Replacing Caulerpa with Cheato

[Phurst]

I'm egetting some Cheato from a fellow reefer Friday. I'd like to replace the Caulerpa in my fuge with it. the problem is, my Caulerpa is full of critters (brittle stars, worms, pods, etc) I'd like to not loose all that life. What's the best way to get those guys out of the Caulerpa and into the Cheato? I figure one of two aproaches. 1) move all the Caulerpa to one side of the fuge, put the Cheato in the other, let natural migration occour over a couple of days, remove the Caulerpa. 2) place Caulerpa in a bucket of tank water, place the Cheato in the fuge, shake and swirl the Caulerpa in the bucket, remove algae, pour contents of bucket into fuge. I'm thinking option 1 would be less stressful on the critters, but I'll still loose a lot of stuff in the Caulerpa, and I don't want to get them tangled. Option 2 sounds like I'd get more of the critters out of the Caulerpa, but it's a P.I.T.A., and I think a lot of detritus would get shaken out of the Caulerpa (it's pretty dense).

Anyone have any opinions?

Here's my exploding brittle star population and my dirty, dirty Caulerpa...

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e332/pearsonhurst/HPIM3051.jpg

[NeO]

I wouldnt worry about losing the critters if your tank (fuge) is well established all that life will came back, and I would be more worried if you where doing the opposite.
Cheato is much more dense then Caulerpa, and your buddy's fuge must have some live in it too.

[Seahorsedreams]

*starts to sing*

"Shake shake shake"
"Shake shake shake"
"Shake your caulerpa" "Shake your caulerpa".

If you shake it some of the critters should come off. I bet a friend would love a little bit to put in their tank :-)

If you leave both in there you will have two clumps of macro with pods. They will never all leave the caulerpa.

[Rob]

lmao.. renee, that was exactly what i was goign to say... (ok, not exactly)
but yes, a good shake should remove them, and if you want to get picky get soem tweezers and search them out one by one.. :)

[Phurst]

Thanks. I guess I'll put the cheato in, stir up the caulerpa a bit and let them co-habitate for a while. I just don't want the caulerpa to invade the cheato, the idea is to get rid of it.

[Seahorsedreams]

I think Rob and I were saying to just shake it and toss it. No need for them co habitate.

[Phurst]

Even better :D , thx!

[Rob]

I think Rob and I were saying to just shake it and toss it. No need for them co habitate.
exactly...
or better yet, shake and give it to someone else, or to your LFS

[iglowce]

for the big stuff like worms and brittle stars, u can use a tweezer to take them out. for pods, im sure they'll grow back on their own. no worries. if u wanna put them together to speed up the cohabitation process, thats great.

how about put them together to let the pods migrate partially and grow on the chaeto, then after 2 weeks, take the caulerpa out, shake and put the water back into the sump. hehe use both methods that you mention =]

[CarmieJo]

for the big stuff like worms and brittle stars, u can use a tweezer to take them out. for pods, im sure they'll grow back on their own. no worries. if u wanna put them together to speed up the cohabitation process, thats great.

how about put them together to let the pods migrate partially and grow on the chaeto, then after 2 weeks, take the caulerpa out, shake and put the water back into the sump. hehe use both methods that you mention =]

That is exactly what I was going to say.

I always shake my caulerpa as I am taking it out of my sump and then hold it up and let it drip a minute when I give some of it away. I figure that it probably gets some of the micro fauna off but sitll leaves some for whoever is getting it.

[Phurst]

They've been separated, but in the same sump since Thursday, and I'm giving the caulerpa to 2 local reefers tonight at our frag swap. I know some of the stars have moved, I assume some pods did too, along with whatever else was on it to begin with. Thanks for the suggestions.