sassyfrassy
New member
I have grape calerpa in my DT which is sorta like a jungle, but the fish seem to like it - is there any problem w/it other than nuisance to control?
grape calerpa
- Thread starter sassyfrassy
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eventually this stuff will get into your rocks and will take over the whole tank and your tank will become like a planted tank. They will grow over the corals to compete for light and sooner or later the corals die. There's also the chance that this stuff will go asexual and release the nutrients back into your tank and make the water dirty
sassyfrassy
New member
YES< YES< YES caulerpa has over-run tank!!! So what would be the procedure to "restart" a tank? Is there any reason to remove sand - watchman keeps it sifted & cleaned. What about this -remove all rocks to storage container, vacuum surface of sand, remove water to depth of a few inches (to go over rocks) & replace w/fresh SW mix in DT - then filter water w/HOT Magnum w/ sleeve or charcoal basket? Do fish remain in DT during all this? Will this drastic water change in DT hurt them? How to clean caulerpa off rocks? What fish/creature will eat caulerpa after restart tank, and some caulerpa starts to grow back? Lots of questions I know - need lots of advice. Thanks
if you have caulerpa in a tank under 75 gallons, the ONLY way to rid yourself of it is simple: take rock by rock and pull it out as much as you can, and also get it out of your sump. Run a GFO (Phosban) reactor. Every week at first, you'll have to disassemble the rockwork and pull it out. Eventually you get down to once in a while. But probably with those rocks you will occasionally have to pull out a strand of caulerpa until the heat death of the universe. How do I know? I have the stuff, which is an absolute plague.
the downsides of caulerpa: toxic to most fish and inverts. The only fish that do eat it are inappropriate for under 100 gallons and will kill your smaller fish. And if subjected to stressful conditions, it will spore, turning your water cloudy and killing everything in the tank. It reproduces by: fragmentation, spores, runners, roots, and is illegal to discard in California.
the downsides of caulerpa: toxic to most fish and inverts. The only fish that do eat it are inappropriate for under 100 gallons and will kill your smaller fish. And if subjected to stressful conditions, it will spore, turning your water cloudy and killing everything in the tank. It reproduces by: fragmentation, spores, runners, roots, and is illegal to discard in California.
DustinB
New member
Going through this problem myself. Made a newbie mistake buying extra rock a while back when I started that had it on them. No matter how low my nutrient levels are and how much GFO I run it will not stop growing. The bad part about it is as it spreads it leaves roots in the rock. So no matter how much you prune it, as it spreads it will grow back from more and more spots, eventually being all over the tank.
Rather than fighting it anymore I'm taking the tank down, but there's other reasons that sent me over the top, such as zoa eating asterinas and red planaria. Good excuse to restart the tank in the way I wish I had a long time ago I guess.
I bought some Calerpa from the LFS because they were out of cheato. I was thinking I could grow it in the fuge and feed it to my new yellow tang. I was going to buy I didn't realize there were such horror stories out there about this macro until after I got home.
I hope my Yellow tank keeps it out of my DT! It seems that if you have tangs then they will do a good job keeping it maintained. **crosses fingers**
I hope my Yellow tank keeps it out of my DT! It seems that if you have tangs then they will do a good job keeping it maintained. **crosses fingers**
sassyfrassy
New member
on the plus side (if there can be a plus side), it actually exports nutrients better than chaeto b/c of prolific growth. My parameters are all -o-. b/c I decided to remove sand from fuge to be able to keep it cleaner, I "temporarily" put a basket of chaeto w/ A LITTLE CALERPA into DT. The "temporary" became too long due to medical issues - thus the mess I'm now in w/calerpa over-running DT & LR.
sassyfrassy
New member
will a spotted sea hare eat calerpa or do they only eat HA?
sassyfrassy
New member
Is there an algae killer product that will kill caulerpa - outside of the DT? If so will it also kill all the bacteria/pods/copods? I have a container set up w/fresh SW in which I'm trying to manually clean w/steel brush, toothbrush & nut pick, but try as I might, I can see there's no way to get all the roots. Also realize now that the caulerpa is depository for detritus - OH this tank is nasty!!! I'm placing cleaned rocks into the fuge for the moment - only have a ball of chaeto in there. Also what about a kole tang (smaller) - would it eat algae as it starts to grow back?
