# caulerpa went sexual after 2 years?!



## SilverThorn (Jul 22, 2010)

I was at my house yesterday doing some cleaning I made some adjustments to my led lights on my 29 biocube right after the leds came on & then I went back to what I was doing. (running this tank for I think 2 years now) I looked at the tank around 10 min later & it was all hazy! I was like WHAT THE?! My first thought was some kind problem with my new skimmer (hydor nano slim skim replacing the biocube skimmer I had. Installed week before last)I thought that the skimmer had over flowed putting yuck in the tank or I was getting micro bubbles or something I checked all my filters & junk & the only change I had made was adding a new bag of chemi pure the night before so I pulled it out thinking that perhaps something was wrong with it. I checked all my levels & everything looked fine.  Then I was thinking some kinde of freaky bacterial or algal bloom as I have herd of them happening rather suddenly but still 10min I thought was kind of fast but shutoff my lights & did a 25% water change I wanted to do a 50 but unfortunately I had to go to work. So still thinking I was dealing with some kind of freak bacteria or algae bloom, scratching my head all the while & wondering how I went to work. I completely covered the tank to prevent any light from getting in before I left. when I came home the tank was crystal clear & about 60% of my spiky caulerpa was all limp & looked sick. My other live stock corals, "rose" kelp I have had scene my first tank like 6 years ago looked fine & my fish were fine. The caulerpa had apparently gone sexual as far as I can tell this was the cause but it has been in this tank from when I first started it with no signs of this before. What I can't seem to find out about this is dose the caulerpa die off after doing this? Should I remove the "sick looking parts" or will it recover? Also do caulerpa have certain triggers that can cause them to do this that I can avoid? After having it in my tank for 2 years I never thought I would see it "going sexual" :withstup: but apparently it can occur at any time.


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

Yes, it dies off after this, and the clear parts should be removed. I'd have to guess that the new skimmer caused enough of a change to trigger it. New growth shouldn't be affected by it in the future.


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