green water

[beagleton]

hello all,
i set up a small nano on dec 21. it has been sitting with only liverock and livesand until about two weeks ago when i put a large calupera into it. this morning when i turned on my lights i noticed that some of the frawns on the calupera had turned purple. i didn't think too much of it and went to work. i just got home to discover that all the water in the tank is a clowdy green color (this is very thick, i cant see from top to bottom). what could have caused this. the tank is empty other that micro-orginisms so im not to worried but at some point i would like to introduce fish. is this a problem and how can i fix it?

[garagebrian]

Sounds to me like your calupera when asexual. Was this green grape calupera or another green calupera? If this is the case, you need to remove all the calupera and do water changes to get it cleared up.

[beagleton]

i think it is green grape calupera although it doesnt really have any on the grapelike structures just fern like frawns. thanks for the tip though. if its gone asexual does this mean it is going to spread? many of its structures now seem to have gone pale white like its cloryphill emptied into the water. hope its not going to die though.

[garagebrian]

There are MANY types of calupera, the fern type one is common, but I can't remember which one it is. I'm not really sure that it will spread, I just know that goin asexual is bad for your water. Anything that has gone white will most likely die, remove it or it causes an ammonia spike. Best to do water changes too, asexual calupera really messes with your water.

Good luck!

B.

[C.Mydas]

Its Mexican 'feather 'caulerpa. If you are going to keep caulerpas in a nano you need to prune them before they go asexual. If you see a change in color of the leaves cut the leaf off and toss it. Ive never seen mine go purple they always go clear...maybe purple is the next step. I think the blade caulerpa is the easiest to keep..it is very obvious when it is about to go asexual, the leaves turn clear and it is easy to trim. Good luck, and oh yeah you definately need to do a couple of water changes.

[Instar]

White caulerpa is dead caulerpa. Remove it, change the water. Caulerpa is encouraged to go asexual from rapid changes. Some species are more prone to it than others. Trimming it regularly by pinching it back may help keep that from happening. Unless you have a lot of little filter feeders in that rock you will have to change most of the water to clean it up. Caulerpa like lots of light too. 14 hours per day to 24/7 is good for it. Less than 11 hours of light per day is risky.

[beagleton]

thanks for all the feedback. The water change seems to have helped and i cut the dead peices off. I dont intend to leave the calupera in the tank perminantly i am just using it to help cycle the tank. i read an article online by dr. borneman saying that stocking your tank with algeas in the months before introducing fish/anemones/corals can be helpfull especially in the production of pods. id never heard of that befor so i thought id give it a try. i was thinking of adding some kelp and mabey some ulva lettice. but not until i get this situation under control. thanks again for the help.