Calurpa

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Jim Hart

55 Gal long.
Joined
Mar 15, 2007
Messages
229
Location
Spokane
How do you stop it......? Tiny grape calurpa has taken up residence on the rock. spreading like wildfire.

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I guess its time for a sump / refuge ..... I have avoided it for years, but I have had this taste in my mouth before and I probablly cant win w/out adding one.
 
Jim, what you got as for as flow goes? To me if your wc regular, keep nutrients low & have good to high flow you would have less troubles, although a sump is handy, it isn't necessary.
 
Dude, Scooty, this stuff is worse than cyano and hair algae. It's sooo evil. I'm telling you... water flow and controling nutrients just doesn't stop it. I had this stuff even when I had NO other algae (no cyano, no brush, no hair... just calurpa). Then again, I suppose you could argue that the calurpa outcompeted any other algae I might have. But in any case, this stuff is just really hard to get rid of.

Jim, I would do what Scooty says anyway since it looks like you have a lot more than just calurpa growing in there. But when it comes to just the calurpa, I had to manually pull it out every time I did a water change. It does help if you have a refugium and if you get a fish that eats it. I finally resorted to buying several emerald crabs and a baby hippo tang (even though I know it's going to outgrow my tank in a few years). It's still out of control in the refugium, but at least it's out of my main tank.

Good luck!
 
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Well guess I wasn't clear, I didn't offer any solution to the current problem but to him wanting a sump just for that reason, not that I'm against a sump.
Cyano is an easy algae to resolve IME, Hair, & some of the others aren't tat bad either. Razor, bubble & a few others can be a horror but can be overcome. Looks like over time his rocks weren't getting enough flow to help keep up with the tank & in time the algae took over, It is just a matter of what available algae will do the taking over. I agree that you need to harvest it aggressively, may need to do more if you can't get it under control. This is a sure sign that change is in order here & a few large wc's won't do it overnight. I think systems with sand a fuge can be very beneficial because of the nature of sand substrate, I don't feel the same with BB though, JMO.
 
dont loose your head....

that stuff is hardy

my sump always has a small amount of it somwhere hiden away.... the problem is that cheto is weak... and the calurpa gets the best of it...

so i find my self goind thur like cycles of cheto then calupa....

but i would get a sump, this stuff is really hard to remove from rocks and things... its good at growing..(like a vine) it gets in to hard to reach places and becomes very difficult 2 remove.
gl
 
Jim,

By far the worse algae Casey and I have come across. Its holdfasts get into every nook and cranny. We have been battling this algae for about 3 months now, but were actively cultivating it before, to provide food for a tang that we decided against. Manual extraction during water changes, more water changes, less feeding, and a phosphate reactor has helped a lot in our recent efforts.

How is your sump built? how much room? You could always try to grow or keep it in your sump/fuge, while removing it from the display. In time you should see a difference, but of course you wouldn't be rid of the bastard algae, only have it in a place with less visual traffic :/
 
as for current ther is lots, 4 p heads, an internal 1800 behind the rock and a spray bar. water flow funny I had that thought the first time and almost ripped my softies from their skeletons. I gues I should get rid of the fish ...... and starve it out.
 
How do you stop it......? Tiny grape calurpa has taken up residence on the rock. spreading like wildfire.

DSCN1572.JPG

Hi Jim, just a suggestion

get rid of the PO4 as much as you can +
remove it manually by hand +
switched off the light for few days +
change the filter wool everyday +
install a UV sterilizer to kill the free floating spore
 
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as for current ther is lots, 4 p heads, an internal 1800 behind the rock and a spray bar. water flow funny I had that thought the first time and almost ripped my softies from their skeletons. I gues I should get rid of the fish ...... and starve it out.

Having lots of flow & having good flow isn't the same. I had 36x turnover in my last tank but not well designed, makes a great big difference, you have to see it to really understand what I'm saying but it is worth research.
 
Just my two cents - I have a tank with the grape calupera in the tank - I just groom it out occasionally. No big deal, if you have a sump you will have to groom that too..

But anyhow - I put in the same rabbitfish you have - and mine ate it all, the tank was bare!! It took him a few days to settle in, but once he got hungry he killed it all.
 
I had problems with it in the past. Rather than cook the rock...I just spent a day and removed each rock one by one and manually removed calupera. It's time consuming, but more or less effective. Be certain to get as many of the little shoots of it that go into the rock...leaving even a tinly fragment behind will eventually sprout into a new plant. Disclaimer: this method is not 100% effective, as it is impossible to get every little bit of it, but it does help you keep it under control. I still get the occasional plant growing from time to time, but between my rabbitfish and my tang and manual removal of said plant when I do routine tank maintenance, the problem has stayed under control for me.

MikeS
 
But anyhow - I put in the same rabbitfish you have - and mine ate it all, the tank was bare!! It took him a few days to settle in, but once he got hungry he killed it all.

Thats the answer, starve the fish till the rabbit starts to eat it....
 
I started the routine last night, I noticed the rabbit fish when the lights go out and the atanics are still on goes night night and turns a camouflage color scheme. I think at this point he cant see. Perfect fish feeding time, Id hate to starve the anthias they seem to get sunken cheeks the fastest.
 
Nope, Just spent 3 hours pulling every rock with calurpa out and picking it clean. Hopefully by the timeit starts to flurish again the silly rabbit fish will take a liking to it.
 
I hate fish aquariums, Its a love hate relationship. Thanks Guys and gals. This is good place to vent since my wife is tired of hearing it.
 

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