Calurpa is crashing

[Brisc0]

I noticed that over the last few days my fern calurpa has been shriveling up. I noticed that the roots are all turning white as well. I have lost a lot of my fern over the past month to this same situation, however I didn't think much of it, as I consider fern to be the most finicky of the calurpa, and it turns around and booms usually. Today however the last of my fern has all gone south in a hurry. Any ideas why this sudden die off?
ALK 9.6
CAL 420
SG 1.025
TEMP: 81
Others: Undetectable with Salifert test kits
Fuge light cycle is 24/7 with miracle mud substrate.

 

[Guest]

Yea its going sexual (It is turning white then dissolving which turns all the algae into tiny spores). IMO get some calupera prolifera. I have this in my fuge, and it grows very fast, also dosen't go sexual.

 

[Brisc0]

Hmm, I had no idea thats how fern went sexual, but now that you mention it, the calurpa has slowly "melted" rather than just turn white like it had died. I will pull the rest of it from the tank.

 

[Guest]

The 24/7 also interests me because I read if you keep feather under 24/7 it won't go sexual. Guess they were wrong, anyways I have my prolifera in a 55 gal fuge, with a 18 watt grow bulb from HD 24/7 and this stuff is growing like crazy. Try it out, im glad I skipped the feather, grape calupera is another one that goes sexual quickly IME.

 

[Brisc0]

What are the signs of grape going sexual?

 

[ellisz]

Do most leave the fuge light on 24/7 or do the do reverse of the display? I do reverse but most have cheato algea which is not supposed to go sexual. I have little bit of the grape and fern though. It does get clear when the lights are out.

 

[Brad]

My Halimeda has gone sexual in the main display tank three times now. Each time I lose about 1/2 the existing crop. Fortunately, there is always some young stuff that doesn't go.

I haven't seen any tank effects from the activity. Can't figure out what triggers it...my best guess is that it always seems to be during hot weather (tank temp is up slightly)..and only affects large Halidmeda.

I have some grape caulerpa that hasn't done anything odd yet.

 

[Guest]

Yes I think it has to do with stress, or sudden changes in temperature. Anyways signs are usually the grape turning milky white, or even clear. Then suddenly dissolving clouding the water. Sometimes it can be harmful, or so ive heard.

 

[sumphead]

Macro sporulation is possible with any species I am sure. Never say never theory I guess. From what I understand lighting 24/7 reduces the risk but as far as I know there is no real experimentation to prove it. I have had razor go sexual and it was/is bad (still recovering). Prolifera is pretty good to my undersanding and cheatomorpha is awesome as it grows even in very little light. I have noticed that you may even start to see signs of increasing cyano-like blooms just as it starts to go. I had never had an issue with cyano and not 48 hours after the first sighting I had an explosion of bluuuach! Here's a link to a reefkeeping article that may help.

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/nftt/index.htm

 

[NaH2O]

Just a tidbit of information about macros going sexual. Caulerpa contains a toxin called caulpenyne. When Caulerpa goes sexual this toxin, as well as all the phosphates and nitrates your macro has taken in, will be released into the water (almost like dumping your skimmate back into the tank). Proper pruning is a good idea as well. Pinching and holding the pinch while pruning macros is recommended in order to reduce the amount of caulpenyne and gelbstoff (sp?) that is released. Also, if possible try and prune when you are conducting a water change. That way you can rinse the algae off in the old tank water.

Toxin Emission

 

[Hara]

get some calupera prolifera. I have this in my fuge, and it grows very fast, also dosen't go sexual.

It has been my personal experience that this too, will go sexual. This was the only caulerpa in my seahorse tank and one day I woke up to a cloudy tank and a bunch of white caulerpa...

 

[Guest]

I read that it dosen't under 24 hour lighting, but I guess it can. I sure hope it dosen't..

 

[Hara]

24/7 definitely lowers the incidence of it happening, but it is no guarantee ....

 

[Guest]

Yea, thats a shame it went off on you.