What would you do?

[Europhyllia]

I am still struggling with caulerpa in my DT.
I seriously will take all of the bryopsis, hair algae, cyano, you name it if I could just be caulerpa free!
I just put another couple of rocks in the sump because I just can't keep up with pruning.
I will start my solid vodka dosing next weekend and would be so excited if it slowed down macro -but I'm not holding my breath... :(

So what would you do?

[FireWater]

You don't want my answer right now! LOL

[kkiel02]

Honestly I would buy a tang. I know you dont like them but mine eat most every nuisance algae I can grow. Now I am growing hair algae in my overflows just for them to eat. They eat everything from chaeto to bryopsis/ hair algae. The only thing they dont eat is the slime algaes but my turbos pick that up for them.

[sampsonndelila]

Foxface too I think

[Europhyllia]

You don't want my answer right now! LOL
Your thread is what made me even consider it. Why suffer for years to come. Maybe biting the bullet and get it over with would be the way to go?

[txg8gxp]

Yea, get a fish to help. Then you could always sell the fish cheap to another member. Alot less work then starting over.

[Double-O-Zilch]

Tangs and fox faces appear to be the only answer and from what I've seen you don't like them. Even if you get one and sell it, what would stop it from coming back? Here's a thread to make you feel better, I hope.

Crazy algae prob. (http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=88043)

[Europhyllia]

LOL. See I am worried that would be my tank if I got lazy and didn't prune for a couple of weeks...

[OrionN]

If you want biological control, urchin is the thing to use. I use to have a 120 that was full of that stuff, I took it out rock by rock and pick it clean with a tweezer. Once it was clean, I put it back but keep eye on the rock. As soon as I see any regrowth, I would do my best to get at it, even if I have to move the rock out. There will be regrowth. After several weeks, I got all of it. As long as the are not too much, the tang will pick them, but if there is significant amount in the tank, tang will not munch on them.

[Europhyllia]

I already have two tuxedos and a long spine urchin.

[Kenya]

definitely get a fish to eat it. a big lawnmower blenny should grub on it. I know at wolf reef they had 4-5" lawnmower blennys. They would have a field day on that algae.

post some pics to show us how bad it is.

[OrionN]

A long time ago back in the 80's I was trying go growth them. They were cool then. My tank was desvasteded by a pin crushing sea urchin over one long weekend. I got so mad at the urchin that I took him out. iwas going to threw him on the lawn but got to feel sory for him and took him back to Fintique in SA instead.

[RayAllen]

Im on the page with foxface. They love that stuff.

[Europhyllia]

Okay I just put my biggest trouble rock down in the sump and got another rock out from there. I guess rock rotation is my answer for now.
I have a mystery crab in the sump that cleans the rocks. I raised the crab from larvae when I purchased live mysis over the summer so I am assuming it's some kind of Florida shore crab. I just hope it doesn't hitchhike during rock rotation into the main tank.
I've already gone through the tang/foxface discussion, ruled it out but keep revisiting it. I just hate making my other fish miserable like I did when I added a tang previously.

Wish there was some slow moving critter that would eat it. I'll check out those pin cushion urchins. Seems like the only animals that would consider eating this stuff are teh ones not considered reef safe...

[NateDogg]

I would say fish... but I bet it would come back after the fish was gone. Plus, I hate having to take fish out of my tank. It always seems to be destructive. You would have to keep the fish i think:( Is it on every rock?

[Kristy]

I would: 1 AND 2, with 3 as last resort
1. keep pruning, while:
2. introducing a fish that will hopefully eat it
3. if that fails, then dedicate a day or two to removing all the rocks piece by piece and scrubbing it all off.

[Kristy]

For the fish, tang would be your best bet and even that is hit or miss. I don't think a lawnmower blenny would take care of this type of algae. I understand your concern about the tang, but the other fish might adjust and get used to it? How long did you have the yellow eye kole tang in there?

[Europhyllia]

10 days. The clown nearly died on his 3rd jump.

