Question about Caulerpa

[wayne]

Well you can do it as you might as welll start gettign nutrients out of the system as soon as possible. My only issue with sticking it in so early is that I actually find caulerpa a bit fragile, and it usually takes a little while to get going, and I can't believe going into a very new setup is going to do it any favours. So I would likely let system settle for a little while before putting it in. I also find caulerpa to be quite easy to damage during maintenance, so if you get a change to mix it with, or use another algae lie chaetomorpha I think that would be a good idea.
Some other notes. You will see people refer to Caulerpa 'going sexual' after 3 , 4 months without pruning - I believe 24 hour lighting stops that. I am looking to build a mud/algae sump into my next system, I will probably have my lighting oon a reverse cycle to my main tank to keep the pH and O2 levels stable, to stop the sexual problem I am going to have to stay on top of caulerpa maintenance.
Most people (inc. Leng Sy) run combination systems of skimmer + caulerpa sump, but you don't need to. Running a HOB unit like a Remora or CPR bakpak on the main display might make sense, or replacing the bioball part of the sump with a skimmer.
Also I tihnk there's a lot to be said for running a mud substrate rather than sand, but you can argue it either way. I way to run a mud/silt

 

[Lorna]

wow your pic of your fw reminds me of my fw. I had a 75 with tinfoil barbs that got to be huge and when I broke it down I had to catch them with a bucket. I think a person could have cut a few fillets off those guys and fed the family......

 

[thatdog2202]

Yeah those tin foils are huge. The reason I bought that tank was because I wanted to keep them and I knew they would get large. It was nice to watch them grow from little 2 inch fish to 6 and 8 inch fish.

 

[thatdog2202]

Wayne thanks for the added advice. I did already put the caulerpa back in, and per a recommendation from a fellow customer I also added a piece of LR to the refugium to give the different little critters a place to call home. I'm definitely going to keep an eye on the caulerpa over the next few days as well. As far as the lighting I have a light on it running 24 hrs.

 

[dbacksrat]

Intersting info Wayne, interesting. What are the advantages of mud over sand?

 

[wayne]

ALgae are plants at the end of the day, so ask the freshwater plant boys the difference between sand and fluorite for planted tanks. Also you seem to get better dinitrafication in a mud compared to a sand bed (even without the algae), and better, different biodiversity.