What is this? Help! Please.

[KyleB]

Hi,
I have had my 60 gal tank set up for about a year now. Currently everything tests fine but last month this started growing. Can anyone tell me what it is. I also checked it today and the tank checks fine. I just do not know what it is and if it is something I need to fix now or just buy a tang and it will eat it. I'm looking to start adding more fish, currently I just have 2 clowns.

 

[jminick2]

hard to tell but looks like a macro algae, its not a bad thing and most algae eaters will eat it

 

[KyleB]

It looks almost like a cluster of little lily pads. I know it's a little hard to see in the photo, sorry.

 

[thegrun]

A better picture would help us ID the algae, but i would be concerned that it is an invasive variety, so if possible I would try to manually remove it. Taking the rock out of the tank and using tweezers would be best if you can. You could also cover the area with a thick kalk paste.

 

[Sk8r]

THat looks very much like caulerpa, and that is really bad news. It can take a tank, no fish that can live in a 60 will eat it, (it's toxic to most fishes) and it reproduces like crazy. My best advice is to buy a bottle of hydrogen peroxide from the drugstore, delicately remove that rock, no matter what you have to unbuild to get it, pull the stuff off, scrub the area with a toothbrush, then set that area of the rock side-down in a bowl of hydrogen peroxide for 30 seconds. Rinse that side lightly in a little discard saltwater, replace it in your tank with the problem side down if you can possibly manage to orient it that way. Keep it so you can remove it and repeat the procedure if it reappears. There will be bubbles (oxygen) from the hydrogen peroxide. Don't worry about those but don't let them hit a coral.

That should do it. That procedure will kill caulerpa to the roots, also halimeda, xenia, and probably hydroids. Rinse that toothbrush in hydrogen peroxide as well and save for future use.

I lost a tank to one sprig of that stuff if that's what it is, and no macro growing in your DT is welcome. Getting a fish to eat it doesn't solve it, because the roots remain and the stuff reproduces like mad from any fragment that may fall. Or from its spores. Nasty, nasty stuff.

 

[jminick2]

What is this? Help! Please.

THat looks very much like caulerpa, and that is really bad news. It can take a tank, no fish that can live in a 60 will eat it, (it's toxic to most fishes) and it reproduces like crazy. My best advice is to buy a bottle of hydrogen peroxide from the drugstore, delicately remove that rock, no matter what you have to unbuild to get it, pull the stuff off, scrub the area with a toothbrush, then set that area of the rock side-down in a bowl of hydrogen peroxide for 30 seconds. Rinse that side lightly in a little discard saltwater, replace it in your tank with the problem side down if you can possibly manage to orient it that way. Keep it so you can remove it and repeat the procedure if it reappears. There will be bubbles (oxygen) from the hydrogen peroxide. Don't worry about those but don't let them hit a coral.

That should do it. That procedure will kill caulerpa to the roots, also halimeda, xenia, and probably hydroids. Rinse that toothbrush in hydrogen peroxide as well and save for future use.

I lost a tank to one sprig of that stuff if that's what it is, and no macro growing in your DT is welcome. Getting a fish to eat it doesn't solve it, because the roots remain and the stuff reproduces like mad from any fragment that may fall. Or from its spores. Nasty, nasty stuff.

Are there multiple types of caulerpa? Also would you recommend it for a sump?


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[C.Eymann]

Sk8tr is right, and yes there are many species of the genus, yours is Caulerpa racemosa I believe.

 

[Sk8r]

Horrors no, not for a fuge, sump, or any application. It's illegal in California, for good reason, it's a serious problem in the Mediterranean, and it's a plague for small tanks that can't accommodate a 10" potential attitudinal and poisonous rabbitfish, which is one of the predators on the stuff. If that stuff spreads in your rockwork, (and it can get through pumps, travel on nets, etc) it's terrible. By personal experience, I rate it a worse incidence than ich. If you get it early and fix that rock as above, you can get rid of it, but if it spreads, all the rock is toast.

 

[Bent]

x2 racemosa

Nuke it before it nukes you.

 

[C.Eymann]

While it is very invasive like Sk8tr mentioned, it was actually considered the sign of a healthy tank back in the 80s :lmao: These days it is not seen as desirable, so like Sk8r mentioned kill it's roots/hold fasts if you don't want to deal with it. Bad thing is though it can go sexual and that is why I never recomend it to be kept in refugiums much less displays

 

[jminick2]

What is this? Help! Please.

What about grape caulerpa. Same idea?

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[Animagus]

It looks more like Caulerpa peltata to me. I had some of this in one of my tanks before. If you grab the end of a strand and pull on it gently sometimes you can remove quite a bit at once. GL.

 

[C.Eymann]

It looks more like Caulerpa peltata to me. I had some of this in one of my tanks before. If you grab the end of a strand and pull on it gently sometimes you can remove quite a bit at once. GL.

I was mistaken. I'll agree on C. peltata is what OP has.

 

[Sk8r]

NEver, ever, ever, ever for any caulerpa, imho. And be careful when buying cheatomorpha that they don't give you a little present of caulerpa tangled in it.

 

[KyleB]

This is a second photo I am not sure about the Caulerpa racemosa. I does and does not look like it.