

I had 5 different species of macro in my main tank, and every single one went sexual.

Cheato is now what I run in my fuge, as I don't have to worry about it going 'white'.

 

[dugg]

Well, everything has turned out fine. No deaths at all, and the water is back to crystal clear. I had a huge drop in PH yesterday for some reason, but it seems to be back to normal now. Yesterday, the PH dropped down to 7.6, and when i added some of my 2 part cal/buf, it came up then dropped right back in just minutes. I did another water change, and today it is right back to normal. I have ordered some PhosPure, which is Granulated Ferric Oxide from Dr. foster, that will be here early next week, just to make sure the caulerpa didn't unload phosphates into the system.