Caulerpa P. has gotten out of control. Thoughts on Lawnmower Blenny?

[TheWackyWiz]

Hi All,

I've Macro tank that's been up and running for ~9mos now and unfortunately I made a rookie mistake early on by introducing Caulerpa P. Despite weekly trimming I am really struggling to get it under control and I think it's outcompeting all of my other Macros which has failed to flourish.

I'd really like to avoid pulling out all the rock and manually removing all the runners as the rock has corals on it and the coraline algae is flourishing.

The tank is a 20g AIO with a tailspot blenny, court jester goby and handful of sexy shrimp.

I've thinking of two options:
1) Try to find an Algaecide which will kill Caulerpa and accept that it will also probably kill the macros I want to keep (I do plan to move the macros I want to keep to a QT).
2) Introduce a tuxedo urchin - I had one in the past that loved eating my cheato and red ogo which at the time wasn't ideal but might work in this situation.
3) Add a lawnmower blenny temporarily and hope that it will take a liking to caulerpa. But this is a real crap shoot if it will even eat Caulerpa.
4) Pull all the rock and spend a day prying everything off. Hope that the time out of water doesn't kill all the beneficial bacteria.

Would love other suggestions?

 

[kzenoni]

I got a couple big hermits in my sump that would take it out .

 

[thedon986]

Pull a little bit everyday so you are pulling more than can grow per day and knock it out over time?

 

[Subsea]

@TheWackyWiz
“4) Pull all the rock and spend a day prying everything off. Hope that the time out of water doesn't kill all the beneficial bacteria.“

It will not take a day to manually remove Caulerpa, Maybe an hour, Also, lose of bacteria is not a serious concern as long as you don’t treat tank with chemicals.

If algae removal is a priority, then once you manually remove Caulerpa holdfast, soak rock for 10 minutes in a 10% solution of 3% hydrogen peroxide.