grape (caulerpa racemosa algae) problem!!!

[digitalfanatic]

Does anyone know how to eliminate caulerpa (grape) algae other than harvesting it every 2 weeks or chemically? This algae is very annoying and time consuming to harvest! My daughter's 29 gallon reef tank has been up and running about 1 year now, and grape caulerpa algae is growing out of controll in it! I have a 90 gallon reef tank that has been established for about 8 years now, and I have never experienced grape caulerpa algae before. I have been told that a Yellow Tang will eat it but a Yellow Tang is too large for a 29 gallon tank. I will certainly NOT take the Purple Tang out of my 90 gallon tank and put it in my daughter's 29 gallon tank to clean up the grape caulerpa algae problem. I DO NOT want to use any chemicals either. HELP! Thanks in advance.
digitalfanatic

 

[ci11337]

mmm, i don't think snail/crabs eat it. maybe a emerald. I've heard foxfaces will eat it if you could find a tiny one. Or you could put the infested LR into the 90 and let your tang clean it if he will

 

[itom37]

Its growth has to do with lights and nutrients. Over-feeding may be producing a lot of nitrates for it to eat. If you don't have a lot of coral that will suffer, consider decreasing the time the lights are on.

 

[nietzsche]

yeah foxfaces and tangs eat it, but you wont fit one in there unless it was really tiny and was interested in the stuff. i have the same stuff in my 28 and its getting bad, so im going to restart with a new and larger tank but will have new rock. the only thing you can do is just keep harvesting it

 

[digitalfanatic]

I have already decreased the time that the VHO (300 Watts) lights are on in my daughter's 29 gallon reef. I am running them on digital timers (1 timer for
2 lights and 1 timer for the other 2 lights) for 8 hours now. I was running them for about 9.5 hours previously. I am afraid that if I decrease the running time of the VHO's any more, the corals in her tank will suffer. I don't know why the grape caulerpa algae is growing out of control with the lights on for 8 hours? Thanks in advance for any hints or suggestions.
digitalfanatic

 

[horsin1963]

Emeralds love it I put some in my tank for them to eat and they cleaned it up