Grape Caulerpa Taking Over!

apeks

apeks

New Member
Okay I've been fighting the longest war with grape caulerpa algae ever since I voluntarily introduced it (dumb mistake I'll always regret). Anyways, I was hoping to see if anybody has found any means of getting rid of it. I'm more aimed at getting a fish or invertebrate that is reef safe which will eat it rather than a chemical means but if thats what it takes, then thats it.
If anyone has had any experience with this algae and know its weaknesses, let me know plz. I must exploit them!

Grape Caulerpa:

http://www.reefcorner.com/images/GrapeCaulerpa.jpg
 
hagfish

hagfish

Active Member
At least you should have low nitrates

I don't know much about what eats it or kills it. I would just yank as much as you can off by hand. You should be able to remove most of it that way and just have to yank a little here and there after that. But as with any algae it needs nitrates and/or phosphates to feed (and light). So keeping nutrients to a minimum will help dramatically. Treat it just like hair algae or any other nuisance algae.
 
fishrfriends

fishrfriends

Member
I have the exact same problem ... I tried ripping most of it out, but that caused a bloom of other disgusting things like hair algae and some brown stuff. Now I'm trying less food, less light, and taking it out bit by bit so the other stuff doesn't get out of control. Like everything else - baby steps. By the way - I added a Hippo tang and he eats the feather caulerpa but not much of the grape caulerpa.
 
babyb

babyb

Active Member
is it growing on all the rocks or just one or two, if on one you could take it out idk here you can bag it and take it to lfs but i would be glad to take some off your hands my tang would love it
 
crox

crox

Active Member
Originally Posted by BabyB
is it growing on all the rocks or just one or two, if on one you could take it out idk here you can bag it and take it to lfs but i would be glad to take some off your hands my tang would love it

I ask for it FIRST!!! LOL
 
celacanthr

celacanthr

Active Member
Well, the best way to get rid of it, or at least slow its growing down is getting rid of all your nitrates. Not really easy though...
 
apeks

apeks

New Member
ya its been a nuisance and i have been just taking it out by hand. several times i have taken out all the rocks and inspected them for any trace of the algae, but somehow it always manages to come back. :mad:
so i was just hoping if there was an 'easy button' for this nuisance
 
apeks

apeks

New Member
Originally Posted by bozfamily
how big is your tank? tangs love it

its a 12g JBJ nano cube... thats a no go on the tang unfortunately
 
jdboy

jdboy

Member
I've had this problem for a while now as well. I bought a tang with hopes that it would help with no avial. At least I got a nice fish out of it!
I picked out a 1g bucket full the other day and low and behold I've got a diatom bloom on my sand.
I agree with what was said above, baby steps. I've also been trying to convert my sump to a refugium (make shift at the moment) and put what I've pulled out of the DT into the sump to help with nutirents.
 
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