Scott has a point. This stuff will take over a tank in no time if you don't keep an eye on it or if you don't have any fish that will keep it trimmed down. Not only that, from what I understand, from Scott and others, this stuff needs constant or a nearly constant source of light to keep it from going sexual. In the sump or fug this is easy to control with 24/7 lighting but in the display the dark period is long enough for a sexual event to occur.
However, I don't practice what I preach here because I do keep a little along with some other red macros in two of my display tanks. I like the way it looks in my aggressive FOWLR because this tank is BB with a lot of base rock and just a little live rock. The macros grow to the base rock giving the tank a little color and a more natural look, but I keep it trimmed back from the live rock as much as possible. I think Karen also writes about using it in a display around her NEM islands just for aesthetics.
I also use it in a pod pile in one corner of my reef tank for my Mandarin who sucks the pods out of it faster than I can keep it in there. The Mandarin sucks the caulerpa in like spaghetti ingesting the critters off it then spits the greens back out. I guess this kills the caulerpa because it looks pretty wilted when he goes through a patch of it. But I do worry constantly about the sexual thing. I'm just hopping that the moon lights and 24/7 spots on my HOB fug will be enough light to keep this stuff celibate. But you guys may be reading a post by me in the not so distant future crying over loosing all my fish due to what some horny caulerpa did to my tank in the dark.
8)
