Chaeto Alternatives for Refugium

[Reefkeepers Archive]

I may try hair algae

It works

 

[VintageReefer]

What brand/model? Would you recommend this specific one?

Santa Monica surf 2
Yes I would reccomend this model

 

[Philip Chin]

It works

Thanks

 

[Keko21]

I switched to calerpa. But my favorite has just been hair algae.

Hell yeah brother!! Let that GHA flow!

Fun story- I started with chaeto and it was going quite well until my refugium was over taken by GHA. I tried removing it and replacing the chaeto that it strangled and killed several times. Eventually I just said F it.

I removed all the dead chaeto and just let the GHA do it’s thing. My refugium straight up looked like a swamp. On the bright side nutrient’s were low, copepods abundant, and really zero effort on my part.

Fast forward about 6 months a rogue shred of Chaeto left over decided it was going to grow. And boy did it grow!! A mutant mat of GHA and chaeto began to take up the entire surface of the refugium. Not withstanding the plethora of GHA, aiptasia, pods, worms, snails and every other microbial organism living in the cesspool under my display.

Fast forward another few months. GHA is mostly dead. Everything under the seamp canopy gone with no light getting through the top mat. Now I am left with just a HUGE ball of chaeto AND AMPHIPODS! How they got there I haven’t a clue.

So the moral of the story is if you want really baller macroalgae be super lazy and dont do anything

My refugium today:

 

[ctopherl]

Thanks

Oh interesting you used your own light! Do you still need an air pump with this setup?

 

[ctopherl]

Hell yeah brother!! Let that GHA flow!

Fun story- I started with chaeto and it was going quite well until my refugium was over taken by GHA. I tried removing it and replacing the chaeto that it strangled and killed several times. Eventually I just said F it.

I removed all the dead chaeto and just let the GHA do it’s thing. My refugium straight up looked like a swamp. On the bright side nutrient’s were low, copepods abundant, and really zero effort on my part.

Fast forward about 6 months a rogue shred of Chaeto left over decided it was going to grow. And boy did it grow!! A mutant mat of GHA and chaeto began to take up the entire surface of the refugium. Not withstanding the plethora of GHA, aiptasia, pods, worms, snails and every other microbial organism living in the cesspool under my display.

Fast forward another few months. GHA is mostly dead. Everything under the seamp canopy gone with no light getting through the top mat. Now I am left with just a HUGE ball of chaeto AND AMPHIPODS! How they got there I haven’t a clue.

So the moral of the story is if you want really baller macroalgae be super lazy and dont do anything

My refugium today:

I had the same problem except the hair algae clogged all my filters and pumps multiple times a week so I gave up. Defeated the purpose of a fuge

 

[ReeferHD]

i had chaeto and red gracilaria growing, both very successful until one day where all the chaeto began to melt and i am now left with just gracilaria, works just as well. not a strand of chaeto in sight.

 

[Reefkeepers Archive]

Hell yeah brother!! Let that GHA flow!

Fun story- I started with chaeto and it was going quite well until my refugium was over taken by GHA. I tried removing it and replacing the chaeto that it strangled and killed several times. Eventually I just said F it.

I removed all the dead chaeto and just let the GHA do it’s thing. My refugium straight up looked like a swamp. On the bright side nutrient’s were low, copepods abundant, and really zero effort on my part.

Fast forward about 6 months a rogue shred of Chaeto left over decided it was going to grow. And boy did it grow!! A mutant mat of GHA and chaeto began to take up the entire surface of the refugium. Not withstanding the plethora of GHA, aiptasia, pods, worms, snails and every other microbial organism living in the cesspool under my display.

Fast forward another few months. GHA is mostly dead. Everything under the seamp canopy gone with no light getting through the top mat. Now I am left with just a HUGE ball of chaeto AND AMPHIPODS! How they got there I haven’t a clue.

So the moral of the story is if you want really baller macroalgae be super lazy and dont do anything

My refugium today:

This absolute monstrosity has been keeping my po4 stable in a no-water-change setup. And I feed a whole cube of PE mysis and coral food daily. And that's just for the corals (don't have fish yet, 9 months coral-only is a bit too long for me) hard to believe that's GHA. Should get a Iight for the side to up nutrient export

 

[Mortgaged Reefs]

I’ve tried searching here but didn’t have much luck.

What are a couple of alternative macro algaes to chaeto for a refugium?

Is there something else that’s similarly effective at nutrient uptake and has similar care requirements?

