How to clean Caulerpa prolifera?

[SMSREEF]

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.

So the 5 minute freshwater bath did not kill the Chaeto or the gracilaria. I’ll do a 10 minute dip now.
I don’t have any hair algae though. I think all my snails keep it clean.

 

[Subsea]

So the 5 minute freshwater bath did not kill the Chaeto or the gracilaria. I’ll do a 10 minute dip now.
I don’t have any hair algae though. I think all my snails keep it clean.

I got GHA, it’s the pods haven. I will test it.

I think that most macro & Seagrasses will stand up to a 30 minute soak.

 

[Subsea]

I made two dip baths for GHA.
A. 100 ml with one drop of dishwashing liquid soap
B. 100 ml
#well water with 5 stage water filter

Sample B showed little change after 30 minute soak. After 1 hour, a few strands of GHA were separating from center mass.

Sample A showed strands separating in 10 minutes. After 30 minutes water was visible tainted green with numerous strands floating about.

Both samples were removed and put in glass container with 250 ml of tank water. No attempt was made to wash off soap, only the dilution of 250 ml.

PS. Containers placed on window ledge with indirect sunlight in PM and direct morning light till 11AM

6 hour update at 5 PM:
Sample A water is clear with no further shedding of strands. The clump of GHA seems to have gotten more compact and is a darker green in the center.
Sample B water is lightly stained green with GHA clump to be less densely compacted. The color shift looks to be faded green.

From visual observation, Sample B with i hour soak with fresh water looked worse than Sample A with soak with soap.

 

[ichthyogeek]

I made two dip baths for GHA.
A. 100 ml with one drop of dishwashing liquid soap
B. 100 ml
#well water with 5 stage water filter

Sample B showed little change after 30 minute soak. After 1 hour, a few strands of GHA were separating from center mass.

Sample A showed strands separating in 10 minutes. After 30 minutes water was visible tainted green with numerous strands floating about.

Both samples were removed and put in glass container with 250 ml of tank water. No attempt was made to wash off soap, only the dilution of 250 ml.

What type of dishwashing liquid soap? The brand?

 

[Subsea]

What type of dishwashing liquid soap? The brand?

I edit posted picture as well as some more observations. I expect a definite marked change this time tomorrow. I just realized that picture shows my hand disinfectant on the right. Ajax is what I used. It says antibacterial, but I don’t know what ingredient.

 

[Subsea]

Removed clumps of treated GHA. IT DOESN’t look dead to me. Cleaned containers with tap water than added 250 ml of mature tank water. Pictures will show
Sample A on the left and Sample B on the right.

 

[vetteguy53081]

So the 5 minute freshwater bath did not kill the Chaeto or the gracilaria. I’ll do a 10 minute dip now.
I don’t have any hair algae though. I think all my snails keep it clean.

Freshwater may not do a thing. Try adding peroxide to it

 

[SMSREEF]

Freshwater may not do a thing. Try adding peroxide to it

I have and it killed the macro. Maybe I added too much. That might be a good test after I figure out the freshwater dip time that kills macros.

With that said, the 10 minute freshwater dip was completed yesterday and macroalgae is still ok. I’ll give it a few more days and the increase to 15 minutes.

 

[ClownWrangler]

I keep a stock solution of 1024mg/qt potassium permanganate on hand at all times for both algae and fish FW dips. 1/4cup in a gallon of water comes to 64mg/gal. Every fish I’ve treated for QT survived 3 min dip without issue. Chaeto survives a 5 min dip without issue. It took care of smaller slime algae for me, but hair algae might need slightly longer. Chaeto is tough, so It could most likely survive much longer. Caulerpa will lose its leaves, but they will grow back. It will sterilize it kill most small hitchhikers, including external parasites. It’s an oxidizer and once it reacts with organics, it’s reduced to manganese dioxide and other compounds of magnesium that are essentially non-toxic nutrients at that point in residual amounts.

 

[Subsea]

If the epilates on macro surfaces are GHA, it will require mechanical cleaning. I like small Astrae Snails or micro Blue Leg Hermints.

Neither sample B (1 hr fresh water bath) nor Sample A (with 1 drop of liquid dishwashing soap) shows signs of dying after 36 hours.

 

[ClownWrangler]

I was told recently that black mollies will eat GHA. I'm going to try it out in the next couple of weeks and I'll report back. I no longer trust crabs of any kind.

 

[ClownWrangler]

If the epilates on macro surfaces are GHA, it will require mechanical cleaning. I like small Astrae Snails or micro Blue Leg Hermints.

Neither sample B (1 hr fresh water bath) nor Sample A (with 1 drop of liquid dishwashing soap) shows signs of dying after 36 hours.

I would be careful using dish detergent. It would be difficult to rinse off completely and might be toxic to fish. H2O2 and PP however can be safely neutralized. In fact, H2O2 will neutralize PP, but it's not really necessary unless doing a large batch treatment in a tank (a bar bottom tank not the display tank)

 

[Subsea]

I would be careful using dish detergent. It would be difficult to rinse off completely and might be toxic to fish. H2O2 and PP however can be safely neutralized. In fact, H2O2 will neutralize PP, but it's not really necessary unless doing a large batch treatment in a tank (a bar bottom tank not the display tank)

What is PP?

I am trying to kill GHA as an epilate on surface of macro algae without harming macro. I assure you, hydrogen peroxide will kill both. GHA survives soap treatment.

 

[ClownWrangler]

What is PP?

I am trying to kill GHA as an epilate on surface of macro algae without harming macro. I assure you, hydrogen peroxide will kill both. GHA survives soap treatment.

PP is potassium permanganate. I mentioned it earlier in the thread. I was only making a point about what happens after treatment in terms of effect on other inhabitants of a tank. Detergents may bring harmful compounds into your tank after treatment, effective or not, whereas H2O2 and PP treatment will not. If H202 kills both macro and GHA, then it may actually be worthy of further experimentation. GHA is thinner than macro and should be more fragile in theory. They key is finding the correct treatment concentration and duration to kill one and not the other, which is a standard approach for virtually all types of chemical and medicinal treatments on plants and animals alike.

 

[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.

I say GHA is too tuff to kill with chemicals without harming host macro.

In the case of a desirable macro like Bortacladia, with GHA as epilates, I brought in some helpful janitors: small Astrae snails and tiny Blue legged hermits. Everything was put in lighted corner overflow box and janitors did their jobs.