How to clean Caulerpa prolifera?

[ichthyogeek]

So there's some unsightly red tufts growing on my Caulerpa prolifera. I just noticed tonight, and I'm wondering what the best way to kill that algae is. Do I just rub it off? Or do I need to start from scratch?

I know this came from some Sargassum algae I had in the same system, which was also growing hte same slightly tufty red algae on its blades as well.

 

[Subsea]

If you want to try sanitize, soak in fresh at for 10 minutes.

I did a case study with Bortacladia and GHA using 5% solution of hydrogen peroxide with different soak duration times starting at 30 seconds and increasing 30 seconds each test. Testing continued two weeks until all Bortacladia was killed. As I saw it, GHA was more rugged than Boryacladia.

In your case, Caulerpa Prolifera is as rugged as they come. Start out with least invasive and gradually ramp out duration of soak.

Depending on what is the offender as to what works best.

 

[ichthyogeek]

For once, sanitation isn't my goal. Maybe I'll do the H2O2 soak.

Should I try to rub off the nuisance algae?

 

[Subsea]

For once, sanitation isn't my goal. Maybe I'll do the H2O2 soak.

Should I try to rub off the nuisance algae?

Can you take a picture of “tufty red alga”





Y

 

[Subsea]

Rubbing each blade and stem seems tedious. How hard is algae attached? let’s assume you have those algae spores in water volume. You may wish to consider a uv sterilizer to prevent cross contamination.

 

[Subsea]

@ichthyogeek
I thought about you this morning as I pampered some Caulerpa Prolifera with GHA as the invader. Less than a month in display tank, GHA is evident in places. In my algae filter, I don’t care if it’s cyno or gha. It’s all nutrient export. In my tank, I hand prune effected areas. In my experiences, the best in tank cleaner for macro surfaces is small astrea snails

Snail, Golden Astrea (turbo) - Lithopoma americanum- 24, 50 and 100 Lots

Golden Snails, that are in fact Small Astrea Snails have become increasingly popular among coral growers and aquarium enthusiasts that maintain a reef and need to keep algae to a minimum. These herbivores are an important addition for controlling algae within a Reef Aquarium.

reeftopia.com

 

[Subsea]

For once, sanitation isn't my goal. Maybe I'll do the H2O2 soak.

Should I try to rub off the nuisance algae?

Contrary to what you want, you will not be able to sterilize invader algae pest without killing host macro.

Just as in a vegetable garden, you remove weeds by hand to encourage desirables. In the case of Prolifera, I prune out undesirable and export. For constant grazing small snails are the best janitor for this.

 

[ichthyogeek]

Rubbing each blade and stem seems tedious. How hard is algae attached? let’s assume you have those algae spores in water volume. You may wish to consider a uv sterilizer to prevent cross contamination.

As an update, it’s hard to rub off. It’s some sort of red tufty thing? I do 110% water changes at least once a week due to no skimmer on the tank causing phyto blooms (could also be the nearby phyto farm....) (100% wc, + adding water while draining it out to reduce spores).

 

[Subsea]

Prune out the Prolifera that has red tuff and discard. I still feel that immune system of healthy macro will resist red tuff invader.

Let’s look for herbivores to eat red tuffy but not Prolifera: Urchins, Tangs and Emerald Crabs are out. Try small blue leg hermits and I like small astrae snails.

If you think algae spores are source of your problem, then use UV sterilizer in disinfect mode to kill algae spores. Quit changing water. UV could be used all the time, but I prefer not adding this heat source as I run cooler temperature (74-76 degrees) in reef tanks.

 

[ichthyogeek]

Maybe I’ll just prune the red tuff out. I can always feed it to the big tank, that is somehow inhospitable to most growth. I’m not necessarily looking for herbivores right now (xmas season, maybe a move, so no time for quarantine, and you know how strict I am about quarantine for fish disease....)

 

[Subsea]

See if this link helps with identification.

Nuisance Algae ID Guide- Reef Cleaners

Nuisance Algae ID Guide. Red Slime, Cyano, Cyanobacteria. Green Film Algae, Film Algae. Green Hair Algae. Green Turf Algae. Bryopsis pennata and B. plumosa. Bubble Algae, Valonia. Lobophora. Blue Green Cyano.

www.reefcleaners.org

Gelidium, Red Wiry Turf Algae
gelidium 300x214

Many species of short creeping red algae exist so the hobby generally lumps all of them under the heading "Gelidium", (the genus that is home to many of those species), and the common name Red Turf Algae, or Red Wiry Algae.

