My caulerpa is turnig white!!!

[junglejim83]

I just came home from buying a new peice of leather coral and i looked in my refug and my caulerpa is turnig white, whats up. I remember hearing this is bad could you tell me whats up. For now i think I'm gonna take it out of the tankand put it in another on for now. what should i do?

[second2n0ne]

Caulerpa turns white when it dies...at least feather caulerpa does. My experience is to remove it and save as much of the green stuff as possible. The green parts will regenerate. When caulerpa dies in mass, you may want to start checking water levels as caulerpa is extremely hardy. HTH

[Guest LudavicoTechnique]

Save what you can and get the rest out before you tank suffers.

[tinyreef]

remove the discolored caulerpa. have you been trimming back your caulerpa? if not the algae sometimes responds by spawning/sporing. it basically releases its insides to spread elsewhere.

 

if you do not see a reaction in your other livestock to the current conditions i would guess it was spawning. if they're also ready to keel over then you've got issues.

[Toyfreek]

Calupera Goes White/Clear as a last ditch effort to survive.

It is called "going Asexual" Basically it is using all of its remaining energy to produce and release spores along with any usefull nutrients to the surrounding water in hopes that some will survive where it is less demanding to live. This is quite common in using Calupera as a means of nutrient export as sooner or later it outgrows the nutrients in the water. IMO the best course of action is to remove all that is clear from your sump and do several 10-15% water changes over the next few days.

HTH,

Toy

[pulpsmack]

Aside from the above mentioned (all true there) it also helps tremendously to acclimate caulerpa as if it was a coral. I have had calerpa die from a transfer of 20 feet. After a few failures I tried better acclimation techniques and the tank seeded with ease.

[chufa]

Parts of my grape caulerpa turn white when I check the tank at sunrise after it has been dark all night. But later when I come back from work, they are all bright green. It is also noticeably growing. is this normal?

[Toyfreek]

I have noticed in some systems that is the case I would not worry unless it goes totally white/clear. Normal variation in color due to peak photosynthisis would be expected, however it could also be that the Calupera in question is trying hard to survive and using it's stored nutrients as an energy source, that could lead to a final "asexual" effort to survive. I would just continue to watch it closely.

HTH,

Toy

[mxpro32]

my girlfriends tank had little pieces turning white here and there and i didnt think anything of it. then a few days ago it all went asexual and turned the whole tank cloudy green. what was left behind was white and looked like the little pieces from before. personally i dont trust caulerpa anymore. if pieces of it are turning white i would take it out. it caused her clownfish to die. never again.