Frustration! caulerpa in display

[Catharsis70]

I have added a foxface rabbit, sea hare and lawnmower blenny over the last several weeks and not even a dent. Outside of a tear down how do I ger grape caulerpa out of my tank?

[Catharsis70]

anyone?

[alan214]

How much and what type of Caulerpa are you talking about?

You can try scrubbing the rocks it's growing on but you may need to cook or even trash the rock it's on. Caulerpa can be very hard to get rid of.

[Catharsis70]

This is the stuff I have.
http://www.forestryimages.org/images...12/1357016.jpg
Trying to remove it by hand only seems to speed the spreading. I am very worried at this point that I am gonna lose all my rock due to it. Doing a stepped up water change routine keeping nitrate and phosphate unreadable and the stuff still grows like mad. It is on every rock in the tank and even starting to choke out some coral.

[wickedfood]

I think that grazing fish tend to only eat more leafy macroalgae. I had grape caulerpa, and carefully pulled it. It all came up in a mass actually. There may have been a couple roots dug into the rock, but once they grew out a bit, I pulled them too and I haven't had a problem since. I'd wait until you've tried everything before pulling your rock.

[Catharsis70]

I have tried manual and the stuff just breaks into small peices and ends up growing in more places. After spending an hour or so a day for several days and not seeing much improvment I thought it was a losing battle.

[nano10]

What size tank are you dealing with? I've used a sailfin tang and a Scopas Tang my grape caulerpa was gone in three days.

[ssbreef]

A Naso tang will eat it.

[benray4fun]

Yellow tang and a mithrax crab did it for me..."picked it clean."

[SHB]

yellow tang is the best way to go

[ssbreef]

Yellow tang will just pick at it. Matrix wont make a diff. Naso will trust me.

[needyreefer]

I always hand pick at each rock, taking one out at a time and scrub it all real good. Anything that wont come off, I use a wire brush and break it all apart. I get off as much as I can, and then let a tang finish off any leftovers. I've found that they won't pick at the big long strands but they will definately eat small pieces.

[jimbo045]

Try a Yellow Tang, or Chevron Tang. JD

[Loralie]

What type of foxface did you add? I have a one-spot foxface in my 125 and that fish will eat ANY plant material. I got a piece of LR from a fdellow reefer that was covered in hair algea....within 3 hours it was clean. I grow 4 types of caulerpa in my fuge that I grow to specifically harvest for the foxface. When it goes into the diplay he can eat a large portion in a matter of minutes.

[cloudjockey]

Yellow tang and do not feed it for a week or so

[Reeses]

Do you have a refugium? Instead of purchasing more fish that is making your organics rise in your tank helping the caulerpa grow, why not try placing it in your fuge? This would allow it to take up the excess nutrients in your tank and get it under control (not growing in your display).

[O'Man]

I had a Blue Spotted Coral Rabittfish Siganus Corallinus & a One Spot Foxface get rid of a major grape calupera problem for me in no time. It never came back.

Sorry, can't get the pic right


http://www.reefermadness.us/images/i-Siganus_corallinus.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.reefermadness.us/RM-Fish.htm&h=74&w=91&sz=10&hl=en&start=6&tbnid=d2RQgf4jn85FCM:&tbnh=64&tbnw=79&prev=/images%3Fq%3DSiganus%2Bcorallinus%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26channel%3Ds%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-USfficial%26sa%3DG

[Sk8r]

I borrowed a purple tang for the job, but it's hit or miss as to whether they'll eat it: mine does, and doesn't bother anything else, unlike the scribbled rabbit, which took after the frogspawn. More to the point, when the fish does eat it, he will pass almost all the phosphate back into the tank. This will create successive film algae and red slime blooms---or the caulerpa will stage a comeback from the roots. The cure for this is a really overpowered skimmer. Just went through this.

[Catharsis70]

Originally posted by Reeses
Do you have a refugium? Instead of purchasing more fish that is making your organics rise in your tank helping the caulerpa grow, why not try placing it in your fuge? This would allow it to take up the excess nutrients in your tank and get it under control (not growing in your display).

I thought of that. Thats why I have been doing 25-30% water changes every weekend. Tank is 75 bare bottom with plenty of flow. about 20 gallons more in the fuge. I do have another form or caulerpa in the fuge and its no contest. The grape stuff keeps going and the stuff in the fuge barely grows.

[Catharsis70]

Originally posted by Sk8r
I borrowed a purple tang for the job, but it's hit or miss as to whether they'll eat it: mine does, and doesn't bother anything else, unlike the scribbled rabbit, which took after the frogspawn. More to the point, when the fish does eat it, he will pass almost all the phosphate back into the tank. This will create successive film algae and red slime blooms---or the caulerpa will stage a comeback from the roots. The cure for this is a really overpowered skimmer. Just went through this.

My skimmer is up to the job I think. Maybe not though... its an ASM G1-X. Gate valve and feed pump mod. Running dual sedra 3000 needle wheels as recirc. I got a yellow tang on loan that is a confirmed grape caulerpa eater so I hope between the one spot and tang I might see some improvement. Is 25-30% water change a week on a 75 enough to keep up with the excess nutrients?

[Sk8r]

It should be 0k at 20%: just run the daylights out of that skimmer while he noshes, and be very careful about feeding dry pellet, which is algae-fuel: it's got a very high phosphate content, and it's much better to be using frozen food, imhe. WIth that fish and the skimmer, you should be on your way to getting the better of it. With no phosphate to feed it and no chance to put up a tendril for months, the stuff has got to DIE. At least I hope so.

[tang named junkyard]

i have a blue and a yellow. I use to throw gobs of that stuff in and it wouldn't last more than a couple days. Foxface wont eat it like a blue and yellow tang will.