ProFlatlander15 Posted January 18, 2005 Share Posted January 18, 2005 how do you guys get rid of caulepra in your display? its starting to surround my zoos... Quote Link to comment
ProFlatlander15 Posted January 18, 2005 Author Share Posted January 18, 2005 thats what im doin, i was hoping for a more permanent solution tho....but thanks fishy Quote Link to comment
youngandstupid Posted January 18, 2005 Share Posted January 18, 2005 I believe that turbo snails eat macro algae Quote Link to comment
Travis Posted January 18, 2005 Share Posted January 18, 2005 I also have heard that turbos eat Macro algae. Quote Link to comment
yoshiod9 Posted January 18, 2005 Share Posted January 18, 2005 none of my turbos ever ate the caulerpa racemosa(grape caulerpa) or the chaetomorpha. if they do it for you, awesome! if not, easiest thing to do is just get your hand in there and rip it out. just rip out as much as you can and try to be thorough about it. don't leave pieces on the rock or let any pieces float away. hth. Quote Link to comment
Pinchy Posted January 18, 2005 Share Posted January 18, 2005 your stuck; sorry to break it to ya- pruning will not get rid of your problem; caulerpa is the WORST possible addition to any marine aquarium unless you wish to harvest it in a controlled environment where corals will not be suffocated...my suggestion? rip out all of your rocks and soak them in copper sulfate... but your not alone- my customers sometimes make the mistake of adding it to their tank- but man are they sorry after this algea shows its angry face; also it happens unintentionally- like someone buys a coral with a some algae on it, or sometimes a piece flows through from the fuge to the display- heh, sh*t happens.. Quote Link to comment
yodahart Posted January 18, 2005 Share Posted January 18, 2005 I've heard of some emerald crabs eating calurpa. Get a couple of them and hope that atleast one likes the taste. Quote Link to comment
748S911 Posted January 18, 2005 Share Posted January 18, 2005 i got the same problem, its such a pain in the a**!!!! do the lawn mower gobbies eat that stuff up????? or any other gobbies?? Quote Link to comment
Pinchy Posted January 18, 2005 Share Posted January 18, 2005 i have yet to see emerald's touch caulerpa; and no gobies come to mind that can consume it- some people just get tangs to eat it up for them- but it takes a while and in the end your stuck with a herbivore that you always have to provide for... Quote Link to comment
bowfront26 Posted January 18, 2005 Share Posted January 18, 2005 I had culpera growing everywhere in my tank. One day I just got sick of it and went all out. I took out the rock and cleaned all the roots off and it never came back. I also had a yellow tang, but I never saw him touch the stuff... so give it a try. good luck. Quote Link to comment
ebin Posted January 18, 2005 Share Posted January 18, 2005 Hmmm well I just threw some macro alge in my 2.5 gallon urchin tank cause i herd that urchins love it. hope it dosen't become a problem. Quote Link to comment
fishy610 Posted January 18, 2005 Share Posted January 18, 2005 Macro algae is GOOD, as it uses up nutrients that would encourage micro algae (the bad, ugly kind) to grow. If it grows too quickly, prune it down. 1 Quote Link to comment
SpitfireMk24 Posted January 18, 2005 Share Posted January 18, 2005 I just got a bunch last week and put it in my tank. . . I think I may have broken it into too many peices or something, but lately it has been losing color slowly, and then it became all clear with dark green spots. I left it in the tank, however, until this morning, when all the clear peices started spontaneously oozing chloriform into the water. I mean it was just seeping out. I stared in panick, and then yanked it out. I moved the few peices that were still green into the sand, I would like to have some in my tank to keep the micro algae down, and I dont mind trimming it. Quote Link to comment
sadsak Posted January 19, 2005 Share Posted January 19, 2005 rabbitfish eat all types of algae. i have one (a foxface), he eats almost his weight in algae a week. though most would be too large for a nano. Quote Link to comment
ProFlatlander15 Posted January 19, 2005 Author Share Posted January 19, 2005 i took the rock out and scrubbed it thoroghly today...i hope that helped...a i cannot keep many algae eating fish ina 10 gallon, and i know it is good, i have chaeto in my fuge, i just do not like caulerpa because it goes sexual Quote Link to comment
