?? Money Plant turned white with little green dots....

[SDeckard]

It grew out of nowhere 6 months back into a nice 4 stem plant about 4 inches tall. Overnight 3 of the stems have turned pale white with small green dots all over. Any ideas?

[Samala]

Its sporulating, remove immediately to a bucket or other container so that the spores do not get released into the tank. While a small colony of Halimeda isnt likely to totally crash a system I would err on the side of caution.

Halimeda only rarely sporulates and this might indicate either too low nutrient levels, or low calcium and alkalinity in the tank for a prolonged period of time. The latter two arent very likely if its a typical reef tank with coral.

Anywho, check your skimmer, get the plant outta the tank. If you dont catch it before you get a cloudy discharge you should run carbon, do a fairly big water change and really tune the skimmer to keep up with the added nutrients.

Good luck!
>Sarah

[SDeckard]

The rock it's on is smack dab in the middle of my tanks LR wall. Are you sure it's sporulating (sp)? It's almost completely white and my water is still crystal clear. Parameters are all within specified ranges for a mini-reef. ALso, any idea why the 4th stalk isn;t doing the same as the other 3?

Thanks for the input.

[Samala]

Not sure why you have some stalks doing this and others not. There is a pic here on RC of these same "green balls" on a peice of Halimeda that was taken by an intrigued reefer. IIRC he reported later that day, or the next day, that the macro had sporulated on him and that the green balls were replaced by a cloudy tank.

It may be possible to just snip the Halimeda off at the base of the holdfast (the root like structure) to get it out of the tank if you would like to do that. Certainly okay by me to hold off and see what happens but I'm not advocating doing this in a small tank. You may make a bit of work for yourself with water changes, skimming, or it may not make a big impact on the tank at all if it does sporulate. Really hard to call these things before they happen.

>Sarah

[SDeckard]

Do you remember which thread? I've tried a search on "halimeda cloudy", "money plant cloudy", "halimeda sexual", and "money plant sexual" to no avail.

[Samala]

References to green spots (the gametangia, or sexual structures produced just before spore release) are noted: Reefkeeping article (http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-04/nftt/index.php) and recent thread (http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=742021&highlight=halimeda+sexual+white). I'll keep looking for the thread with that pic.. its very characteristic. I've had Halimeda do this to me too, though it was long ago in a nano tank. I pulled the offending spotted plants before they released.

>Sarah

[SDeckard]

Ah, different site - that's why I couldn't find it. Thanks again. I'm going to pull the 3 stems out now. Too bad, I thought the halimeda added some character to my 20G mini-reef.

[SDeckard]

Thanks for the tip. I'm glad I removed it last night although I guess some damage was already done by the spores that were released. When I left the tank 9 hours ago it was crystal clear. Now it's a bit on the cloudy side. I'll be running the skimmer and performing a 50% water change shortly.

Nothing seems to be affected. Glad I caught it when I did. Could've been worse. Again, thanks for the timely advice.

Sincerely,
Stan

[Samala]

Stan.. have things cleared up since you removed the offending Halimeda? Hope the tank came through okay. :)

>Sarah

[SDeckard]

Sarah,

Yes, everything is fine. The tank looked like it did way back when it was cycling. I performed at 30% water change and everything was crystal clear by the next day. No casualties to report. I also removed the last stem that was still green. Taking no chances here....

Thansk again for your timely advice. :)

Sincerely,
Stan

[mastou]

Since this thread is in the "forum favorites" it should probable include a link to ike4284m's thread where he uploaded some awesome pictures of Halimeda going sexual:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=983670&highlight=halimeda

/Magnus

[johnmaloney]

he is right, it is going sexual, (use that as the search term it is what phycologists use). 100% agree if you see a bunch of green dots on a pale plat. Eventually it will go white and leave a calcium carcass behind. I don't think it will cloud your water though. It has happened to me in 10 gallons before and never left any noticeable change, but never a bad idea to be cautious. The good news is the decay will feed the rest of the halimeda.

so why did it happen if your parameters are correct? it just happens some times.