Halimeda

[wbdevers]

I bought some live rock about a month ago from an online vendor. Beautiful rock with all kinds of cool stuff on it. To save money I shipped ground vs air. This was a one day difference with a total two day ship. Some of the rock had Halimeda on it. I thought it had all died, but I've got sprouts in a lot of places. My question is this--will a yellow Tang eat it? If not should I pluck it or just "prune" it. I assume it will help pull nitrates out of the water so that would be good.

Thanks for the advice and help.

W

[Sisterlimonpot]

I got some live rock with that on it once and my tangs didn't touch the stuff, it really didn't grow either, I kept the phosphates and nitrates down to undetectable levels and the halimeda just sat there.

If you like the look you can keep it, if not remove it. I doubt it will become a nuisance in your tank. At least it didn't in mine.

[wbdevers]

Thanks SLP. I've never heard of anyone having a problem with it but I wanted to ask just the same.

I do like the look of it though so I will keep it but I'm not going to go out of my way to "farm" it! LOL.


W

[Toddrtrex]

I need to take an further back picture of it....over the last 3 months or so, my 3 year old live rock has just sprouted up out of the blue--- have no idea what caused it. No one touches it, but that is fine with me, like the way it looks. Plus it grows fairly slow, and easy to prune.

A picture of my flame angel swimming in/near it.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y189/toddrtrex/Flame3.jpg

[Percula9]

Nice flame Angel. The only thing about Halimeda is that it is calcareous algae and will consume calcium.

[Sisterlimonpot]

Nice flame Angel. The only thing about Halimeda is that it is calcareous algae and will consume calcium.

ahh, that makes sense. Thanks for that info.

[Reverend Reefer]

give it to me! people pay money for this stuff. hehe. i guess its a bit hard to find in some places. i think its quite beautiful.

[wbdevers]

Thanks all. I read that it was calcarius and that was why I was wondering if a yellow tang would eat it--talk about specialized diet! I will let it do it's thing and you the finger pruners to keep it small.

Thanks again and happy reefing.