There are 3 or 4 large rocks that have it bad. Some rocks don't have it at all. I've been trying to prevent it from getting onto the other rocks.
One caulerpa has kind of flat leaves and easily peels off in one long strand.
The caulerpa from hell is the one with the round grape like things. It holds on tight and beaks off into tiny pieces.
Maybe I have my answer right there. I have 3 large rocks with the grape kind on it.
Perhaps if I get those 3 out I am halfway there to winning this battle I actually tried to take teh biggest one out and scrape it off and even that is impossible (brushes, tweezers, etc.)
Problem is 2 of the rocks have clams on them and I don't want to hurt the clams. Got to find a way to cut the clams off without injuring them and evict my poor little Midas blenny that moved into one of my rocks with caulerpa from hell...

[Europhyllia]

Is it on every rock?
Thanks for asking this question!
Answering that question really sort of gave me the answer to my dilemma.

Like I just said: it's not on all of the rock. The horrible grape kind is on three very large rocks but I took the biggest one out and put it in the sump (Thanks Ace for convincing me that I wanted the largest sump possible! lol)
And I really, really like the look of open space. Less is more. Plus more room for corals. ;)

So... how do I get that blenny out of that last big rock?

[Bill S]

Karin,

As much as I hate to say this, you need a grazing tang. Yellows usually aren't that aggressive...

[Europhyllia]

Noooo. No tang! lol
I'll try eliminating the trouble rocks first. But of course I have been coming back to the grazing fish thing.
I'll see how it goes with the bad rocks gone first though...

[saabtech]

all i can say is "i am sorry for you"
good luck.
will large turbo snails eat it? i have a bunch and they plowed down acres of hair algae for me.

[Third Coast Tropical]

Thanks for asking this question!


So... how do I get that blenny out of that last big rock?

Fill a large container/bucket with tank water, pull out rock and hold rock over container....point hole that blenny is in towards the container and wait....chances are it will wiggle/jump out once it realizes it isnt in water or decides it wants to be in water....If it doesnt work, place in water, wait for some time, and then try again.....

It has worked for me in the past.....

[Europhyllia]

Nope, saabtech, they won't eat it. Thanks for the idea though
I have some turbos too but they are filamentous algae eaters.
The trouble with caulerpa racemosa (the horrible grape looking kind) is that it's somewhat toxic so even some of the macro algae eaters won't touch it.
I can deal with the caulerpa nummularia. It comes off easy.
If I really can get rid of the racemosa by taking out the rocks I'll be happy as a clam!
It will dramatically change my reefscape but it would be so worth it. I had a little too much rock anyway.

TCT, thanks for the tip. Poor little blenny dude. I just got him!

[OrionN]

Move the clam from the rock is easy. Use a sharp knife or scissors and slowly rock the clam to one side just enough to expose some of the threads. Cut the ones that you see and you should be able to rock it further. Keep doing this and you get the clam out in a few minutes. Take the whole rock our of the tank make it much easier to remove the clam. Calms are hardy. They will tolerate removal from rock easy and if your clam is healthy, it re attach in a day or two.

Tang won't eat these stuff if there is a large amount of it in the tank. If you have a single strand or if you removed them and some are comming back, tang will help pick at them. I speak from personal experience here from 12 years ago. Like you I tried everyting and end up with multiple tang and fox face in a 120 g tank that would not touch the stuff. Manual removal and persistent after the initial work works for me. Tedious work removing these algae. Take the rock out and go over the surface removing everything with tweezer trying to removes bits off of it. You cannot remove them all. Some of the hold fast just dug too deep and they will send out growth again. Fish will pick at tiny new growth and your finger and tweezer (repeated) will do the rest. If you choose this route. Leave the rock with some algae on it on one side of the tank so you can get to ie easy and keep the clean rock away.

[Europhyllia]

It's done. :)
TTC you are so full of useful info. The blenny did wiggle out and already found a new hole in the DT.
The 3 racemosa rocks are in the sump (sump is FULL now).

