Grape Caulerpa Taking Over Tank

[trachten]

Some grape caulerpa made it's way from my refugium to my main tank and is now taking over. What can I do to get rid of the stuff? Pulling it out by hand isn't doing the job.

I've heard that tangs love it, but I have a small tank (37G). At least one person has also mentioned that a lawnmower blenny will eat it.

Any ideas appreciated.

 

[CAT]

Don't know about the lawnmover blenny as I've never had one. But I accidently killed all the caulerpa I had in my old tank by using a phosphate remover on it. If you're desperate, you might try disconnecting the main tank from the fuge and give it a shot.

 

[shalegac]

emerald crab

 

[ryan_lalande]

the blennt wont touch that stuff, and you would need about 300 emerald crabs to have them get the job done.....basically u need the services of a tang...i think a baby yellow could be kept in a 37 for a pretty good amount of time..my one friend had a yellow in his 25 gallon for 4 years!

 

[danmhippo]

LMB won't touch grape caulerpa, neither would most tangs, unless they grew larger. Hand removal is still your best bet. Make sure you pull off the "root" as well as the "grape"...............

If you get to pull them off by piles with roots, most likely your LFS will be happy to buy them off of you.

 

[fishpoo]

i'm fighting it for years. Hand removal. I do it every week so keep it in check. It's like pruning a garden, it's got to be done.
I let it go for a month and i filled a bucket with it . It was mostly behind the rocks. It a good nutrient exporter, although i hate it.

 

[Anonymous]

So now you know why caulerpa is Illegal in my part of town. To many people were throwing it back into the ocean and its taking everything over in the bays. So whatever you do, do not throw it back into natural waters around you

 

[DOGMAI]

Your killing me with that avitar. Must.........Stop...........Looking..........At.............It

 

[Anonymous]

I feel superbody need to get a better avatar... something in the line of what I have....

Anyway, most tang, crab, and blenny won't touch Caulerpa, so don't expect too much from them. The best method, as damn said above, is hand removal. As you noticed already, even a small "frag" from the refug. can get you a big problem a few months down the road. So image if you broke a little piece and can't catch it and it settled behind the rockwork? With tang/crab, this fragging problem is even worst (if they do touch it by mistake at all, forget about eating it!).