Pinchy Posted January 19, 2005 Share Posted January 19, 2005 Caulerpa is only good in a controlled sump where it cant penetrate your main display- if you keep corals in your display- the algae WILL take over and choke the corals to death, unless you like trimming which will occur as much as 3-4 times per week.. Quote Link to comment
Kai One Posted January 19, 2005 Share Posted January 19, 2005 I had some Zoanthids that had a ton of feather caulerpa that kept choking them, and I always had to prune it. Then I added grape caulerpa and some red macro (cheato? I am not sure what kind it was), and all the feather caulerpa died. I also added a more powerful skimmer. Like all algae if you can get your nutrient levels low enough, it won't be able to survive... but it is tough to do that. However, I am thinking maybe some macro algae could out compete the grape caulerpa for nutrients... but I am not sure... maybe someone knows if there is one type of macro that is so quick growing and efficient it will kill other macro because of nutrient uptake??? Quote Link to comment
ProFlatlander15 Posted January 19, 2005 Author Share Posted January 19, 2005 yeah i am running chaeto in my fuge, but it didnt seem to stop the caulerpa Quote Link to comment
knowse Posted January 19, 2005 Share Posted January 19, 2005 Originally posted by Pinchy ...my suggestion? rip out all of your rocks and soak them in copper sulfate... Your kidding right? If your not then he should just throw the rock away. Copper is a coral killer! Hell, why don't you just tell him to soak his rocks in round up. Sheesh, whata maroon;) Quote Link to comment
Pinchy Posted January 19, 2005 Share Posted January 19, 2005 you got better suggestions? thats how they nuked caulerpa of off CA coast! you can also soak them in bleach as well-that may be a safer route than copper- since copper is known to stay in water for a very long time.. Quote Link to comment
Gunthr Posted January 19, 2005 Share Posted January 19, 2005 I would never put culerpa in my display tank. I've seen it take over too many tanks, even at the LFS - forcing them to tear it down after some new employee introduced it and being unable to control it. I did note something in my own tank with chaetomorpha that may be of interest. I have a 29 gal display and a 15 refugium. I had a ball of chaeto the size of my head in the fuge, growing nicely under 100 watt incandescent grow light, and being trimmed back once a week. I decided to fill my enhiem canister filter with about a half gallon activated carbon granuals and two layers of that super-duper white filter matierial that costs about $10 for a 3" x 9" inch piece. (It adsorbs everything - dissolved oganics, metals, phosphate, nitrates, etc) In just a few weeks, my chaeto melted down to the size of a golf ball. It was not intentional. I didn't put 2 and 2 together and conclude I was starving it until most of it was gone. I learned my lesson. Maybe that coupled with light feeding could knock your culerpa back, but it seems like it would be only a temp fix without manual removal... Quote Link to comment
Tanker011 Posted January 19, 2005 Share Posted January 19, 2005 Originally posted by Pinchy you got better suggestions? thats how they nuked caulerpa of off CA coast! you can also soak them in bleach as well-that may be a safer route than copper- since copper is known to stay in water for a very long time.. Sure do, put those rocks in a rubbermaid container with a lid and a powerhead or 2 and forget about them for a while. Algae needs light to survive. If you use copper it will leach out of the rocks and KILL all invertabrates. This includes shrimp, crabs, snails and coral. Quote Link to comment
knowse Posted January 20, 2005 Share Posted January 20, 2005 Yeah, that's why I said you should have just told him to through the rock away. I wouldn't bleach my rock either. If I had this problem, I'd pull as much out by hand as I could. Then repeat as needed. Just so people know, if you continuely keep pulling it out, the plant gets tired of trying to regenerate. Works with weeds in the garden too. Quote Link to comment
ProFlatlander15 Posted January 20, 2005 Author Share Posted January 20, 2005 i scrubbed the rock til no end, thinking i had removed it all. i placed it in the tank, and saw a kind of 'white skeleton' of where the plant used to be, kind of like as if all the chlorophyll had been scrubbed out but the plant was still there....i have no idea if it is dead or what, i guess ill just wait Quote Link to comment
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