How Not To Cut Macro

[Donya]

I havn't seen anyone else mention this problem so I thought I'd put it out. I found my tank suddenly green today with a thick, severed Caulerpa stem pooring out tones of green stuff. It seems the other end was able to pinch itself off and prevent much fluid loss, so everything connected to that end is ok, but the other half never was able to cut off the flow. It just drained completely and left a hollow tube. I'm not sure which veggie-eater in the tank is responsible, but I hope whoever did it enjoyed that bite, 'cause it cost me a good 1/4 of my really big, really nice-looking feather Caulerpa in less than an hour due to that...not to mention the mess it made in the tank. From this I think I can safely conclude that it's a bad idea to cut open the main stem without pinching it out first. Whenever I manually trimmed stuff I had always tied it off with something for a bit before cutting to avoid this with thicker stems. Bummer

 

[steelhealr]

I hate Caulerpa. You'll never see it in any of my tanks ever. Viva chaeto. SH

 

[Donya]

Viva chaeto. SH

Caulerpa's never done anything but make my tanks briefly unsightly (although I adapted my setups around macro...they're pretty strange at this point), I'm just sad I lost so much of it due to being bitten in half like that. But Chaeto--UGH! It may be wonder-spaghetti in a sump, but in a brightly lit tank with other plants to wrap around it can literally grow to the point where it pushes itself and other stuff out of the water and dries out. I have been at war with Chaeto for the last several months in my main tank since it bounces back from nothingness and strangles the other macro species I'm trying to cultivate.