Caulerpa Crash, Red Macro thriving

[Miko]

Hi everyone,
I have an ecosystem 40 (mud filter) hanging on the back of my 29 gallon aquarium. I had originally put into the mud filter 2 types of caulerpa about 3 months ago (razor and feather). About 1.5 months ago, my feather went sexual and I had to remove all of it. Yesterday, I woke up and the razor went sexual also, so I removed all of it as well. None of it looked normal. It was all spongy and turning transparent. So, now I am left with a mudfilter with no macro algae in it.
Meanwhile in the main tank I have this patch of red macro growing like weeds. I posted a pic.
I am starting to see patches of the red all over my tank.
Should I remove a few clumps from the main tank and try it in the mud filter, or should I just let it be and get some new caulperpa?
I think the red in the main tank won out over the caulerpa in the mudfilter for nutrients. Is this possible?
130 watts pc lighting
60lbs LR
50 lbs LS
Ecosystem 40
CPR Bakpak 2r

[piercho]

I'm sorry, but the pic does not have enough definition for me to ID that algae. A scale for size would also be useful. Maybe some one else will recognize it.

Other factors besides nutrient competition will cause caulerpa to "go sexual". Did you harvest some of the caulerpa regularly? It seems to grow faster and compete for nutrients better if you harvest it every couple of weeks. This also inhibits it from breaking down.

You don't have to use caulerpa for export. Gracillaria ("tang heaven") and Chaetomorpha ("spaghetti" algae) are often used. Your pictured algae may be useful if it grows quickly and can be controlled.

[Miko]

Thanks for the reply Piercho.
I have seen pics of "tang heaven" and I believe this algae to be just that.
I am going to try putting some of it in the mudfilter. We will see how it does. I couldn't put a bigger pic up, this was the max size it would allow.

[beefcake]

Here's a pic of tang heaven. It looks a lot different than that picture. I think you may have something else.

http://www.globaldialog.com/~jrice/algae_page/redalga1.jpg