Grape Caulerpa is evil...
 

Hi guys,

Just wondering if anyone has any experience with removing grape caulerpa from their system? some of mine got out from the refugium and has propagated itself all over my tank. I've had enough picking at the rocks with a tweezer every week. Would I just be better off selling off my rocks to someone with a larger tank and a tang?

In a refugium its fine, but once it gets on your LR & corals, yes, huge PITA. Sea hares like it, so do all sorts of herbivorous fish (tangs, rabbitfish). Maybe try a sea hare first & sell it when the job is done (always people looking for sea hares). Mine cleaned off 100lbs of LR no problem.

Anthony

Sorry to hear about that! I love mine.... in my fuge!

Unfortunately, you'll need to get some sort of critter that eats it, because they make very thin roots that can burry deep into the pores of a rock. As Anthony suggested, a searhare, or tang should do the trick.

Chris

My foxface took care of mine.

Sea hares eat it??? I need one of those cause I have a ton of it:eek:

I have read on RC that this is a SPS poison, get rid of it. The only way is to get predator or cook the rocks.

[quote]I have read on RC that this is a SPS poison, get rid of it. The only way is to get predator or cook the rocks[\quote]

No..I can't support that statement. I have a lot of grape caulerpa that grows right in my main display tank and the SPS have no problem with it at all. In fact, if it starts to grow near the SPS they are quite efficient at defending their turf by killing the caulerpa the moment it touches the coral.

The statement probably comes from the habit that caulerpa has of dying off 'enmasse' releasing all those tied up nutrients in the water all at once. I would agree that doesn't sound good, but I've experienced it many, many times and my tank has never shown any signs of distress as a result. My system is also quite small, so if there was seriously poisonous my tank would certainly show it.

Unfortunately, the caulerpa never COMPLETELY dies off in these events. Some pieces of it always survive. I would recommend that you wait for one of these events, then attempt to remove the survivors. It will be a smaller job.

I have SPS totally covered in it :confused: 2 birdnests, cactus coral and portites(not sure if this is SPS) that don't show any signs of killing each other.

.....Hmm, just as I thought I knew what caused my troubles with SPS few years back.
Luckily everything is good now.
Thanks guys.

In our very first tank, a 75g, many years ago, I made the mistake of putting some "lovely" grape caulerpa in various places in our mixed reef. Under MHs, the stuff grew like wild fire :2gunfire:

Each week, I would pull out handfuls of the stuff, only for it to grow right back! One day, I decided I'd had enough. I pulled out each rock, one by one. With tweezers, a strong light to make sure I was getting it all, and a pail for dipping the rock in to keep it moist, I carefully picked the caulerpa out by the roots, some of which were deep in crevices. It took me two full days of going over each rock to get it all out. The extreme effort was worth it. It never grew back.

Good luck with yours :smile:

a little food for thought, Grape calurpa is the most toxic form of calurpa there is.. something like 22X more toxic than the next.. when I had a problem with it about 3 years ago, I would lose a fish or some snails every time I did a harvest.. after 3 or 4 fish I put two and two together did some research and bobs you uncle.. the toxins released by the grape calurpa was killing weaker fish.

try remove it from the roots with out breaking the stems a lot.

the only way I got rid of it was by raising my tank temp to 104 for 23 hours... needless to say it got rid of everything else also.. like I have been saying for about two years now...

"friends don't let friends have calurpa"

Steve

I temporarly added a clump to my display tank untill I get my fuge up and running. Can anyone tell me why some of the branches are turning a translucent white color. It seems to be growing very well, but I've notice some of the branches turning color.

it is going sexual.. soon you will have lots all over your tank. :sad:

Steve

totally out of the thread, but did you see the national geographic (think it was them) on how caulerpa is ruining the ocean? think it was in greece and in california, it's choking out everything on the sea floor....well like coral life and that...fish probably don't care unless they need the corals for some reason....looks like huge underwater plots of astroturf...or like an underwtaer golf course

I haven't seen that but I do know that it is banned in California and a few other states in the US because of the dammage it does to the natural enviorment.. aparently it can live in fresh water also. there is one state where someone threw it into a iragation ditch and now it has become a hoge problem in the water ways.

Steve

I got to get that thing into my fuge tonight:cry:

That stuff is evil. I did exactly the same thing... I was waiting to save up for a fuge and the caulerpa took over my tank eventually....

How did you raise your temp that high for 23 hours? hmm...that is kinda tempting...either that...or boiling em...or hmm...drying em for 10 days. Heard that kills caulerpa...but kills everything else too. Hmmm... tough decision.

Anyone with a grazer in a big tank want some free rocks?

My heater broke, :sad: its not advisable as it killed everything in my tank.

Steve

I like the look of grape calurpa, but my foxface eats it all.

So if you have a grape calurpa problem, maybe try a foxface?

it is hit and miss with foxface, mine wouldn't touch it.. same as my yellow tang.

Steve

I have it in my 12g Nano (not on purpose) that I harvest-rip-pull-curse-etc etc. It is evil and will not leave. I occassionally put a rock covered in it in my 190 where my Blonde Naso Tang goes to town on it and has it picked clean in about 1/2 an hour. I then move the rock back to my Nano. This makes me a bit nervous though as my Tang is large and if that evil stuff gets a foothold in an area the Tang can't get at then I'm in trouble in my big tank. The only things that this Tang will eat are Nori - and only attached with a clip not floating - and grape calurpa.