caulerpa good or bad?

[saltguy21]

I wanted to put culerpa in my 10 fowlr set up to help with nitrates.I have standard lighting. I have standard aquarium lighting, no more than 80 watts. Will it be hepful or harmful?

 

[bradreef]

It can do both help and hurt. I would recomend other macro algae's

 

[liveforphysics]

Any plant that is able to rapidly grow will be bennificial. Caulerpa just happens to be one that has a nasty feature where it can meltdown and poison your tank when it tries to reproduce sexually. I also think its a pain in the neck because it likes to grow onto something.

Chaetomorpha is an algae that grows very rapidly (under proper conditions), does not root onto things, does not have a sexual meltdown function, and has no potential to take over something or become a nusciance.

Is is the sole filtration means I used with my reefs, and I definately recomend it over caulerpa.

 

[aquariumdebacle]

"friends don't let friends use Caulerpa"(AC) The risks far outweigh the benefits. Eliminate all traces of the plant as soon as possible. I have not had good experiences with it.

 

[Krish]

I've never used caulerpa, but I've heard too many bad stories about them screwing up tanks, that I would never personally use it. There are many other algae's out there that you can use like chaeto etc. that are much better at binding up nitrates and phosphates without the ill efffects

 

[brianblack]

I have had a few different kinds of macros and Chaetomorpha is by far my favorite. As mentioned it grows and does not attach to anything. I started with a base ball size (1 yr ago) and have given numerous baseball sized pcs to friends. My Pods seem to hang in it. (have 2 30 gal viewable fuges). Right now I have about a 4 baseball size in the upper fuge and a baseball size in hte lower fuge.