Caulerpa taxifolia & racemosa for marine aquariums, myths and facts.

This diverse marine algae family, that functions in many of the same ways as a plants, both land and sea, has a few secrets and special abilities that we can utilize for the marine aquarium hobby.

All plant life has cyano bacteria in its make up, but with marine algae as is caulerpa, its cyano is with in its chloroplasts and this enables it to photosynthesis.

Firstly the oldie but a Goldie is the infamous taxifolia,in particular the broad forms example of the two that exists at its best in sheltered waters.

For some time now it was thought the invasion of this algae around the world most likely came from Caribbean waters.
This is now a substantial problem in the Mediterranean more so than anywhere else and was thought to have been brought to Auz and other locations via hobbyists, and then the blame fell onto ships ballast!

This is not the case; the taxifolia with the larger forms came from Auz in the first place!

There are specimens of an algae and documentation from the late 1800s that with the help of geneticists and a hand full of persistent marine biologists, an associate of these people I have been fortunate to have had conversations with, confirmed that the taxifolia that is plaguing the world is an old auz citizen!

Ships ballast most likely distributed this species of algae to the world from the east coast of Auz!

On quite a few shore line collecting trips, we see masses of this original taxifolia, nearly always in absolute toilets of areas, this algae loves the most disgusting of places to exist normally.

The first time I saw this type of taxifolia was in my brothers aquarium in the late 70s,he would collect it for the algae eaters in his two marine aquariums, only to find most would not touch it, so it wasn’t used after a while.

He didn’t know it has its own in built toxin incorporated into the sap to discourage nibbling pests, plus with out algae back up to absorb the toxins, the sap from this algae if it is cut or killed,can aggravate corals and other more delicate photosynthetic inverts.

In the coming years, in late 1980 to be precise, I started my first marine aquarium and for years I was hunting for that special algae to carry out what land plants could achieve from photsynthesis, but via osmotic ways of course-absorption through its membrane, not through the roots/attachmenst as with land plants.

I found what I was looking for on the sunshine coast by accident in an intense surge zone just near where my parents were living near the ocean.

Actually my mother found it as my parents were always on the hunt for stuff for my brothers and my hobby/sport combo where they lived on the sunshine coast.

The one she found was the commonly used taxifolia these days that from what has been explained to me by one of the top marine science experts on algae, where my mom found it and not long before was where this small form of taxifolia was first documented.

The surge zone form of taxifolia most likely began here on the sunshine coast from professional observations.
The site it was first documented at is of a high nutrient content yet still usually of a very high ocean water quality, which makes this area very unique and it shows in its multitude of algae's, nudribranch species and corals, especially acans,the abundance of them here is quite amazing!

Just out off this site is the area in which the large ships wait for their turn to enter Moreton bay.

Some times there are 20 to 30 container ships lined up and a cruise liner or two waiting just off shore to pick up or unload there cargo at the port of Brisbane.

When you look out off this shore line on a busy day with so many ships in wait, it is obvious how this algae was transported to the world from Caloundra on our sunshine coast.

Genetic testing found it was taxifolia,(the surge zone variation),harmless, as far as toxins are concerned, but very invasive.

More importantly, a valuable nutrient importer to exporter of trace elements, though in the display tank,a little invasive as it will cover corals.

Finally I had found a marine plant that will import all substances out side of the nitrite cycle from the water and convert it to amino acids, harmless carbons, strontium and more!

Little did I know that this was taxifolia,(it was said to me), but due to the difference in form shape and size, I thought it must be something else, but still a valuable nutrient importer and exporter of trace elements!

The large Auz marine forum all ready knew this algae’s name, sure,but disputed my findings and the marine biologists advice as well on what most caulerpa can do, luckily I was stubborn and carried on tirals,in time I saw that this site was more so about buying your aquarium needs and not really that good at keeping caulerpa or utilizing clean natural forms of waste reduction.

The talk of algae on the site going sexual was amazing; they were killing it and just calling it going sexual??

The poor plant was suffering as a result of the lack of knowledge as to how caulerpa lives and functions!

It was going to spore like many life forms do, the conditions it was in is killing it and the need to carry on its species, as it dies, makes it send off its offspring (spores) into the waters to find a place to carry on this species!

It’s a simple need to perpetuate its species!
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As time went on I have carried out many trials using actual life forms in conjunction with the use of caulerpa for all waste importing, to some forms of waste importing to see what dies, why and in what ways, what colours are inhanced,what growth occurs, how well it will produce CO2 for a natural way to get the results of a weak CO2 reactor, with no reactor and no softening of waters lowering PH, all kinds of trials on caulerpa.

An algae that was found recently, well a variation of the well known racemosa algae that is,(racemosa laetevirens) a variation displaying its incredible morphology, and what a find, this is the one that makes skimmers,reactors,activated substances and a lot of trace elements added, useless in comparison.

This time on a collecting trip my wife found a not previously seen locally growing caulerpa, the best nutrient controller I have used, lucky for me she is a good hunter and collector.

I have used many forms of algae in experiments for nutrient control and nothing comes close to this form of racemosa or any algae I have used in trials for nutrient importing and via photosynthesis resulting in valued trace element exporting!

The informative expert on caulerpa I spoke to recently and the helpful marine biologists from Townsville some years back, have put names and meanings to what I had found to be very successful and also condemed on most of the net,well here in Auz any way.

Just a few weeks back I put a question or two out there to see where that site was with the use of algae,except for excelent advice on varied products to buy,nothing much has changed there and that’s where most of the advice here is Aus on reef keeping comes from, gladly not for me.

Here is a pic of the algae types I have mentioned.

Surge zone caulerpa taxifolia,as you can see it has a fibres structure for support living in waves.



Local variation of caulerpa racemosa (laetevirens),very little fibres structure as it lives in sheltered waters.



Sheltered water locations caulerpa taxifolia.




If caulerpa algae is used for nutrient importing,as this plant/algae breaks down it has some calcium product in its make up so this will help block and bind together a fine particle substrate with in the area it exists,also plankton as it dies or discards the shell as it grows,its shell is silica and will block and bind the substrate together as well resulting in a poluting substrate!