Need advice and second opinion on ID please

[james4836]

Hi,
From my own research i think i have a caulerpa verticillata bloom but just wanted a second opinion. It has half taken over my tank and i'm at a loss as to how to get rid of it. :think:

11387

11388

[cl0wn]

from my own experience, tuxedo urchin. got rid of my caulerpa

[ROB]

Deffo spot on with id just googled it,

Now dependant on how big your tank is will determin the cure ie a tang or as clown says an urchin also pink urchins are good with micro algea's,

Rob.

[michael.]

Hi James welcome to the site, how big is your tank bud?

[Tangman]

Hi James and welcome to RC. How big is your tank and what are your parameters as algae lives on 2 things 1 is nutrient and 2 is light. If you have both in abundance like 8 or more hours lighting and high nitrate and phosphate readings it will grow well.Please put some more details up and we can give you some solid advice. Twiggy

[ejit]

also according to a few books I have read they say lower the temp to below 25 degrees to slow down growth

[james4836]

Hi and thanks for the help.

Tank Size: 40 U.S Gallons
Lighting : one 14,000K 150 Watt Metal Halide on for 8 hours a day. Positioned 35cm from water surface. The lamp is about a month old.

Temp 25 deg C
Salinity 1.026

Besides the living rock for filtration I run a deltec mce600 skimmer and a canister filter for mechanical filtration. I clean out the canister every two weeks. 1 power head for more water movement. I had the fish shop test my water recently for everything. He couldn't detect any phosphates and nitrates, the caulerpa must be using it up fast. Also I'm running Phosguard at the moment to try and slow the growth.

If you need any more info please let me know

[james4836]

oh almost forgot livestock:

couple of hermit crabs
clown fish
dwarf angel fish
blue damsel fish
cleaner shrimp

[Tangman]

Hi James with having the light on for 8 hours will be giving it food to survive, if you have just fish in your tank with soft corals 4 or 5 hours is enough light for these. Try cutting it down to this for a few weeks and see if there is a difference in its growth, try pulling it out as doing this will encourage it to grow which in turn will use up the nutrients quicker so making it grow less. Twiggy

[reefergeek]

Bloody awful stuff this and the red nearly made me give up within 3 months until i kicked my own ass and got researching more, Cut the lights down to half of what i had changed to t5s from t8s, Got an urchin and tang Also shoved rowa in the ext filter it was gone within 3 weeks after that, Then i brought the lighting back up slowly to the 8hrs a day.

I was taking the rock out every week and scrubbing it with a tooth brush or putting filter floss around the powerheads and pulling the thick of it off in the tank, Using the filter floss on the powerheads made them in to a basic filter trapping all of the algae to the floss, Dont loose faith it will pass buddy

[Andy Lister]

Rob, it's technically a Macro algae rather than a Micro algae, you don't have to be big to be classed as big!

That aside, get some urchins in there as said. Watch out for any that are venomous or toxic like Diadema (big thin black spines).

Reefer's advice is spot on. Remove as much of it as you can by hand before you add the urchin and it will be able to keep on top of it rather than deal with whats already there!

A

[ROB]

IT WAS A TYPO as it was late,

Rob.

[Macca]

Get yourself an urchin if in main display. Problem solved. I actually would keep the macro algae under control in a sump as this is a great way to use up excess nutrients.

[ROB]

Rob, it's technically a Macro algae rather than a Micro algae, you don't have to be big to be classed as big!

That aside, get some urchins in there as said. Watch out for any that are venomous or toxic like Diadema (big thin black spines).

Reefer's advice is spot on. Remove as much of it as you can by hand before you add the urchin and it will be able to keep on top of it rather than deal with whats already there!

A

That's what I have been trying to tell the other half for years :biglol: