Help...Any advise to control Grape Caulerpa :-) (1 Viewer)

[Reefdude]

I am new to the hobby. Got some LR couple of weeks ago and now I got Grape Caulerpa growing like crazy in my main tank.

Anything I can do to control/remove this?

Thanks

 

[tektite]

How big is your tank? There are a few fish that will eat it, but only good for larger tanks.

Other than that, manual removal...but that is very difficult as you need to make sure you get all the roots in the rocks from each holdfast or the macro will grow back.

 

[MontroseReef]

Trim them if its a macroalgae tank. If its a reef tank, Remove them as much as you can until they are all gone.

 

[Reefdude]

Tank size is 120G. If you have any fish suggestions that would be great .....

 

[Andy]

Take the rock out and dry it in the sun. That's why I hate the grape. It's hard to get rid of.

 

[tektite]

Tank size is 120G. If you have any fish suggestions that would be great .....

Rabbitfish are your best bet for caulerpa, but many tangs will also eat it. Sometimes its hit or miss on the tangs though. Some like it, some don't touch it, even in the same species.

 

[rlpardue]

I won't lie - it is hard to get rid of. I recently saw a little sprig of it in my DT, and there hadn't been any visible grape caulerpa in my system for 9 months (since I did a crazy round of manual removal and acid dipping). I'd try to "nip it in the bud" as soon as possible. Perhaps move all infested rock to the sump or a completely darkened refugium. Rabbitfish is a good idea too. Muriatic acid bath will do the job but that's pretty labor-intensive. Still, it also strips any PO4 off the surface of the rock and keeps algae from growing on it for a good while. All the rock I acid-washed is 100% algae free, but the rock I didn't bathe is now covered in GHA

 

[tektite]

Blackout doesn't always work on this stuff, I put some rock through a 3 month dark period and it still came back...resilient macro!

 

[Reefdude]

Thanks for the suggestions. What type of Rabbitfish works better in a reef? I have heard they are not reef safe. Is that true?