Neomeris control

[LockeOak]

So I have a sprout or two of what appear to be Neomeris, based on Melev's ID page. One came in on a snail (still attached to the shell) and is growing slowly. I admit it looks cool, but is Neomeris an alga that I need to worry about controlling at some point in the future if it becomes established? If it grows slowly enough and in large enough "individuals" that it can be easily plucked off the rocks if necessary that's not a problem.

 

[Plantbrain]

It took some time, but I saws it take over a 450 Gal reef.
It's a nice plant etc, but can turn weedy, much like anything that grows (too)well. He had it in his sump also. Likes the normal reef water and will grow well with Alk, high light and Ca.

It's still a fairly slow grower over all in most tanks.


Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[LockeOak]

Thanks Tom! I'll just let it go at the moment, it probably won't live too long considering it's wandering around on the back of a snail at the moment. If it becomes more abundant I'll move it to my "experimental" (read: random stuff) 2.5G tank.

 

[Divedog]

You may want to keep a close eye on it. A friend of mine has been fighting it and losing for going on 3 years. See the photo if you are curious to what it can do. This is a 240 gal. This algae has almost driven my friend out of the hobby because he/we can not figure out how to kill it off. The only thing that has worked is by putting a Naso vlamingii tang in the tank before it takes over. It is on the verge of taking over again which has been only 6 months since he tore down the tank, sterilized everything, and started over.

I placed a few frags of softies in my tank from his and ended up with "a few sprouts." Over time it progressed and before it got out of control I added a Naso vlamingii tang. It has since been eaten and has not had a chance to get established.

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/11194new_tank_in_green.jpg