Trouble getting rid of Caulerpa nummularia in main tank
- Thread starter mauiman84
- Start date
lion_crazz
Active Member
The best way to get rid of it is just to start ripping it out. Tangs will pick at it but unless you have a voracious eater (like my vlamingi and bat were in my 210), the tang will just keep it in check and not get rid of it.
lion_crazz
Active Member
That is definitely a good way to go to get rid of the pronlem immediately. Get a tooth brush and scrub it off.
spanko
Active Member
The problem is always with the little runners that attach to the rock. The tiny ones you just can't get off will always grow back.
People are going to go crazy here but here goes::::::::::::::::
I have a 29 gallon biocube. The dreaded Caulerpa over ran my tank. I could harvest a hardball sized clump every week at water change and it would be back the next week. I was not willing to take out all of the rock and try to get the darn stuff off. I did some sporadic rocks a few times but could never get those little runner off and you could see it grow back from those.
I tried a small Scopus and a small Yellow tang. This knowing that I would take them back to the LFS as they grew to a certain size. They did not eat it!!
I now am on my third Foxface in the course of about 8 months. I buy them at about 1.5 to 2" and keep them until they get to about 3 to 3.25". By the time I take them back to the LFS they are fat and happy. They are voracious Caulerpa eaters. They have decimated the stuff in my tank to the point that I feed them Nori and other foods to supplement their diets. I think when this one gets to return size I will not get another for a while to see what happens.
Just my observations and experience trying to control this stuff. I am not advocating this to everyone however I am doing it because I know that I will take them back before they get too big.
People are going to go crazy here but here goes::::::::::::::::
I have a 29 gallon biocube. The dreaded Caulerpa over ran my tank. I could harvest a hardball sized clump every week at water change and it would be back the next week. I was not willing to take out all of the rock and try to get the darn stuff off. I did some sporadic rocks a few times but could never get those little runner off and you could see it grow back from those.
I tried a small Scopus and a small Yellow tang. This knowing that I would take them back to the LFS as they grew to a certain size. They did not eat it!!
I now am on my third Foxface in the course of about 8 months. I buy them at about 1.5 to 2" and keep them until they get to about 3 to 3.25". By the time I take them back to the LFS they are fat and happy. They are voracious Caulerpa eaters. They have decimated the stuff in my tank to the point that I feed them Nori and other foods to supplement their diets. I think when this one gets to return size I will not get another for a while to see what happens.
Just my observations and experience trying to control this stuff. I am not advocating this to everyone however I am doing it because I know that I will take them back before they get too big.
scopus tang
Active Member
If you want a more permanent cure, and you do remove all your LR, a short freshwater dip of each rock will explode the algae cells as well ~ I've never seen anything on best length of time to dip for, but it does work. Be sure a pick the rock over well before dipping to remove any inverts, and I don't think I would dip anything that has coral on it, but if you don't have a lot of coral, it may help.
scopus tang
Active Member
Originally Posted by mauiman84
http:///forum/post/2699305
That freshwater dip sounds like a good idea. Should I do this one rock at a time or is it ok to do multiple? This is in a 29g tank and i don't want have to start my tank completely over.
Its probably best to do them all at once ~ otherwise I would think that runners and spores will simply spread from your undipped rock onto the rock you've already done.
http:///forum/post/2699305
That freshwater dip sounds like a good idea. Should I do this one rock at a time or is it ok to do multiple? This is in a 29g tank and i don't want have to start my tank completely over.
Its probably best to do them all at once ~ otherwise I would think that runners and spores will simply spread from your undipped rock onto the rock you've already done.
mauiman84
Member
Today i took out all of my live rock that didn't have coral growing on it and soaked it in fresh water and then scrubbed everything clean with a tooth brush. I also picked off as much of the caulerpa left on my rocks with coral. Now that I have almost all of this crap off the rocks, is there anything i can put in there to eat at it? The tank is only 29g so i'm guessing a tang is out of the picture. I am looking at getting at least a 70g in the next 6 to 8 months also if this helps.
mauiman84
Member
so far, the freshwater soak has worked on the rock that was soaked. I still have some caulerpa stuck on some polyp rocks that is next to impossible to get off. I do however have some hair algae growing back on the soaked rocks. Would putting chaeto in the tank help with the spread of caulerpa at all?