Caulerpa farmer

I

Ivan

[Using a 30 gallon tank I have in the attic, I am going to begin harvesting grape caulerpa (for starters). A couple of questions for those who have experience with this:

1. Can I use normal output lighting or should I go VHO?

2. Would you put in a substrate, or would you use live rock?
Would you use nothing at all?

3. Is efficient water flow (from an internal circulation
pump) necessary, or would you count on water movement
from overflow/return?

4. Would you even use a sump, or would you just "churn" the
water internally using an internal pump?

5. Am I forgetting anything? Additives? Symbiotic animals?

If I could grow caulerpa in my sump, believe me I would. Unfortunately I can't, but I'm pretty pumped about doing this in another system. Also feel free to comment on why I should NOT do this.]
 
[Hi Ivan,

In the attic, eh? That should work fine this time of year, but in the dead of winter of the peak of summer you may run into heat/cold issues.

Normal output works fine. I use 6500K spiral bulbs from Home Depot that are $7 each.

You don't need a lot of circulation, so what you pump up to it should be sufficient. Not only will you be growing caulerpa, but you'll have a nice refugium going as well.

One or two inchs of sand would be preferable over LR, but you could up in a piece to give the macros something to anchor to. They'll also spread roots into the substrate, to some degree.

Will you have easy access to climb into your attic to access this for harvesting every couple of weeks?

I would seed the fuge with one cup of LS to get it kickstarted.]
 
[Let me address the two posts so far . . .

The tank is unused in the attic, but I will be taking it out.

I'm growing the caulerpa because it is a great natural food source for my fish, and at least for me it's become somewhat time consuming to search and find it from others. More importantly, it's ultra-easy to grow, thereby making it cheap!]
 
[There are a few schools of thought on this subject. I like the Ecosystem way of thought which is you really cant have to much water flow. If you think about it in the wild this marco would be in the tidal or rubble zone which gets much more water movement then we will ever produce. Second make sure you get good gas exchange for the algae will be giving off waste and need the new air. I would use 2 to 3 in worth of subsate, if you can put in some live rock thats makes it even better. As for light I have seen everything from MH lights to the home depot lights. I think its more about what K temp you use 7500K- 5500K is best imo. As for things like live in there areas I would just put some live sand in there from your tank so you will see all the bristle worms and copepods.

My dream tank would have quite a bit of marco of different kinds. It would be 20Ft long and 4 ft wide with lots of marco and a few nice pieces of coral. I would house Tangs and Angels with all my macro! Now that would be a great tank.


Good luck
Keith]
 
[I know that I had some grape caulerpa on some rock that I bought. My Yellow Tang or Angel would not touch the stuff. And I would not get it near my reef tank again. The stuff will take over the rocks and is very hard to get out if it does. And caulerpa will release toxins into the water that is harmfull to sps corals. As far as a macro algae to farm for nutrient export, caulerpa is a poor choice if you have a reef tank attached to the refugium. Go with Chaematophora, or otherwise called Spaghetti algae it is great macro and will never harm corals, is easy to harvest because it does not attach to anything.]
 
@Kc189 wrote:
[Second make sure you get good gas exchange for the algae will be giving off waste and need the new air.] said:
[It is a plant, and uses photosynthesis to produce oxygen, after it absorbs carbon dioxide.

The plant can produce so much oxygen that the bubbles lift the plant to the surface, which is why it is good to anchor it.]
Click to expand...
 
[I had a Scopas Tang that mauled the caulerpa every time I introduced it to the tank, and i also have a foxface that traditionally love it. It wouldn't stay in my tank very long :nod:

I have never heard of grape caulerpa releasing toxins. And why would it be a poor nutrient choice? Can anybody comment on these points?]
 
[A link to a post in Eric's coral forum.
http://reefcentral.com/forums....omorpha

This is a quote from Eric Borneman's book Aquarium Corals, "Caulerpa species and other forms of macroalgae may also cause problems when grown in proximity to corals, especially stony corals. Many produce anti-predatory compounds. Caulerpa, Laurencia, and Halimeda species, in particular, may produce volatile organics, terpenes, and phenols that can cause the demise of stony corals." end quote.]
 
[Ivan...about the toxins.....macros absorb a lot of nasty stuff from your tank as they grow. When they die off, all the nasties are released back into the water, in a single dose. Thats why its best to grow it, trim it, and dump it. Its OK to feed it to your your fish, just don't let it decay in the system.]
 
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