lighting requirements for caulerpa

[reefguy]

hey folks...
i've been battling a nitrate/phosphate problem for a few weeks now and i haven't had any luck finding the source. i have a 100 gallon tank with an internal wet/dry filter. a few months ago, i removed the bioballs from two compartments and they've been empty ever since. i was thinking of putting some caulerpa back there to help with the nitrates/phosphates. since it's in the filter, there's good water flow, but i was wondering what kind of light it requires. the illumination back there is fairly strong, albeit not as strong as in the main tank. any ideas?

[Sand Reef]

How about some cheap PC's that you can find at Home Depot. They're called "Lights of America". I think they come in a 65 watts, not sure, but caulerpa is not too picky.

[reefguy]

so i guess NO ONE knows any more specifics about adequate lighting for caulerpa? seems kinda suspicious.......LOL

[Sand Reef]

well whaddya know, im no one, and i also dont have any caulerpa growing in my tank right now. and ive never used normal output flourescents to grow my non existant caulerpa, so what would i know. i also know that it wont grow under NO and VHO because ive never done it so please dont ask me anything, cuz im by no means an expert

[Wrasse Man]

I used 2 very old (2+ Years) 18 inch (I think) NO's over a 20 gallon sump. The culerpa took off and went bonkers. I think that since I was using the very bottom of the barrel as far as lighting goes, I never had any other algae grow in the sump- I had tons in the display, but I think culerpa is sort of a dandylion of the marine plants. In fact, I took my lights off my sump last weekend to fit in a new skimmer. The culerpa hasn't had any light for a week, and is still dark green and growing. I wouldn't advise trying to grow this stuff in a 0 light environment, but long story short, I think you could just about anything other than a regular light bulb.

Just my .02

[asmith]

I think you would be fine with a NO strip light. The strip light combined with the light coming from the main tank should be enough to grow it.

Andrew

[Scodz]

this might raise some eyebrows, but I have had great luck with various macros using metal clamp lamps and plant grow spots sounds crazy and looks more like a lizard cage than a fish tank but is a cheap as possible and does indeed work for most "green" macros. I have also had limited luck using these el cheapo lamps on corallimorphs and bubble corals etc, but I was supplementing with phytoplankton as well. With Macros little light is required when potassium and iron are high, while low you will need to boost lighting to get faster growth. The ideal light I believe is mercury vapors with a lot of red in the spectrum it wont penitrate deep into the tank so the macros grow up and it is fairly costly but the results can be amazing with some calerpa species literally growing two inches or more a day. Actually the record for fastest growing plant is Calerpa Taxifola at three inches a day. Some dont consider it a plant so possibly it is the fastest "sea weed" which is a term that doesnt talk about things living in the sea soley and it certainly not a type of weed. Anyway some useless info for ya

[Court Jester]

I believe you want a bulb with a strong peak in the "green" region.

I use an 18W Jalli fixture with a 6700k daylight PC on my 18" CPR refugia. The caulerpa in there is growing like mad (along with all the other macro alga). The Jalli fixures are nice and cheap if you don't need a lot of watts.