grape calerpa in fuge dieing?

[mthedude]

Hello all, I just got my fuge setup last week and was unable to find chaeto anywhere near me so I decided to go with Grape Calerpa with my light on 24/7. I bought a nice big chunk of it from my LFS who had it in thier display aquarium under MH lighting. I've been going to this store for quite some time and the calerpa has always been near the top of this tank. I added it to my fuge which has small peices of LR on top of about 2-4 inches of live sand from my display. I bought a PC halogen flood light at home depot that is rated at 65 watts and it's about 8-10 inches above the surface. The thing I noticed within 1 day of adding the calerpa to my fuge, the little "balls" or grapes that are nearest the light are turning yellow. The calrepa is floating on top so I decided to anchor some of it w/the rock to keep more of it under water. There are still some grapes turning yellow under the light but moving from MH to a 65 watt flourecent shouldn't cause it to burn should it? Any ideas?

 

[mthedude]

just an update, I got home last night to find the brilliant green color of the grape calerpa had turned into a darker brownish green and it was more mushy than crispy. I looked even closer and some of it looked like it was disolving so I put a filter pad before the pump to block all the spores I could from getting into the main tank. Is this normal and will it recover from this?

 

[hmott]

Sorry to hear that, grape caulerpa does do well in my tank either. I had a large dye-off when I got it and its starting to come around a little now, after about 6-8 months. Sorry I can't be any help.

 

[mthedude]

when it "melts" is it something that is going to cause me headaches or will it eventually come back to be beneficial again?

 

[2Rockstar]

Any calurepa is doing better when the roots are in either sand or crushed coral. Crushed coral is even better than sand. From my own observation.

 

[mthedude]

what I decided was to keep all the good sprigs I could find and put those in the sand and toss the rest of the clumps that were turning into slime. Seem to be ok now but I only have about 1% of the volume I started with.