feather caulerpa

[dream54ing]

does anyone know if all caulerpa crashes? i have feather caulerpa and i dont know if it would crash on me. if caulerpa does crash, why do people want to take the risk of it crashing and losing everything? it doesnt make sense to me?
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[WaGuy82]

In my opinion, with any caulerpa, there's a risk of it crashing. Keeping it in a refugium with 24/7 lighting seems to help prevent or at least stall it. I use it because it's a fast grower, serves great as nutrient export and tang food. Halimeda grows fast also. Gracillaria is also another great macroalage.

[wizardgus®]

i have feather caulerpa and i dont know if it would crash on me.

IME, I have C. mexicana (one of the feather) C. prolifera & C. racemosa in my fuge. The "feather" has been the one of the three most prone to crash.

Halimeda grows fast also. Gracillaria is also another great macroalage.

From what I've read neither of these are known to be great at nutrient export. If you want something as good (or better) than Caulerpa for nutrient export without the risk of sporulation you probably should try Chaetomorpha, (spaghetti algae)

why do people want to take the risk

It's called Extreme Reefing. Adrenalin rush! :lol:

[SeanT]

Halimeda is also a calcium hog.
Not a good macro to have IMO.

Dosing Iron, according to R.H. Farley, helps prevent them from going sexual.

[wizardgus®]

why do people want to take the risk of it crashing and losing everything?

Sorry about the joke above, couldn't resist. But this is a fair question. There are probably many reasons for people to choose Caulerpa, but it is going out of favor lately. One thing is it is very good at exporting NO3 & PO4. Which is a very good plus. Some recent sudies show that Chaetomorpha may actually exceed it at this though. For myself I have the three Caulerpas I listed above as well as Chaetomorpha. The reason I still use Caulerpa is that there is evidence that it also binds and exports heavy metals. As of yet I haven't seen anything on Chaetomorpha doing the same. Also, with proper husbandry many people do not have a problem with Caulerpa sporulating. So far I haven't gotten it dialed in that good, I've had 2 crashes in the past 6 months (caught in time) but my experience, from what I've been able to determine, is not typical. HTH