What to do with Calerpa?

[clownfish4life]

Okay, I bought some calerpa. I added it to my sump/fuge. Now what?
It floats around near the top of the water, so my question is do I just leave it to it's own devices or should I weight it down (near and/or in) the mineral mud.
Didn't bother to ask the Local Reef Specialist. Just asked for a large wad of it and brought it home.
And FIY, it is long and thin and tubular, and had little balls in clumps. I think it's called Grape Calerpa?
Jessica

 

[slammy16]

i would try to weight it down with something rubberband to a piece of LR or something. Once its rooted down it spreads fast. I have regular calurpa i think it just kinda looks like grass. My LFS gave me a clump i stuck it down in the mud and it took off like wild fire.

 

[mudplayerx]

It grows much better on live rock than it does on substrate. Get yourself a chunk of live or base rock and either wedge the caulerpa into it or affix it with a rubberband.
Make sure you check on the caulerpa every few days. It grows extremely quickly and sporulates often. You want to avoid the sporulation entirely. You can do this by trimming and pruning the plant. Whenever you see a branch that is translucent, trim it off and discard it.

 

[trainfever]

MUD, what do you mean by sporulates? I have some grape calerpa and I noticed that the ends are pointed and translucent. What does that mean?

 

[clownfish4life]

I have Live Rock Rubble in the refuge area, thus I will strap down the Macroalgae and keep an eye on it. Thanks guys. :cheer:

 

[mudplayerx]

Sporulation is when the plant turns transparent and liquifies. When the tissue breaks, millions of caulerpa spores are released into your tank. Its not a big deal unless you have tons of sporulation, but it can cloud the water a bit.
You only need to prune the stalks with the "grapes" on them if they are translucent. The ends on the root structure will almost always be transparent. Hope this helps. I have grape caulerpa in my main tank. It is great because on the left side of my tank I have a massive galaxea coral that will kill anything I put near it, but it doesn't hurt the caulerpa. The grape caulerpa is an excellent space filler around aggressive corals.

 

[hispaniola]

So it's ok if I put caulerpa and other plants in the main tank? By the by, what is this mud I keep reading about?
Thanks.