Minh thanks so much for the tips on the clams!
Clams have been relocated and are opening up in their new locations. I actually like the new locations better -hopefully the clams will agree.

I like the new rock scape!
Should have just yanked that one rock out when the racemosa was only on one rock.

I can't believe all of this took me two full hours. But it's all done and I am feeling much better.
I can deal with the nummularia as long as the racemosa is gone.

[Big_Pun]

get a fish that will eat it, i have a sail fin that just eats everything, later you can get a fish trap shouldnt be hard to bait a tang to get in a trap, i picked other because your fish choice didnt have the trap plan, also have you tried using any hermits i have a neon blue leg one that just devours undesirable algae, i can put a rock with hair algae and it will clean it off

[hobogato]

great - glad you figured out what to do.

if i were you, i would remove those rocks from the system completely to avoid small pieces breaking off and making their way back into the dt.

[Europhyllia]

if i were you, i would remove those rocks from the system completely to avoid small pieces breaking off and making their way back into the dt.

Yeah. I was afraid of that. I hate to waste so much rock. It's about 30 pounds of primo rock. Is there any way to reclaim it? Dry it out? Put it in freshwater?

[hobogato]

you might be able to cook it. no, not in the oven :D

put it in a container with salt water, a heater and a pump and put it in an area that gets no light. once a week, take it out and wrinse it in salt water, put it in new salt water and repeat that for a couple of months. by the end of that time period, you should have bare live rock - even the coraline algae will die off.

[Still Learning]

I second or third or something the tang or rabbitfish idea.

[Gilbert]

my blue and yellow tang dont let me have ANY algae growing in my DT

[Kristy]

Re: the cooking of rocks idea...
This should definitely work to finally get rid of all last traces of the caulerpa and you will get your rocks back (still live) in the end.

We bought our 75g from another member and the live rocks had a number of different kinds of macroalgae growing on them, some more desireable than others. We pulled off what we wanted to cultivate and threw all the rocks in a tub in the garage with powerheads on them for six weeks.

For best results, scrub the rocks once a week and rinse in saltwater. But we were lazy and just ignored ours for six weeks, stirred them around once or twice during that time, and we have nice clean rocks as a result.

This only works if there is nothing else growing on that rock that you are trying to salvage (corals, etc.)

[Europhyllia]

Kristy that sounds like a plan. That's what I'll do. Thanks

[allan]

I don't understand your aversion to tangs. I just got a yellow the other day (a few tense moments with the yellow rim, but they're buds now) and he's constantly on the prowl for green stuff.

The hippo, naso, and yellow rim (to include the yellow) eats the grape culerpra... and I did have a foxface that really LOVED grape, but he also liked the zoas.

Not sure if my starry blenny would eat grape, but he's always sponging off the algae from my glass... and fat for it too.

[Europhyllia]

I just was so glad when Mr Cob adopted Moby, my tang, because the dynamics in my tank changed so much in those 10 days that I had Moby.
The clowns which I have had for nearly 5 years now abandoned their fuzzy mushroom and just hovered on top beside the overflow. Three or 4 times one of them actually jumped into the overflow. Something they had never done before or after.
One time the male clown actually traveled all the way down into the sump.
I still had a wet dry back then and was lucky to find him laying on his side on the floss, water splashing on him and still ALIVE.
As soon as Moby was gone they went back to spawning, living now in the duncans and being happy.
When my 30g went south in the spring of last year I would have just gotten rid of all of it had it not been for that pair of clowns.
I got the 125g so the clowns could have a nice retirement in it - not be afraid and suicidal for the rest of their lives.
I just like it when everybody can do their spawning thing without a new neighbor flashing a scalpel and freaking everybody out...

[Kristy]

I just like it when everybody can do their spawning thing without a new neighbor flashing a scalpel and freaking everybody out...

Are we discussing rural Tennessee crime rates again? :confused:

[Europhyllia]

ROFLMA

We'll have to ask justahobby to see if there's tangs in rural TN ;)