Best way to rid LR of Grape Caulerpa

[brandyrb]

Well I bought a 40gal breeder that came with a grape caulerpa infestation on the LR this past fall. Upon getting the rock, we picked off all the caulerpa we could and in a few months it was back with a vengance.

Second attempt to get rid of it, we got a flame angel, well he favored coral polyps more than the caulerpa.

Third attempt a baby fox face. He just eats the little grapes and seems to stimulate the caulerpa's growth.

This past week, I bought a new 40 breeder and new LR. Once this tank is ready for fish, lps and zoas, the caulerpa in the other 40 breeder is gonna be killed. What's the best way to do this?

I was thinking of putting the rock in a big tub with a lid, heater, couple power heads and a skimmer and no access to light for a couple of months. Will this work? Will it kill everything else on the rock making me have to cycle it again? Any better options???

I want to make sure this stuff never comes back again! I have kept it away from the corals, zoas, etc by pulling it out everytime it takes off. All the lps and zoas are currently on the sand to keep them away from this nuisance Algae. There is also bubble algae and a few aptasia on this rock.

Thanks....

 

[dailydriven911]

You could just cook the l/r, that would take care of it...:lol: It will become live once you seed it.

 

[brandyrb]

And how do you do that?

 

[as1720]

Boiling it in hot water. lol


I am thinking bigger pieces in the oven and smaller on the stove top? Can you really do that?

 

[dailydriven911]

I would just boil the rock in hot water for an hour or so. Pretty much kill everything on the rock... Of course you might go through another cycle but no caulerpa!

 

[Myteemouse]

I boiled ALL of my live rock in a BIG pot on the stove befor I cured it all to have a "steril" tank when I started my 125
30 mins per rock did it for me...

 

[brandyrb]

mmmk, I don't know if I have a pot that big as it's two big pieces, but I'll look into getting one if I don't. I assume this is also going to put off an unpleasant odor. So do you guys make it common practice to boil all LR you get? Or just when it comes with a noticeable nuisance algae?

 

[roscoe]

You can also bleach and then give it a muratic acid bath. If you do the muratic acid remember water than the acid. This way you will kill everthing deep into the poors of the rock.

 

[Myteemouse]

mmmk, I don't know if I have a pot that big as it's two big pieces, but I'll look into getting one if I don't. I assume this is also going to put off an unpleasant odor. So do you guys make it common practice to boil all LR you get? Or just when it comes with a noticeable nuisance algae?

I actually have a big restaurant style pot for the big rocks..
And no I just had dry rock and a few lbs of rock COVERED in aptasia, soo I didn't have the tank yet.. So I decided to clean all the rock really good to start with clean dry rock NO PESTS.

 

[estanoche]

Brandy - if you guys want to borrow my long spine urchin he will kill it in no time....

My 40 was overgrown with the caluerpa before I let him loose... he'll eat it down to nothing... and u can keep the LR cycling

 

[TWallace]

When I harvest grape caulerpa from my seahorse tank, I throw it into my display where my desjardini and powder blue tangs devour it (branches and all, not just the grapes). The desjardini seems much more eager to eat it than the powder blue.

 

[Maylin2]

Strange your foxface didn't do much damage. My foxface ate everything so thoroughly I had to add more caulerpa every day for him. He totally attacked hair algae to, it was gone rather quickly. I would go with the urchin. I had one that ate the caulerpa with an appetite almost equal to the foxface. Ended up trading it in when I ran out of caulerpa I could spare.

 

[brandyrb]

Well I'm picking out caulerpa now, again. I tried a hairy tuxedo urchin and he bumped into a powerhead and got blasted with flow then started releasing a pee like substance that made my skimmer go nuts. That was a couple months ago. We took him out immediately and put him back in the 300.

The problem with having an urchin or even a fish that'll eat it is fox faces, rabbit fish, etc. get too large for a 40 breeder and I don't like long spine urchins, so once they're removed, I figure it'll come right back. It is odd that the foxface doesn't devour this stuff. He nibbles, but not enough to make a difference.

This tank has been setup for a year and a half in someone elses care and maybe six months in mine. For now, I'm trying to keep it under control until my other tank is done cycling and ready for the corals and the few fish I'm keeping. Then I'll probably just cook the rock. I hate caulerpa.

We have an issue with halimeda in our 300, I wish there was a fish that would eat that. It's not nearly as bad as the caulerpa though.

Edit:
My husband wanted to put the rock in our 300 overnight so that our desjardin sailfin and emperor angel could clean the rock, but I'd freak if it started an outbreak in that tank too. So I said no.

 

[brandyrb]

Someone came over last night and told me that they had a grape caulerpa problem on their rock and they boiled their rock for a couple hours, but the caulerpa came back within a few weeks of the rock being back in the tank.

That was discouraging to hear. Does this stuff really live through being boiled?

 

[returnofsid]

I doubt the caulerpa survived the boiling process. But if there are still caulerpa spores in the tank, even in the water column, it could become re-established.

 

[estanoche]

I doubt the caulerpa survived the boiling process. But if there are still caulerpa spores in the tank, even in the water column, it could become re-established.

If you want to be 100% effective, and don't want to try anything twice is probably best to do it all at once.... IMO

- boil the rock
- bake the rock
- bleach the rock
- wash the rock with muriatic acid
- leave the tank fallow of the rock (and the rock out and dry) for 6 weeks to make sure spores don't crop up in the sand or anything

In a situation like this overkill may be your best friend.

 

[Barb]

How reef safe are long spine urchins? They eat caulerpa that sounds great! Do they eat coralline algae off acrylic?

 

[bingme]

coraline and ls urchin

How reef safe are long spine urchins? They eat caulerpa that sounds great! Do they eat coralline algae off acrylic?

Not sure about reef safety as they are pretty big. Depends on your tank I guess and how big and well secured your colonies are. As far as coralline off acrylic, I have had one in my large acrylic sump for 3 months and it does not seem to eat the coralline algae off anything so far (and I think it is pretty hungry down there). It did eat all my cheato though.

 

[menace78]

Too bad you'r all the way over by spokane. I would let you borrow my foxface.
The reason the foxface didn't help is that It was probably too small or had too much to eat that he liked better then you'r grape.
You should see if anyone close to you has a larger (like my 6.5") one to borrow for a short time.
I can't grow grape for him to eat fast enough.
Had a bad problem with it about a year ago that came on some rock and within 2 weeks of adding the larger foxface, it was all gone and not growing anymore

Just a thought. and good luck!

 

[saltwaterfishes]

I boiled ALL of my live rock in a BIG pot on the stove befor I cured it all to have a "steril" tank when I started my 125
30 mins per rock did it for me...

Will this method work for bubble algae too? I'm in the process of moving lr from 24g aquapod to 40g frag tank. Rocks are full of bubble algae and emerald did not work.
brandyrb, hope you will get rid of them soon. Keep us posted.