# How do you get rid of razor caulerpa



## TBemba

I have no idea how I got this nice little plant but Its growing with gusto. 
I would like to know if anyone has a solution. I've tried scrubbing the rocks and pulling it by hand put it really anchors itself to live rock.


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## fesso clown

if you can get the rock out to scrub it try with some hydrogen peroxide. JUst brush some peroxide onto the affected area and let it sit for a few minutes.


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## TBemba

I'll give it a try

Thanks


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## fesso clown

Before you do do some googling on peroxide and algea in Reef Central and Nano-reef. 
Peroxide will kill most macros but you should kind of know what you're doing.
Use a little and brush it onto the area you want to clear, do not dip. It will kill pods, stars worms ect...


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## TBemba

fesso clown said:


> Before you do do some googling on peroxide and algea in Reef Central and Nano-reef.
> Peroxide will kill most macros but you should kind of know what you're doing.
> Use a little and brush it onto the area you want to clear, do not dip. It will kill pods, stars worms ect...


Unfortunately it's everywhere. I was hoping a critter could keep it under control.


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## Crayon

Try fire angel's sea hare. Do some googling around to see what others say about razor calurpa. I have a similar issue with some bryopsis and on two pieces that I could get out of the tank the hydrogen peroxide worked wonders. There is no fish or urchin that will eat my bryopsis, but the calurpa might be more palatable.


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## TBemba

http://www.saltwaterfish.com/product-dolabella-sea-hare

This dolabella sea hare sounds like an algae recking machine. But I don't think I could keep it feed if it does a great job.


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## goobafish

Can you physically remove the rock it's on? Is there anything else on it?

I would only use a clean-up crew if you can't remove the rock. Emerald crabs, hermits (especially halloween), and urchins should all work well.


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## TBemba

goobafish said:


> Can you physically remove the rock it's on? Is there anything else on it?
> 
> I would only use a clean-up crew if you can't remove the rock. Emerald crabs, hermits (especially halloween), and urchins should all work well.


It's on every rock, but tank is small so I could just take them all out and give them a scrub.

I did this a month ago when I started seeing it.

I have since glued frags to the rocks. I am worried about the poroxide in the water even if I rinse really well.

Called around locally no tuxedo urchins, I've heard bad things about crabs


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## goobafish

TBemba said:


> It's on every rock, but tank is small so I could just take them all out and give them a scrub.
> 
> I did this a month ago when I started seeing it.
> 
> I have since glued frags to the rocks. I am worried about the poroxide in the water even if I rinse really well.
> 
> Called around locally no tuxedo urchins, I've heard bad things about crabs


I would remove the rock, ensure no inverts are on it, and dip all of it in 50% hydrogen peroxide 50% saltwater. The only coral that consistently won't survive that is acropora and some montipora. This ensures that not only the algae is killed, but the spores are as well. The last thing you want is caulerpa going sexual in your tank waiting for cleanup crew to handle it.


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## TBemba

goobafish said:


> I would remove the rock, ensure no inverts are on it, and dip all of it in 50% hydrogen peroxide 50% saltwater. The only coral that consistently won't survive that is acropora and some montipora. This ensures that not only the algae is killed, but the spores are as well. The last thing you want is caulerpa going sexual in your tank waiting for cleanup crew to handle it.


Holy heck! Where do you buy bulk hydrogen peroxide? I have a 500 ml bottle but I've never looked for gallons of it. To dip rocks


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## goobafish

TBemba said:


> Holy heck! Where do you buy bulk hydrogen peroxide? I have a 500 ml bottle but I've never looked for gallons of it. To dip rocks


2l (4x500ml) is something like $10 at Costco. You dont need that much, just fill a bucket with half tank water half peroxide and dip each rock for 5 minutes.


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## fesso clown

You don't have to dip the entire rock, you can brush it onto the affected areas. It worked wonders for me. I did not really dilute it either though.


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## TBemba

fesso clown said:


> You don't have to dip the entire rock, you can brush it onto the affected areas. It worked wonders for me. I did not really dilute it either though.


Do you rinse it off 
With fresh or saltwater if you do


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## fesso clown

Yes I rinsed off in a bucked of water change water. Just a few swishes. I brushed it (Ho2o) on with a toothbrush, let it sit for 3-5 min. Then swish and plop back into the tank.


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## TBemba

I guess I'll give it a try tomorrow. What do I have to lose? Just a couple hundred dollars in coral and fish.

