Green grape caulerpa spawning

[Diana]

Did anyone else in Vancouver have thier green grape caulerpa spawn today? I woke up to both my tanks spawning


Just curious

-Diana

[WWWD]

do you mean your caulerpa went sexual? if so id start waterchanging before your tank crashes.

[Diana]

I guess so.... some of it started excreting its reproductive juices Kinda like slime coming out of the balls.... haha. Sounds bad doesnt it?

Looks like the skimmer took it all out cus there isnt any of it in the water column anymore (its only a 20 gallon tank). Everything looks perfectly fine?

In my 5 gallon empty quarentine though its still really cloudy. I dont have anything in there except live rock and macro algae, and an aqua clear filter so there is no skimmer to remove the crap.

In the wild I've heard of 'mass spawnings' being triggered by phases of the moon, and since the stuff in both my tanks 'went sexual' at the same time I thought maybe some other people had it happen too.

I guess when you have lots of macro it happens pretty freqently.... though this is my first witness.



-Diana

[Diana]

I did a little more reading up on it 'going sexual' and everything seems fine. Crashes apparently only happen when you get all your macro dying off, thus no more nutrient export... thus a major change in your tank chemistry and therefore a crash. But that would require all or most of my macro to die off, and only about 10% of it 'went sexual' and turned white. I guess I should remove the dead stuff? Thank god cus that caulerpa was starting to take over my tank hehe. Which is probebly why it went sexual in the first place?




Here's a good link to a discussion if anyone's interested: http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_pos...649&PN=3&TPN=2


-Diana

[WWWD]

you can avoid your caulerpa from going sexual by lighting it 24/7 and keeping it pruned regularly. ive read of some nightmares with people having caulpera go sexual and wiping out whole tanks, that’s why most people these days only grow cheato or keep caulepra in a fuge permanently lit and pruned way back.

[Diana]

I've actually heard of that happening before too, especially with halimeda. I was pretty worried at first but when it all cleared up and everything was normal then I could relax

Its all in my main tank, I dont have the space right now for a separate fuge on it, as much as I'd love to.

I guess if it all went sexual and died at once then I would have a problem... but everything is perfectly normal.

Kinda neat to see stuff like that happen in your own tank, hehe.

[deacon hemp]

[quote="Diana"]I've actually heard of that happening before too,
Damn grape caulerpa......

I havent heard of this.....its happened to me! be carefull it will happen again if you dont prune it every week,my tank skimmed it out the first time but it happens and in the third time in a month it wiped out my tank! i managed to save a few corals and a big BTA but my clown pair died along with a few good colonies!

I love your tank diana,ive even linked it to ppl that want to see an awesome planted tank,but you shouldnt take it lightly when this happens. Be ready for quick wc's.

My 2 cents.

[Diana]

Yeah I was ready for it, first thing, but after seeing my skimmer take most of it out I decided it might do more harm than good.

Someone warned me about halimeda going sexual before so I kept an eye peeled for it....

I watch my tank so diligently you have no idea... not one single thing happens without me noticing it (im sure we are all like that ). I even noticed the caulerpa 'twigs' stick out the day before it 'went sexual', but I had no clue what they were (which now I know for future reference).

I love all the macro in there but your right its gotta be constantly harvested. Especially that grape .

-Diana

[untamed]

I grow both grape and halimeda in my main tank and they both "go off" fairly often. I have yet to experience sides effects, so maybe my skimmer handles it.

It is also my experience that you can't "catch it". I think that the total event completes within 6 hours. You would have to be right on the ball to get it in mid change and even then I don't think you could stop the chemical signal that is causing it. (whatever that may be...)

I usually lose 80+% of the algae each time. My algae is grown only for decorative purpose and isn't critical to filtration like it might be in a refugium.