I’ve used caulerpa and other macros for over 10 Years and I’ve never had it go sexual. It’s a part my motto and tank design. I have a 65 gal Red Sea reefer 250 that is wall to wall with corals. No water changes. Dosing 60ml reef to reef. Too many fish and I feed heavily. My nitrates and phosphates stay at zero. My refugium runs on an opposite lighting schedule with a fluval plant nano light. I am currently using caulerpa prolifera and dragons breath. I hope this helps!

 

[Koty]

My personal expirience is that nothing compairs to Cheato. I did find that trace elements may be a limiting factor for their growth and their efficiency declines once they have no space to grow fast into. So agg trace elements and do not let the refuge fill up too much (somthing like keep it at the log growth phase)

 

[ShadowMan]

I’ve tried searching here but didn’t have much luck.

What are a couple of alternative macro algaes to chaeto for a refugium?

Is there something else that’s similarly effective at nutrient uptake and has similar care requirements?

I struggled to get Chaeto to take, tried a variety of setups and sources, but without luck. Then I found, Ulva Lactuca (aka green sea lettuce), which has been amazing and (imho), easier to maintain.

 

[TWYOUNG]

I just put a floating algae scrubber in my refugium section.

It’s way more effective at nutrient control. It killed off all my cheato and all my tanks hair algae. Empty it every 5-10 days

Floating algae scrubber?

 

[VintageReefer]

Floating algae scrubber?

Yes a self enclosed algae scrubber that floats on your sump or display

Santa Monica Surf 2

It’s the best purchase I’ve ever made for my reef. No more hair algae, no water changes, no skimmer. I feed as much as I want and never have phosphate or nitrate issues

 

[Boehmtown]

Hell yeah brother!! Let that GHA flow!

Fun story- I started with chaeto and it was going quite well until my refugium was over taken by GHA. I tried removing it and replacing the chaeto that it strangled and killed several times. Eventually I just said F it.

I removed all the dead chaeto and just let the GHA do it’s thing. My refugium straight up looked like a swamp. On the bright side nutrient’s were low, copepods abundant, and really zero effort on my part.

Fast forward about 6 months a rogue shred of Chaeto left over decided it was going to grow. And boy did it grow!! A mutant mat of GHA and chaeto began to take up the entire surface of the refugium. Not withstanding the plethora of GHA, aiptasia, pods, worms, snails and every other microbial organism living in the cesspool under my display.

Fast forward another few months. GHA is mostly dead. Everything under the seamp canopy gone with no light getting through the top mat. Now I am left with just a HUGE ball of chaeto AND AMPHIPODS! How they got there I haven’t a clue.

So the moral of the story is if you want really baller macroalgae be super lazy and dont do anything

My refugium today:

Agreed. A very similar situation happened to me. I ended up getting a sump urchin and haven't had to harvest anything in months

 

[TWYOUNG]

I switched to calerpa. But my favorite has just been hair algae.

What does the hair algae grow on? For me the good thing about chaeto is how easily it's harvested.

 

[dangles]

I love how much traction this thread has gotten. I wish my other threads (my build thread) would be this active!

 

[JHSteepat]

This absolute monstrosity has been keeping my po4 stable in a no-water-change setup. And I feed a whole cube of PE mysis and coral food daily. And that's just for the corals (don't have fish yet, 9 months coral-only is a bit too long for me) hard to believe that's GHA. Should get a Iight for the side to up nutrient export

I have the same GHA/chaeto monstrosity in my refigium. Considering I have a noisy, removable refugium baffle, and that the blob is such a disgusting mess and takes up good real estate, and chaeto is so hit or miss for me, I am just going to get a turf scrubber (prob santa monica rain2 with 4 lights or surf) for the sump (~110g display.

I may be over-simplifying, but export is export, so might as well contain it in one small-ish place.

 

[ctopherl]

This absolute monstrosity has been keeping my po4 stable in a no-water-change setup. And I feed a whole cube of PE mysis and coral food daily. And that's just for the corals (don't have fish yet, 9 months coral-only is a bit too long for me) hard to believe that's GHA. Should get a Iight for the side to up nutrient export

What's creating the bubbles? Is that needed? Wondering how little additional equipment I can get away with and set something like this up (don't care about cost, but care a lot about maintenance)

 

[Reefkeepers Archive]

What's creating the bubbles? Is that needed? Wondering how little additional equipment I can get away with and set something like this up (don't care about cost, but care a lot about maintenance)

Thats just from the filter socks. Probably don't need them

 

[Boehmtown]

What does the hair algae grow on? For me the good thing about chaeto is how easily it's harvested.

Kinda everything, but roughed up acrylic screens, work really good. I like it because after everything was very established, I added an urchin to my sump and he eats it as fast as it grows.