When Caulerpa Strikes

What you are looking at is about 2 weeks of caulerpa growth in my display tank that I discovered shortly before MACNA. I assume it came from an external refugium I broke down last month after a year without issue oddly enough. Caulerpa in my display tank was a serious red flag. I knew I had to deal with it fast or it would take over the tank and waiting this long was dangerous. I took out the offending rock - a nice piece of Indo - and grimaced. I knew what was coming; saving the rock was futile. It was porous, textured and the caulerpa had its roots dug deep. I took it out on to the driveway and chiseled the acropora off it. Most of the caulerpa went into the freezer. Hopefully this is the end. I can always replace the rock, but the whole tank would be a bit much.


Dipping the rock in liquid nitrogen would have been a cool way to kill this caulerpa... until I found out how much a bottle of liquid nitrogen cost.

 

With a little luck and some elbow grease, I hope you were able to fight back the algae beast

 

BOOOOO!

The elimination we talked about would have been much cooler than simply freezing the rock.

I won't say no more in case you have up coming tales of When Caulerpa Strikes...

 

Aye I remember!
But by the time I got to this it was already up to the coral. Didn't think I could pull it off without killing it.
For others, I believe Mike and I were talking about flash freezing with dry ice.

matt

 

Grape caulerpa is evil. Evil I tells ya!

 

The guy at my lfs puts this in his tank for his tangs, all of his tangs demolished it, im not sure if your tank is big enough but i had a mata juvi and he wrecked the stuff, my yellow tang also loved it, if your looking for a natural approach id give it a shot on the left over stuff, once the grapes are gone, the root turns clear and releases floats around the tank and just pick it out

 

So many times I have been tempted to put it in the sump or just a small piece in the tank. It is a very attractive algae IMO.

It is something you certainly can not turn your back on when you see it start in a display.

Good thing you caught it early before it's wicked tendrils spreed to neighboring pieces of rock, what a nightmare that would have been.

 

Saltwater Aquarium Invertebrates for Marine Reef Aquariums: Pincushion Urchin, Hairy Colored

 

Yes, my tangs love that stuff too.

 

Calurpa took over my tank too.every week or so i take a few pounds out lol