Caulerpa prolifera

[FloridaPets]

Hi,
I would like to hear from people who have Caulerpa prolifera. I know there are a lot of people on Seahorse.org that have and love prolifera. My personal experience with it is outstanding. In the past four years of collecting, keeping and holding, Caulerpa prolifera, I have seen it "go sexual" only twice. One time was in a display aquarium in my LFS. The other time was in the wild, which was quite amazing to witness. Acres and acres of Caulerpa prolifera were there one day and totally gone the next. Within two weeks, it was ALL back! There seemed to be no ill effects from the sexual reproduction of the macro(no dead fish or bad smells).
I know from frequenting the ReefCentral boards that sometimes topics get painted with some pretty broad brushes. I feel that all Caulerpas are not equal. Some who are noted authers and speakers tend to get a little carried away when dispensing advice. Some Caulerpas can "go sexual" at the drop of a hat, while others can live in a multitude of conditions and continue reproducing just fine asexually.
I would really just like to hear from people who have had Caulerpa prolifera in their tanks, and hear what they have to say about it. Although, I'm sure there are probably some out there who had Caulerpa prolifera in the systems for a long time with no problems, until they heard about all this "going sexual" stuff. Then they probably took it all out of their tanks. Hopefully there are some people out there who have had good results with their prolifera. I would also be interested to hear some of the bad prolifera stories as well.

 

[Shablin]

I just introduced some about a month ago. It is growing well and not tanking over the tank like c. racemosa does. It is growing in a nice patch on one side of my tank and looks nice. With help from my halimeda it has slowed the c. racemosa growth to a much slower pace. -brian

 

[hmott]

Well I just added a handful or so yesterday, along with several other varieties, so not much experience. However its a whole lot nicer looking than hair algae so I hope it thrives. The chances of it going sexual are much less than the chances of hair algae snuffing out everything else in my tank So I'll risk it with a smile.

 

[techdef]

I've had it for a few years in different tanks (started w/ seahorses), its a favorite of mine after some disasters with mexicana and racemosa taking over tanks (btw urchin will remove it pretty quickly). The prolifera is much easier to control since it stays on the sand where the others will grow uphill over rocks. This is the only one I've found that does NOT grow onto rocks as a preference & that's probably why it's popular. I'm experimenting with thallasia in the display tank now as an option to the prolifera as it seems much slower growing.

I've got it in 3 tanks now & my main tank 'fuge. Never seen it go 'sexual'. Prune regularly & heavily & dont flush down the toilet if you live in SoCali!

 

[beaslbob]

I have had profilera in a culture tank and my 55g for about 15 months now. Just doesn't seem to be anything that can kill it.

For instance a new shipment of caulerpa paspaloides died /went sexual. Clouded up the culture tank. And about a month later I turned off the lights for a week to clear up the tank. meanwhile the profilera continued to grow and was unaffected.

I think one thing that I feel is important is the profilera "grew up" in the tanks. And when nitrAtes went down to 0.0 they just slowed down the growth. By contrast the paspaloides was introduced to a tank where the profilera had already brought down the nitrates to 0.

 

[FloridaPets]

Looking for more experiences

Looking for more experiences

There's got to be more than four people out there with Caulerpa prolifera in their systems. Let's hear your experiences. Any horror stories?.....Success stories? This is a sharing forum. So please SHARE.
John

 

[elisabeth]

No problems, no problems. I've had C. prolifera for well over
2 years and at times, some of the leaves will turn translucent--
this is going sexual?? so be it--nothing changes in the aquarium.

My idea behind having Macroalgaes was for nutrient export
and so with that in mind whatever grows the fastest wins.
I tried Chaetomorpha but it just never took off like the
Caulerpa's--(sp?) Racemosa--'grape caulerpa' seems for
me to go sexual the most, then C. prolifera, then C. taxifolia.

Again, i don't see ANY consequence from it going sexual. Supposidly, the argument is that 'nutrients are released
back into the water' well, in my experience that's just a
problem for the mind, not the tank, since i see no change
when it happens. Here i'm going to go completely out on
a limb, but maybe when it goes sexual what's released
is more cellular--and complex--than just a dose of pure
phosphate? i dunno-- but for whatever reasons, nothing
changes with C. going sexual. Something else i've not
had a problem with is it overgrowing stuff--i agree that
C. racemosa does do this, but in my experience, macro-
algaes are far far easier to cull than hair algae! anyday...
That's prolly the only thing i'm least sure of, i can see
where some people may have a problem with it, but for
me it's not hard to remove, and again, it is exporting
nutrients.

 

[FloridaPets]

Elisabeth,
At risk of getting us both bashed for saying so, ... I've had exactly the same experiences you have. I couldn't have said it better myself!!!
Thanks for the post.

 

[elisabeth]

very happy to relate my experiences!! ask me, ask me!!

 

[cflanagan]

It is doing well in my tank and adds a nice realistic touch to the reef. The other stuff I got from FloridaPets, the red stuuf(tang Heaven) appears to have been mostly consumed, it looked good while it lasted.

