How to get rid of Caulerpa Racemosa

Sdiesel77 · Jan 19, 2017

Hi All,
I am starting to have an issue with invasive Caulerpa Racemosa in my Nano Tank (15G/60L).
It appears from nowhere and now it's growing super fast.
Water parameters looks fine with low Phosphate and Nitrate.
Would you have any solution to get rid of it safely?
I have snails, hermit crab, blenny but they don't touch it.

The tank has LPS and SPS in it.

AlexG · Jan 19, 2017

Well I have kept this caulerpa before and it will not be easy to get rid of without something that can eat it. I can suggest two ideas. One if you have a friend or LFS with a reef tank with tangs see if you can bring some of the rocks over to have them cleaned by the fish for a week or two. Then when some rocks have been cleaned off rotate the rocks back to your tank. The second option I see would be to find a very small tang or foxface and purchase it with an understand from the LFS that you will be returning the tang/foxface in a few weeks once your caulerpa problem has been solved as that tank cannot serve as a permanent home. If you choose the tang/foxface option I would take some of the caulerpa with you to the LFS to ensure they eat it. Most tangs/foxface will readily accept it.

ebushrow · Jan 19, 2017

Your phosphates and nitrates are likely higher than you think....that is what is driving the algae growth...are you using good test kits or checkers to test them? If the phosphates and nitrated were 0, the algae would starve and disappear....to completely eliminate all the issues with algae you need to determine the source of the nitrates and phosphates.

Sdiesel77 · Jan 19, 2017

Thanks. The issue is also indeed the tank size preventing me to get a tang permanently.
I use red sea Pro tests.

Sdiesel77 · Jan 21, 2017

Would a small yellow eyed kole tang be eating this caulerpa and would it be OK for few months in my Nano tank ?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jan 21, 2017

I agree it is a problem. I broke down a 120 gal tank and scrubbed every rock and every surface, and it still came back.

A foxface fish was the answer (but not in a nano). It loved to eat it and never came back to the extent that I could see it.