This isnt my tank yet


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## fesso clown

I suggested it on page one maybe you did look already but google "hydrogen peroxide + nano reef." And hydrogen peroxide + reef central. There are 2 major threads on either respective forum. Have a poke around and do some reading. Some people dose their tanks but I found that idea pretty risky and preferred to follow the advice to take out a rock, brush it with peroxide, let it sit 4-5 minutes, rinse it off and plop it back in the DT. 
Worked for me but I also completely 100℅ had my nutrients under control first.
Good lord I thought that was your tank at first glance and was going to suggest SCTVing out the window.
Good luck.


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## goobafish

With anywhere near that amount of macro in your tank I see it as risky brushing it instead of dipping. If your tank looks anything like that I would definitely dip all the rock.

When you dip you ensure you kill the spores attached to the face of the rock as well as inside crevices you can't reach with a brush. If you are going through all the work of removing the rocks to treat them, you are best to ensure you don't have to do it again. I have done it both ways, and had to remove contents multiple times when I brushed them.

I had Bryopsis almost that bad :/


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## fesso clown

I should clarify, I don't scrub with the brush more like paint the HO2O with the brush onto the rock. But ya , if it looks anything like that photo I would dip or maybe actually change rock altogether.


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## TBemba

It's not as bad as the picture,. But every week it takes ove a bigger area than before and putting it by hand is futile.

I will definitely be careful 

Thank for all the help much appreciated.


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## TBemba

Okay, I did it.

Pulled out all the rock 

Two bottles of hydrogen peroxide, poured it straight on the heavily Calulerpa areas after pulling as much as I could. Then scrubbing each rock and submersing the rocks in tank saltwater and 1 3/4 bottles of the peroxide mix for at least 5 minutes.

Placing the finished rocks in an empty bucket. Then reversing the process and giving them a quick fresh saltwater dip.

I have placed all the rock back in the tank but was unable to get all the caulerpa off the rocks. 

The corals don't look happy. I think I will do a 20 % water change tomorrow


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## TBemba

Update:

Second day about 24. Hours since the dip.

Mixed a fresh batch of sw 20% 

Took all the rock out again, scrubbed each piece the two really bad pieces still have some remaining caulerpa, just scrubbed no peroxide.

Changed the water and rearranged everything. Nice and easy to get all the debris out of a empty tank.

Put the rock back.

Some of the corals took a sever beating the trumpet coral is pretty well dead skeleton showing. It was a very vibrant and healthy piece but just the remaining peroxide left on the rocks really destroyed it. The acropora coral might not make it either but harder to see the extent of the damage. The birdsnest is burned really bad as well. 

If I had to do it all over again I would have dipped the live rock then did a 20% water change. Left the rock in the old tank water over night with a powerhead to allow the peroxide to dilute and the chemical reaction to end.

Then I would have put the rock back in the next day.

I'm not confident that I killed all the razor caulerpa and that I just really messed up the balance of the tank and killed most of my coral.

On the bright side I learned something.

I have two sexy shrimp and a porcelain crab and they appear to be fine.


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## disman_ca

Not adding anything of value other than a comment after reading this thread. I kept a 10G tank with 2 seahorses after I removed them from my larger tank. I loved the macro algae both razor and grape caulerpa and the seahorses did to. I can certainly say it is difficult to get rid of it off of rock. If you have that much of it and it is taking over, just toss the rock. Of course you'll want to remove all the coral you can salvage. You should also be checking the tank bed as it grows roots in the gravel. Also be careful when the algea turns asexual which is its response when pruned. This is the worst time for it to spread hence I say toss the rock.


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## TBemba

I made the best attempt at removing as much as possible. I'd really like to get something that may eat whatever may remain. I have read sea hares,urchins,turbo snails, emerald crabs they all might eat it. I'd like to find something that may totally eradicate it from the tank.


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## fesso clown

I am glad it seemed to have worked out for you. The anecdotal evidence would suggest though that there wasn't much risk from just putting the rocks back into your tank, some people actually dose their tanks...

These are a couple of the threads that I was talking about earlier: 
http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/268706-peroxide-saves-my-tank-with-pics-to-prove-it/

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2282884


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## goobafish

After my successful Bryopsis cleanup I tried a ton of different CUC members to get the last little bit from those remaining spores. I would imagine the same CUC members that are good for that are good for other macro algaes, as Bryopsis is probably the toughest to get eaten. If my tank was larger I would have had more options like a Foxface.