 

[mellen]

Hope that someday this SIG forum will get really popular. I've been "into" FW planted tanks for 30 years...SW plants/macros offer the same benefits. Amazing that people will intellectually acknowledge that plants are the primal, basic and most important factor of LAND based ecosystems (which were "invented" aeons ago in the seas), yet be almost mindlessly wary of using plants in so-called "natural reef" aquaria! Is this an example of how well the equipment and gadget and snakeoil marketing people have succeeded? I think so...Otherwise they would be competing with nearly 2.5 billion years of evolutionary expertise! I think us Yanks need to look at the rest of the world's attitude about even cyanobacterial blooms in aquaria. It is about patience and emulating Nature, not technology ONLY (which I love, but it ain't the be-all/end-all)! I'd love to see the "Dutch" style of reef tank become popluar again.. .That is what my brothers & I did without any real thought other than emulating/imitating what we saw when snorkeling in the bays of South Florida. We were able to keep corals, anemones, sponges, gorgonians, clams, snails, fish, octopi, and LOTS of macros happy with just slo-flo UG filters, NSW & 175 watts total worth of NO lights on each of five 75 gal tanks. We collected everything in them ourselves from the sand beds up (ah, for the good ol'/bad ol' days! Wouldn't even DREAM of doing it now!)...

 

[beaslbob]

mellen:

Absolutely and well stated!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (first leiden Fw late 70's).

My wife and I almost gave up on SW becaue the local fish stores refused to admit there was anything remotely resembling a FW planted tank. Then someone at a store that did not sell saltwater livestock stated "if you are really really lucky you might get some macros on your live rock". Geeeeesh.

I hope newbies do not go through what we did. Get a good algae growth going, get a cleaner crew, then lose every new fish added. All that turned around when when we added macros to the display.

Today we can use a fluidized bed filter to replace the UGF and get the same benefits. But other than that, all that is needed is to establish the plant life, some circulation, and light. Anything else is optional.

 

[mellen]

newbies

newbies

bealsbob, that's EXACTLY what's happening to most newbies, and why we see so many complete systems for sale on the classified boards. The marketing people and LFS clerks convince them it's all "click and go!" with enough gear to treat a household's wastewater..Yet the near instant results just don't happen or they experience a total crash less than a year into it.
I have to wonder if the RC Poll, "Do you read Reefkeeping Magazine", really had accurate results (it was like 80% "yes"), or if a lot of folks figured viewing Tank of the Month pics only was good enuff to count! The experts, and their great advice, are already here, yet in thread after thread you see people adding fish/inverts to tanks without plants or macros only 6 or 7 weeks from set up! Even with fully cured rock toted home from the LFS in water, that's asking for trouble.:eek2:

 

[beaslbob]

What I like about this forum and board is these thoughts are not immediately dismissed.

My concern is the "experts" listing 20 things to say control algae, or cyano, or prevent the fish from heavy breathing and then dieing. And not one of those things even mention adding plant life. And further that most of those experts already have fuge's setup with macros. then flame guys like us with a "plants life is not the cure all". All when the newbie has added no plant life and has put off building the "unecessary" refugium.

So the newbie spends ~$1500 for his 55g, and as a result suffers cloudy water, fish and coral losses, while constantly messing with (and cleaning) the system to "get it right". All of which could have been avoided by spending ~$1000 (or less) for a 120g with (at most) $20 of macros. Or even just spend $300.00 for the 55g.

This hobby does not have to be expensive or complicated. As we have found out.

 

[mellen]

WORD UP, Brotha!

WORD UP, Brotha!

Wonder if someone like Karen Randall (Aquarium Hobbyist Mag) could host/moderate this SIG. Jorge is obviously very knowledgable, but he tends to get too technical for most folks. A practical guide to marine plants and macros aimed at introducing the principles in a "marine botany for dummies" format would do it, along with that person moderating the threads for misinformation and mitigating slams. I saw how you got whupped on for no good reason in another thread - now you know how Martin Luther must have felt..Heretic! :rolleye1:

 

[Polychaete]

This hobby does not have to be expensive or complicated. As we have found out.

How about a current picture of your tank so we know what to expect by using your methods Bob? The last pictue you posted ... well... let's just say that is not what most of us want in our living room... Granted, you are proud of it and you believe it's beautiful and that's great! It just that Many of us strive for something totally different where corals can thrive and out fish aren't sickly.

Nick

 

[FloridaPets]

how about this picture?

how about this picture?

polychaete,

How about this inexpensive, Macro filled 10gal. nano?

This tank has been running for about two years with a dis-abled undergravel filter, 1" crushed coral, with .5" quartz sand on top of that, and 1.5" live Keys sand on top of that. The undergravel lift tube was converted into a internal mechanical/bio filter using an Aqua Clear 201 power head.
John

 

[Polychaete]

FloridaPets - That's absolutely beautiful. Let's see how a current picture of BeaslBob's tank compares.

 

[elisabeth]

can we not be quite so personal about things? If you don't
agree, so what? Why deride someone?

 

[mellen]

John/Shelley - Beautiful little Dutch leider nano! Looks exactly like a slice of FL lagoon! That is so much like what I did as a kid 30 years ago! Also disabled a couple UGFs so as not to disturb turtlegrass roots and just stuffed in carbon granules with sponge plugs fore and aft of carbon in the tube. Voila! A Jaubert system . A plenum partnered with Gelbstoff removal media, but better I think, 'cause the vascular plants' root system (and macros' holdfasts?) help with slow, anoxic bacteria processing 'cause they "mooch" some of the by-products of the demineralizing nitrogen phase (back into free gaseous nitrogen), and prevent too large a build up of sulpher dioxide during the process.