How toclean off unwanted Caelerpa

Ok, I've got a 55 gal tank that I was using for seahorses. I introduced some grape caelerpa (sorry for spelling) and it grows fatsre than a weed. It has encroached and has rooted itself on all 40 lbs of LR. I want to get rid of it as I want to create a predator tank now. How do I eliminate it and get it off my LR without killing off the LR?

Thanks.....

 

You can try emerald crabs.

But I have found one of the more effective ways of ridding it out of the tank is the manual removal via vacuum of as much of it as possible being careful not to let any little bits get in the water column.

next is running a ULNS system. This will essentially starve off the caulerpa and not allow it to regrow.

However, since you will be going FOWLR ULNS would be hard to obtain. I would honestly suggest taking all of the rock out and either replacing it or nuking it.

Once you have your tank setup you are not going to want to have to take it down because of caulerpa - and you will because FOWLR tanks tend to be a bit dirtier than reefs so the macro will have a perfect breeding grounds.

 

If I wanted to nuke the rock how and what is the safest way to do that? Bleach? And would it then be dead rock and have the aquarium go through a nitrogen cycle again? Or would the bacterial microbs in the well established Live sand offset that?

 

If you treat the rock you will kill off the beneficial bacteria and you will see a cycle. The sand will not offset it enough to make a difference.

You could try a method I just used and liked. I took about 1/3 of the rock out and let it dry for 4 days. I then put it in another container with SW, no filtration or heater and let it sit for 7 days, after that period of time I re-introduced it and proceeded to pull the next 1/3 out and repeated.

I was actually shocked how much die off I had on old cured rock. All those micro brittle stars, stomatella snails.You should test for ammonia daily the first 1/3, until you figure out how the tank reacts. With a fish tank and soft corals you will probably be ok. Just have some water made up and ready for a w/c.

Once caulerpa sends its roots into the rocks it is nearly impossible to get rid of without treating the rock one or another.

 

I bought a frag with a little piece of the grape (green) on it and thought it looked cool a few years ago. I had no idea then what is was. Needless to say that stuff grew out of control and strangled some zoas and made its way into my fuge and killed ALL of my chaeto.

I dropped a small yellow tang in the tank and in a matter of time, it was and has been ALL gone.