How to get rid of Caulerpa in a nano??

[djconn]

Okay, about a year and a half ago I added a few little stalks of grape caulerpa into my main tank to add greenery and to help complete with unwanted nutrients. I realized in less than a month that it was a very big mistake and no one should EVER add caulerpa into their main tank. It grows at amazing speed and can really harm corals by physically boring into them and blocking light.

So my problem is now how to get rid of the stuff. I've obviously tried pulling the stuff out by it seems to come back faster that way and I've been doing it for over a year now with little reduction. I get handfulls of the stuff and it just never ends. I've heard that maybe a foxface rabbitfish or even a tang might help but these fish are definitely not suitable to my 20 gal. At some point, I might try to brake down the entire tank and do a scrub job on the few big pieces of liverock that are the worst. Maybe I could add a caulerpa eating fish with plans of removing it when it things look under control. Anyway, if anyone has any ideas, I've love to hear it. This has been very frustrating to say the least.

 

[Phischy]

Caulerpa spreads not only through regular growth but through vegitative reproduction. Pulling it out is the worst possible way to treat the problem b/c when you pull, little bits may break off and float free. If they gain a foothold somewhere, viola, a new plant will sprout.

There are some very nasty strains of caulpera that are illegal to sell, this doesn't sound like one of 'em, but since they'r ethe same family, it can be impossible to get rid of it. One option is to black out your tank and let it die off due to lack of light. This however, will kill the rest of your tank in the process.

Not sure what an ideal solution would be, but be carefull scrubbing due to it's vegitative reproductive nature, you may end up in worse shape 2 weeks down the road.

 

[djconn]

Well a few nights ago, I decided to dedicate the entire evening to fixing my caulerpa problem and I'm really glad I did. No phischy, the black-out method definitely won't work in my situation [-( so I set up a spare 10 gallon tank I had sitting around and took out coral piece by piece. I then went over every coral with long tweezers and pulled out every single scrap of caulerpa I could find. I then took out all the rock that had been 'infected' and pulled it all off one at a time. This whole process took about 4-5 hours but when it was all done, I was very happy I did it.

In thinking back, I really think poor water quality (& possibly overfeeding) contributed to my caulerpa oubreak. I was gone for over a month on vacation and had someone watching my tank that did not do a waterchange. In actuality, it had been over a month in a half since the water had been changed. Water changes are so important in nanos. I realize that some of it may come back but I'm going to really stay on top of it and not let it spead like crazy again.