Did not work: Blue hermits, red hermits, most snails, lettuce nudibranch, brown sea hare

Did work (keep in mind the majority of these will severely mess up your frags/coral placement): Longspine urchin, Mexican turbo snail (fist-sized), emerald crabs (must already be pruned), Halloween hermit crabs, fighting conch

In fact, after clearing out every last piece of macro from my tank, I sold all the large CUC members to give myself a break fixing frags, and sure enough it came back through spores in the sandbed. I have since re-added the least invasive members of the crew; more emeralds, halloween hermits and a new smaller longspine urchin.


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## TBemba

I have a conch and it. Does an amazing job with the sand bed. Thinking urchin. My blue legged hermit has kind of turned me off of crabs.

From my experience and it was only this one time. I think if you put a shot glass full off peroxide into a 20 gallon tank like mine. You would get the same damaging results.

The Corals that were affected, started to slime up almost instantly and definately affected them in a really bad way. Others like the open brain,gonapora, toad stool, mushrooms montipora and hammer bounced back today or didn't seem to be affected. But the arcos and trumpet are close to being dead, if not already.

It did kill 98% of the razor caulerpa so that's a good thing. But the 2% that looks like it made it by some miracle scares me


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## goobafish

I dipped every piece of removable coral (~40 pieces at the time) 4-5 times each in 50/50 hydrogen peroxide/saltwater. I lost all 3 of the acropora frags on the first dip, and lost nothing else at all besides 1 montipora on the 4th dip. Some take over a week to bounce back.

I didn't have to remove my rock using the cleanup crew I posted, I just had to remove the coral to give them room to clean.


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## fesso clown

There is a very good chance that the "surviving" will be dead in the next couple of days. That's how it seems to work for people after a Ho2o treatment. It ought to turn white over a couple of days and die off.


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## TBemba

Update,

The trumpet candy cane Coral that was the worse is amazingly coming back. I wish I could post pics here but my iPad is not liking the site.

The pink lemonade isn't looking good no polp extension at all. Still green so maybe.

I decided to make the trip to kW they had a sale on tuxedo urchins ABD had then on for $10. Nothing left there so I decided BA's they had assorted urchins for sale. I picked up a tuxedo urchin, a red star fish and on impulse a Yellow Sea cucumber. 

The urchin is pretty active I hope it cleans up the small stray caulerpa. The starfish is pretty cool and I hope he gets the extra food that's laying around.

The cucumber hasn't really moved more than an inch and doesn't have its Feeding arms out so I hope it's okay.


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## TBemba

It's back. Other than throwing out all the rocks I think I'm screwed.


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## Midland

Shame to hear that it is back. I have made a lot of head way with my hair algae problem but its not completely gone yet - it keeps greening up after a variety of things I have done (peroxide, scrubbing, no lights 3 days, reduced food and shorter light period etc.) However, I have noticed that it dies off in the sump I have that has the macro algae I use for nitrogen export. There is a standard plant grow light in that tank so you would think the hair algae would grow more there. However, for some reason it dies in the sump - maybe the huge amount of macro in it out competes it. So, my next step is to take a few rocks at a time and put them in their and see if that works. I realize the spores might not be dealt with but Rome wasn't built in a day. 

I realize you have a different type of algae but I have been following this thread since I have a similar issue.


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## TBemba

Good luck with your issue .

I tried a tuxedo urchin and it will not eat the stuff. But demolished chaetos.The only thing they are good for is micro algae and the knock everything over and rip up frags and carry them around.

I bought a lawnmower blenny, great personality leaves lip marks all over the glass. But so far won't touch the stuff. 

I'll never use peroxide again. It was more of a curse than anything.

Killed coral and harmed others.afterwards I got red slime and just this week have won that battle. But with it gone the razor has came back. Really weird that this stuff is taking off after not seeing any for several months.


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## TBemba

Question, if I remove all the rock and dip the corals will the sand bed harbour the razor caulerpa? If so and I remove all the sand as well could any media I use harbour any spores?


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## Jmbret

TBemba said:


> Question, if I remove all the rock and dip the corals will the sand bed harbour the razor caulerpa? If so and I remove all the sand as well could any media I use harbour any spores?


do you have a tang?


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## TBemba

Yes yellow tang for almost a month will not touch the stuff. Lawnmower blenny three months will not touch the stuff. Sea hare just a week will not touch the stuff. Emerald crab, nope. Tuxedo urchin wouldn't eat it but cleaned up two softball sized clumps of cheatoes in less than a week.


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