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charlie_g

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I've heard alot of things about preventing Caulerpa from going sexual from 24hr lighting, to reduced lighting, and a few other things... Can you guys chime in on this? Also, do i need to acclimate caulerpa?

TY
 

Fatal Morgana

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Some say you need to acclimate caulerpa, but I found no need for it unless the salinity is vasty different. Most just dump a new batch in.

As for the sexual issue, there is no silver bullet. Somewhat, it is related to stress. IME, Caulerpa does not sexual even if you do regular 12 hr. lighting. Some time it goes all at once, but mine usually turn white in small patches.
 

Len

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Yup, nothing is a sure-fire solution, but one other thing I do (to all my macroalgae) is regular pruning. I know stuff like Halimeda sp go sexual if I let it grow out of control.
 
A

Anonymous

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charlie_g":1b22wha2 said:
I've heard alot of things about preventing Caulerpa from going sexual from 24hr lighting, to reduced lighting, and a few other things... Can you guys chime in on this? Also, do i need to acclimate caulerpa?

TY

I had a new shipment of a feather caulerpa die off or go sexual. It was a real mess. The shipment had been in the mail for three days during the hottest part of the year. And it was placed in an established tank that already was testing nitrates at 0.0. So it was stressed and placed in a very low nutrient environment.

No silver bullet sure, but in two years that was the only event remotely appearing to be sexual. When placing the caulerpa (especially profilera) in a tank with any nutrients and then letting the caulerpa grow, no sexual events have occurred. I also hear that harvesting say 1/2 every couple of weeks helps also. Which is good anyway to keep the plant life actively growing and therefore absorbing the heavy metals and phosphates.

IME the positive effects of caulpera vastly outweigh the slight chace of a sexual event. Some other forms of macros can go sexual as well. From what I hear chaeto and true marine plants (various grasses for instance) do not have that problem.
 

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