What happens when Caulerpa goes bad?

[AliciaP]

What does Caulerpa do when it goes bad? Does it release chemicals to starve the fish of O2?

My tank is probably mid crash right now, I don't know why. I JUST added two Hydor 1050's last night and found 7 fish gasping for air this morning. After adding the pumps, my husband added freshwater to top off the tank before heading to bed, and he poured it directly on the caulerpa :\ Did the fresh water by any chance shock the crap out of the caulerpa and cause a problem in the tank?

120 gallon tank 4x2x2
*Ammonia - between 0 and 0.25 (has been for a couple weeks)
*Nitrite - between 0 and 0.25 (has been for a couple weeks)
Nitrate - 40-80 (lower than normal believe it or not it's finally coming down)
temp - 80
pH - 8.2
Salinity - 1.025

*I think I had a spike due to heavy feeding, the color chart isn't showing 0, BUT it's not 0.25 either.

 

[Steven R]

it goes sexual if not harvested regularly. and yes you might of shocked the caulerpa by (sudden change in salinity ) and also fresh water directly on it will shock it alone. i would run heavy carbon for a few days, turn up your skimmer so it is pulling a wet skim, and do a 20% water change. What color is your water?

 

[wysiwyg]

when caulerpa or any other macro algae dies of it releases co2/phosphates nitrates and ammonia. i would do an immediate 30% water change

 

[Steven R]

I would also switch from caulerpa to chaetomorpha a"lot more reliable and it pulls out nutrients better and faster depending on what type of chaeto you find. Caulerpa also will release nutrients back into the water if it is breaking down and chaeto will not. I would pull the caulerpa out if that is what is causing the problem.If it starts to turn white pull it out.

 

[AliciaP]

I pulled it, no more Caulerpa in the tank except for what is rooted onto things in the sump and I will continue to remove that. Could the new pumps kicking up a ton of detritus do this? Or was it likely the freshwater straight onto the Caulerpa?

 

[AliciaP]

Water is clear. I switched out carbon and added double what I normally add. And my daughter and I are on our way out the door to walk to our LFS to carry home salt. I hope I don't have to carry a bag of salt and a two year old lol

 

[Steven R]

I pulled it, no more Caulerpa in the tank except for what is rooted onto things in the sump and I will continue to remove that. Could the new pumps kicking up a ton of detritus do this? Or was it likely the freshwater straight onto the Caulerpa?

It is most likely the fresh water being pored on to it. Either way Chaeto is the way to go. I can send you a big bag of it just pay shipping if you want? Also what type of lighting is over your Algae?

 

[AliciaP]

I would love some Steven! I can't get any around here, I have a teeny tiny piece but it was beat up by the caulepra it looks like. And by teeny tiny piece, I mean a strand, not a golfball size... like a marble size or smaller. Found it while cleaning out the caulerpa and I have a t5 10k daylight over it I believe. Runs opposite my DT lights

I just got home from the closest LFS. Bought salt and another test kit. It tests for some different things and some same things. The woman (only ever one employee, either the owner or another woman) working spoke to me about what was wrong, I know better than to trust them much, but she says my fish are oxygen deprived, do a water change, but not as big as half because it will only stress them out more. Truth? I always do 55 gallons when I water change.... That's almost half, is it really too much? Especially considering she doesn't understand the Caulerpa?

new test kit says:
GH - 180
KH - 120
pH - 8.0-8.5 (in the middle, closer to 8.0 color)
nitrite - 0
nitrate - 40-80

I've never test for GH or KH and don't even know what they should be at anyway, but they are there.

Sorry if this ends up being a double post, but the last one disappeared.

 

[AliciaP]

I don't know if Caulerpa is the cause or just a coincidence. Big water change (same size I always do ~55gallons) and no luck, dead YT Everyone still breathing hard. Everyone but the 2 clowns. Could the detritus have hurt them? I kicked up a whole lot, more than I've ever seen in any tank. Could it hurt their gills or something? Could it be marine velvet? The YT and Idol ahve been in the tank since May 1st and 3rd. No scratching or flashing or spots. No other signs yet other than heavy breathing.

 

[Quinn123]

I had the same thing happen to me, everything was doing fine woke up next morning the caulerpa was all white, I didn't do anything to the water, I was puzzle why the caulerpa just crashed

 

[Bubbles_B]

Thats good news thanks for the info!