OK I haven't posted much on here for about a year so I'll start by describing my tank - 55 reef, 400W 10k mh, 2x55W PC actinics, 90ish lbs live rock. Mostly soft corals, a clam, currently ONE fish (dusky jawfish) and ENORMOUS QUANTITIES OF MACROALGAE.
I think due to my relatively intense lighting, the caulerpa that grows produces very few leaves, and concentrates its energy in growing stringy stalks that spread across my tank and anchor to everything they touch. I also have some halimeda growth and some grape caulerpa. Fortunately the caulerpa bloom seems to have out-competed my valonia outbreak!
Now I'm at the point of pulling out enough caulerpa "stems" each week to fill a 1/2 gallon container, and the stuff overgrows everything, sticks to my clam, covers some corals, etc. I am SICK of it! I don't mind a little greenery in the tank but this stuff is out of control.
With only one fish, I feed VERY lightly, maybe 1/4 - 1/2 cube of prime-reef per day or more like every other day (anything the jawfish misses, the serpent stars pick up pretty quickly). My skimmer barely pulls any foam from the tank at all (it has pulled a lot of foam before so I know it's tuned pretty well, there just doesn't appear to be much to skim now). I only run the MH about 5 hrs a day and the actinics come on and turn off an hour before and after. I've learned my lesson with tangs, won't touch them in a 55, and the only other macro eater I know of is the foxface but that's also a larger fish than I'd like to see in my 55g. Is there anything else that can help me out here? The stuff is so stringy it's virtually impossible to keep under control by hand because there are seemingly billions of strands to pull off of everything, and I have to take my whole hood off to get good access to the rockwork, which is a huge hassle.
Any help at ALL would be much appreciated!
I think due to my relatively intense lighting, the caulerpa that grows produces very few leaves, and concentrates its energy in growing stringy stalks that spread across my tank and anchor to everything they touch. I also have some halimeda growth and some grape caulerpa. Fortunately the caulerpa bloom seems to have out-competed my valonia outbreak!
Now I'm at the point of pulling out enough caulerpa "stems" each week to fill a 1/2 gallon container, and the stuff overgrows everything, sticks to my clam, covers some corals, etc. I am SICK of it! I don't mind a little greenery in the tank but this stuff is out of control.
With only one fish, I feed VERY lightly, maybe 1/4 - 1/2 cube of prime-reef per day or more like every other day (anything the jawfish misses, the serpent stars pick up pretty quickly). My skimmer barely pulls any foam from the tank at all (it has pulled a lot of foam before so I know it's tuned pretty well, there just doesn't appear to be much to skim now). I only run the MH about 5 hrs a day and the actinics come on and turn off an hour before and after. I've learned my lesson with tangs, won't touch them in a 55, and the only other macro eater I know of is the foxface but that's also a larger fish than I'd like to see in my 55g. Is there anything else that can help me out here? The stuff is so stringy it's virtually impossible to keep under control by hand because there are seemingly billions of strands to pull off of everything, and I have to take my whole hood off to get good access to the rockwork, which is a huge hassle.
Any help at ALL would be much appreciated!
