Caulerpa is detrimental to reef tanks??

[Achilles Tang]

Got this off RC...

"At the MASLAC meeting last Friday, Anthony Calfo mentioned how he thought macroalgae is detrimental to reefs because they release chemicals into the water that in the long run can be harmful to corals. I haven't really done more in depth research on this, since macro has been a popular thing to have in recent years, but it makes sense from what he said, "if you look at reefs in the world, you don't find macro present." He did say a good alternative would be sea grass or spaghetti algae.

More directly, caulerpa has a toxin within it called caulerpin or something like that. this chemical can literally burn the flesh off corals if semi-concentrated."

What next?

[hongqixian]

Take it with a pinch of salt. It doesn't really look like they do anything to each other except smother each other one way or the other. Anyway, carbon should remove whateveritis.

[hydra]

It seems caulerpa do produce toxin metabolites. And toxin accumulated is harmful to the fish

and inverts. This is one of the selling point of Miracle Mud, where it claims the toxicity is neutralised

by the mud.

[hongqixian]

Are metabolites digestive chemicals?

How does the mud neutralize the chemicals?