Cualerpa, Bad Idea??

[yukonblizzard]

I have heard many bad things about cualerpa, but do you think I could plant it in my 180 FOWLR so my tangs have a natural food source. If the cualerpa does release seeds or whatever it is that is bad for the tank how can I prevent or how can I remove the bad "stuff". Will a skimmer cure the problem???

Any help would greatly be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[JamesBryan]

I load my tanks with it personally. I have a lot of grazers too. I just trim it back and feed it to something. Red dulce, red ogo, C. prolifera several types of grape caulerpa, these seem to be the most palatable to my crew.

 

[chrisstie]

You'd have to put a whole lot in for them to not eat it all in a frenzy get it to grow and be established or have it in a sump somewhere.

The right species I'd think would be fine but ther are many other invasive types that are unwanted

 

[yukonblizzard]

Thanks for the help.

What would be some good species to keep as a food source for my tangs??

What if I made an acrylic box with holes in it large enough for the tangs to graze the leaves that grew through?? Would that work?

 

[TikiDan]

i planted my 120 seahorse tank with c. prolifera. I dont think it will actually grow fast enough to support the tangs though. i just think it looks good as a decoration

 

[yukonblizzard]

That looks really cool Dan:thumbsup:

 

[chrisstie]

Theres a stalk that grows red bubbles, forget the name of it, tangs LOVE it.

I had an invasive type of caulerpa my tang ate to clear up but I"m not really a macro expert so I wouldn't know what to suggest, jusat check out the other threads in this forum related to tangs maybe?

 

[yukonblizzard]

Thanks for all the help,

I have one more question: If I were to let cualerpa grow in my main tank would there be a problem because I have heard that the cualerpa can crash a tank. Since I dont have corals I would like to have a planted tank. Is there any other plants that grow relatively quickly that I could plant.

 

[johnmaloney]

you would just have to keep a good lighting schedule and watch it. If it starts looking translucent, either pull it, or give it more light immediately. Other than that caulerpa can be kept easily, but there is that risk that it will go sexual. Whether it will actually crash the tank, will depend on a number of factors, mostly how big is the tank compared to the piece of caulerpa. As long as you keep up with it, it should be fine. A stable temperature is important too.

 

[yukonblizzard]

Thanks a lot John. So if I have a constant light schedual and keep an eye out for translucent leaves I should be able to keep cualerpa succesfully.

Also my lights are metal halides. Would that be sufficient for cualerpa.

 

[JamesBryan]

Excellent point johnmaloney. Some species are not tolerant of lower temps and will die off.

 

[cmsargent]

Caulerpa prolifera and taxifolia are pretty tolerant of lower temps. I kept it in my seahorse tank at around 72-74. I never had any problems with it going sexual. It didn't get high light...just pc. And lighting doesn't need to be constant I have a typical daytime lighting. It did get plenty or nutrients though so that helps. I think the bad rep of caulerpa going sexual has more to do with it being kept in low nutient reef tanks then with lighting.

Also the whole going translucent thing. Just so you know the tips will sometimes appear translucent/clear or occassionall a whole frond or two would go clear. This was a sign of iron deficiency and would clear right up when I added a bit of iron. I never personally saw caulerpa go sexual but the pics I saw the blades tuned yellowish and then white/clear before disintegaring. So if you do get some caulerpa prolifera and the tips are clear don't panic and pull it thinking it's going sexual on you.

 

[yukonblizzard]

In my 180 its preety heavly stocked with about 10 medium sized fish do you think that would provide enough nutrients??

 

[Drachs]

I've had my calupra disintegrate overnight several times. I had a bunch of it in the sump disintegrate while I was on vacation, leading to a huge hair algae outbreak.

However, as far as the main tank goes my hippo tang loves to eat it. He loves to eat it so much that it is impossible for me to grow it in my main tank.

I use cheato in my sump now