Caulerpa/SPS Question

[fishbone]

I have heard that caulerpa should not be incorporated into a SPS tank because it leaches off chemicals, which interfere with classification of SPS corals. Is this true?

 

[lil_ol_me]

Uuhhhh......almost every sps tank I see, on a regular basis, are run on Ecofilter or refugium type systems, utilizing various macroalgaes' abilities to remove nutrients.

In other words....BS.

Dave.

 

[qa2744]

One common concern is that these plants can go through a spawning cycle where they release large amounts of gametes into the water.

I have had this happen once, and it complete turns the tank into a fog. It's very nerve wracking, and potentially dangerous because of the high concentration.

I imediately did a 50% water change to clear the tank, and I removed most of the calurpa to avoid this problem again.

Some people solve this problem by having the calurpa in their sump and running the lights 24 hours. This throws off the natural spawning cycles, and tends to stop the procss.

 

[fishbone]

So the only real concern is mass spawning. What about the stuff that the caulerpa leaches out that turns the water a tint of yellow. This is the stuff I am worried about. I currently use caulerpa to export nutrients from my tank. I am just curios what by-products caulerpa produces, and if an of these by-products are harmful , or some sort of chemical defense mechanism.