Manual Removal: Difficult. Macros that have fragile runners and creep along the rock are the hardest to manually remove. Do the best you can. Use a dental pick to remove it if possible. Fragments of the algae can spread though, so make sure to net any pieces that break loose. Yeah I know, it is boring as can be, but if you do it once surgically with a dental pick the problem goes away for good. If you can take the rock out, all the better.

Clean Up Crew: Emerald Crabs, urchins, sea hares, and large turbos.

 

[Subsea]

Maybe I’ll just prune the red tuff out. I can always feed it to the big tank, that is somehow inhospitable to most growth. I’m not necessarily looking for herbivores right now (xmas season, maybe a move, so no time for quarantine, and you know how strict I am about quarantine for fish disease....)

If it is Gelidium, I would discard infected areas.

 

[SMSREEF]

Maybe I’ll just prune the red tuff out. I can always feed it to the big tank, that is somehow inhospitable to most growth. I’m not necessarily looking for herbivores right now (xmas season, maybe a move, so no time for quarantine, and you know how strict I am about quarantine for fish disease....)

When I dive in the sea grass beds, the older macroalgae fronds often have some microalgae on them.

astrea snails and other inverts eat the microalgae, but then eventually the macro gives up on that leaf and starts supplying the new fronds and will discard the older leaf.

You can speed the process up by pruning the leaves with microalgae.

if a problem algae is colonizing new growth, I would use freshwater rinse and scrub it off.

I am not sure how long macros can be in freshwater, but am doing some tests right now. Yesterday did a freshater dip on Chaeto and Halymenia, 5 minutes and it’s still alive and not bleaching.

water with peroxide killed my macros in the past so I won’t do that again.

 

[Subsea]

When I dive in the sea grass beds, the older macroalgae fronds often have some microalgae on them.

astrea snails and other inverts eat the microalgae, but then eventually the macro gives up on that leaf and starts supplying the new fronds and will discard the older leaf.

You can speed the process up by pruning the leaves with microalgae.

if a problem algae is colonizing new growth, I would use freshwater rinse and scrub it off.

I am not sure how long macros can be in freshwater, but am doing some tests right now. Yesterday did a freshater dip on Chaeto and Halymenia, 5 minutes and it’s still alive and not bleaching.

water with peroxide killed my macros in the past so I won’t do that again.

@ichthyogeek
This is gold standard post for cleaning undesirable from desirable macro. Kudos to you @SMSREEF

 

[SMSREEF]

@ichthyogeek
This is gold standard post for cleaning undesirable from desirable macro. Kudos to you @SMSREEF

Thanks @Subsea

I have a readily available supply of macroalgae down here in Miami, so if you have any suggestions for tests let me know.

 

[Subsea]

Thanks @Subsea

I have a readily available supply of macroalgae down here in Miami, so if you have any suggestions for tests let me know.

when I grew Bortacladia for sale to LFS, GHA was my nemesis . So I would be interested in how long of fresh water soak to kill gha. Continue doing your test to determine lethal soak time required for different macros. Then attempt to find lethal soak time to kill nuisance algae.

I have salvaged Bortacladia that has been cleaned of gha by astrae snails & pods. I will research lethal fresh water soak time. It will be sometime after Christmas.

 

[ThePurple12]

Does your algae look like this? We might have the same kind. Mine only grows on seagrass and Caulerpa- not on rocks. I’ve just been scraping it off with my fingernails. It grows back eventually, but no microalgae plague can last forever...I think.

 

[ichthyogeek]

Does your algae look like this? We might have the same kind. Mine only grows on seagrass and Caulerpa- not on rocks. I’ve just been scraping it off with my fingernails. It grows back eventually, but no microalgae plague can last forever...I think.

Yes, but more red and isolated than that. I think I attached an image of it?

 

[ThePurple12]

Yeah you did. Mine looks more red in person. It looks exactly like yours when it grows on Caulerpa, I'll try to get a picture tomorrow.

 

[Subsea]

Thanks @Subsea

I have a readily available supply of macroalgae down here in Miami, so if you have any suggestions for tests let me know.

when I grew Bortacladia for sale to LFS, GHA was my nemesis . So I would be interested in how long of fresh water soak to kill gha. Continue doing your test to determine lethal soak time required for different macros. Then attempt to find lethal soak time to kill nuisance algae.

I have salvaged Bortacladia that has been cleaned of gha by astrae snails & pods. I will research lethal fresh water soak time
after Christmas.

Please refresh my memory then.