A bit of caulerpa in my fuge - need I worry?

So a buddy of mine gave me a clump of mostly chaeto for my fuge but it appears there was some caulerpa in there as well as I can see shoots taking off now after a few weeks.

It is some variation of caulerpa that is mostly stalk if I am saying that right - that is - there are not many grapes on it. A variation of grape caulerpa I guess.

My refugium : http://www.3reef.com/forums/i-made/battery-box-gravity-fed-refugium-diy-fun-85163.html

My refugium is a bit different that most as it is gravity fed from an overflow and dumps into the main sump.

The sump pump has a sponge pre-filter.

My lighting on my fuge is on 14 hours a day about I believe, with slight overlap with display tank light.

MY QUESTION...

Should I worry about this caulerpa with this setup and light schedule? What I mean is... is there a chance of it spreading to the main tank by going asexual or whatever that term is that applies here? Or would the sump pre-filter prevent that?

Thanks in advance,


matt

 

ahh :-/ personally Matt, I would rather be safe than sorry. So your giving up a little bit of algae to prevent a possible whole tank catastrophe... not a big loss IMO!
besides, the chaeto will do just fine for nutrient export.

 

If it goes sexual it will remove the oxygen from your tank. Keep it thinned and remove any of it that is white or turning white.

 

How does it remove the oxygen from my tank?

 

Matt,
it's not usually a problem as long as its just a little mixed into your chateo bunch. Most people that have had problems with it going sexual used it exclusivly in their sumps and then had water parameter issues that caused the caulerpa to go asexual as a defensive survival measure.
keep it trimmed so it doesn't overtake the chateo and you should be fine.
As for it depleting the oxogen when it goes asexual its part of a chemical reaction I believe, I have also heard running carbon will minimize the effect and quickly clear it from the tank.

 

Thanks Telgar - I do run a unit of chemi-pure in my sump. I will noodle on this...

 

It puts out so many gametes and they deteriorate rapidly creating a lot of waste which the bacteria then goes into a population explosion removing the oxygen to break down the dead caulerpa.

 

We run caulerpa in our fuge. Always have always will. If you keep it pruned you won't have any problems. We just yank out a few handfuls every month or so. We don't cut it, we use a spaghetti spoon to pull it out.

 

i just found some in my fuge as well.

http://www.3reef.com/forums/general-reef-topics/found-hard-capulse-cheato-id-87869.html

im not to worried about it. i do run reverse photo period (which i think its what you want with calpura, but dont hold me to that).

i was thinking about the possiblilty of any of the algae in my fuge going sexual and "sucking" the oxygen out, i would think do to the relativly small volume fo the fuge compared to tank/sump an addition to the low flow rate that i would be ok. even if something decided to go nuts.

 

Matt, I think the issue with it wiping out tanks is more myth than fact. I have never seen it completely wipe out a system or even come close to it. Like amcarrig said earlier, she and tangster use it without any issues at all.