? for John Maloney about Caulerpa

[hazmat]

I want to move all my corals into a QT tank because the caulerpa has overtaken half my tank. I want to prevent transferring any of it into the new tank when the time comes to put the corals in the 90 gallon.

 

Is there ANYTHING I can do (dips etc) to kill off any caulerpa that might be on a frag?? I know visually to remove it. But I have heard that even one tiny piece of it can get it going again. What is really sad is that I have some pretty nice paly colonies that have the caulerpa totally intertwined around them. That stuff is the shizzle if I may say so!!!!

 

Thanks for any help!!

[w1dude]

I want to move all my corals into a QT tank because the caulerpa has overtaken half my tank. I want to prevent transferring any of it into the new tank when the time comes to put the corals in the 90 gallon.

 

Is there ANYTHING I can do (dips etc) to kill off any caulerpa that might be on a frag?? I know visually to remove it. But I have heard that even one tiny piece of it can get it going again. What is really sad is that I have some pretty nice paly colonies that have the caulerpa totally intertwined around them. That stuff is the shizzle if I may say so!!!!

 

Thanks for any help!!

Ive heard to you dip you stuff in RO and your hands in tap water every time you go from bad tank to QT. I am not sure this method is right. But I have heard it works!

[hazmat]

Ive heard to you dip you stuff in RO and your hands in tap water every time you go from bad tank to QT. I am not sure this method is right. But I have heard it works!

 

I was wondering if freshwater would kill it. I could FW dip all the corals before putting them in the QT. It would stress them some. I think I would shoot myself if caulerpa started in my new tank!!

 

Thanks for the help!

[johnmaloney]

fw won't do much, caulerpa is regularly exposed at low tide in many spots and can handle fw better than the inverts on your live rock. Manually remove all you can, add emerald crab or sea hare. I had some minor luck with breeding some sea hares recently and they eat a lot of caulerpa for the small size they are. In a 90 gallon you could get away with a 3 inch flying sea hare that can take down a handful every week. If you have desirable edible macros you will want to refuge them from the hares though. Tell me more about the current tank and the future one. Not every tank is good for hares, emeralds might be a better pick for you. Hoaw many handful size clumps approx. are there if you could ball it up? (After aggressive manual removal)

[hazmat]

fw won't do much, caulerpa is regularly exposed at low tide in many spots and can handle fw better than the inverts on your live rock. Manually remove all you can, add emerald crab or sea hare. I had some minor luck with breeding some sea hares recently and they eat a lot of caulerpa for the small size they are. In a 90 gallon you could get away with a 3 inch flying sea hare that can take down a handful every week. If you have desirable edible macros you will want to refuge them from the hares though. Tell me more about the current tank and the future one. Not every tank is good for hares, emeralds might be a better pick for you. Hoaw many handful size clumps approx. are there if you could ball it up? (After aggressive manual removal)

 

Thanks for responding John!

 

The current tank is a RSM. I'm not going to do anything there as I will be tearing it down when the 90 gallon is cycled. But I would say that I have one rock that is 12"x6" and is COVERED. It's coming out of every hole in the rock (its a very porous rock). I've been trying to pull some out to keep it away from some corals but it's a losing battle. I also have a big tuft of fern caulerpa that I can pull out and by the next day it's back just as big. Really unbelievable!!

I want to make sure I don't transfer it to the 90 gallon on the corals. That's why I was asking if there was anything I could do to make sure not one iota of it gets past me. Some of my corals will get lost as there is too much wound around them. I'm just not going to risk putting those in the 90 gallon.

 

So it sounds like all I can do is visually make sure it's all off. And I'm SOL if there are any spores that stick to the corals??

[johnmaloney]

kill it off and wait a few weeks. If caulerpa is there it should be visible within that time. Messing with its light helps unless it is the creeping variations of caulerpa racemosa. That stuff can survive a nuclear winter it seems.

[hazmat]

kill it off and wait a few weeks. If caulerpa is there it should be visible within that time. Messing with its light helps unless it is the creeping variations of caulerpa racemosa. That stuff can survive a nuclear winter it seems.

 

Oh great....cause that's what you said it was last time I posted a picture

[BlackSumbel]

Trim/pull it down as far as you can. Continue to pull every bit you see and invest in a macro-eater of some kind. It won't get rid of ALL of it, FOREVER,on the "infected" rocks but it will clear it off enough that you can frag off parts of the colony and re-establish it without introducing the macro.

[johnmaloney]

After an aggressive manual removal (the less dead junk the better) and some lights off the problem will go away. Emerald crabs will help too, but I like the qt idea, hate to see infected corals if you have the qt option. always the best way with a pest. Light deprivation will fill it, run carbon the caulerpa will cloud the tank.