Does Chaeto Work?

[Goaway]

I use a 5.5k bulb over my chaeto. Perfect place for your pods and fish food to reproduce. Grape caulerpa ( Caulerpa racemosa ) herbivore food. Safe macros to grow in a fuge.

 

[AydenLincoln]

I just stick the CheatoMax refugium LED on to the back glass to light up the first chamber of my 14 AIO to grow algae. Used to grow chaeto in there but algae is a lot more efficient at removing the nutrition. check out algae scrubber if you have a larger system.

I do not I have a 20 gallon AIO.

 

[Reef and Dive]

Any other algae I can use? I want to help with nutrient export and put some of it in here.

I don’t think it will work well there:
You need it to grow well and fast. And it will very easily clog the filter. A chaeto reactor would be a better idea.

 

[chadfish]

Make your own chaeto reactor. Simple, cheap, easy, and fun

 

[john92708]

I do not I have a 20 gallon AIO.

I would do a DIY algae scrubber to maximize oxygen and algae growth if I have a sump. But for a 20 AIO I would just put the ChaetoMax LED to the back glass and grow algae. it's a good quality light, simple to do, no extra plumbing require, clean looking and out of sight. mine take about 2 week to establish and algae stop growing in the display after that. CUC take care of what little that grow. I also have a skimmer but it stop skimming and only oxygenate the tank after the algae takes off on the back chamber of my AIO.

 

[Derrick0580]

FOWLR tank. It grows like wild fire and the Tangs love it.

Ok, that’s not soo bad. I occasionally feed some of my chaeto to my foxface in a frag tank that I struggle to keep nutrients above zero.

 

[WheatToast]

herring bone caulerpa

Pictures? What’s the scientific name?

 

[sixty_reefer]

Pictures? What’s the scientific name?

Probably referring to caleurpa serrulata

 

[jmichaelh7]

With my Kessil refugium light and it on 24 hours my phosphates are on point

 

[SPS2020]

Any other algae I can use? I want to help with nutrient export and put some of it in here.

Save your money for bigger things. HOB systems are not worth the effort and little ROI. That is MHO and YMMV.

 

[UnderseaOddities]

@AydenLincoln it would probably just be better to avoid macro in q small system at that hob will probably cut it up and cause it to jam up an cause problems,bc they're poorly made... but I would say for nutrient export feed higher quality foods like mysis or spirulina over flake or pellet as these contain excess po4 n that will pollute the tank


Instead invest in a cheap hob protein skimmer and run it wet skim style instead of skimming dry(all u do is adjust airflow until you see optimum bubble clean and empty collection cup daily)


And practice weekly 35% watechange aim for alk 8.2 to 8.6(8.5 is prime) cal 400 to 460 mag 1300 to 1450


And keep a turkey baster remove any excess waste by hand



In the long run these 3 tips will help u more than a hob refugium

 

[UnderseaOddities]

Also invest in a bag of something like gfo chemipure blue or purit throw it in your hob or tanks sump and start dosing a bacterial buffer like genesis or microbacter7 to break down excess waste

 

[UnderseaOddities]

A refugium isnt really pracical or necessary in anything less than 40g as water changes are generally enough to keep nutrients in check unless you have seahorse or live feeders that need constant supply of pods and baby brine or you like the aesthetics that's the only way I would say get one for a small system

 

[UnderseaOddities]

And some macros go sexual too cheato doesnt really but things like ogo and calurpa u gotta watch out because gametes can spread and go sexual and taken through your return and cut up and next thing you know your reef tank becomes a full blown mess

 

[Tired]

IMO, just put some chaeto in your tank. Unless you have something that'll eat it, that works fine. Though you do have to figure out how to anchor it, if you don't want it to wander.

 

[CrunchyBananas]

Pictures? What’s the scientific name?

Looks like it’s caulerpa taxifolia, and could potentially be an invasive algae? My LFS often had it on in the past few years under herring bone caulerpa, but if it could be an invasive species, perhaps avoid lol

 

[BanjoBandito]

In order to accomplish actual "nutrient export" you have to export the chaeto. I mean a lot. A baseball of chaeto every couple days. That's how the nutrients come out, via the algae. You'll also start taking up trace elements like iron, maganese, and some other weird stuff I forget. I bag of pre-bagged media in your AIO would probably work better and be easier. How bad's the algae problem?

 

[Tired]

Technically you have to remove the chaeto to remove the nutrients, but while they're all bound up in the chaeto, they act as if removed from the tank. Some people remove a chunk frequently, some people remove a huge chunk less frequently.

Though, question: are you trying to fix an actual problem (unhappy corals, algae beyond what CUC can control, etc), or are you chasing numbers? Make sure you actually need to remove nutrients, before setting about removing nutrients.

 

[fish farmer]

Technically you have to remove the chaeto to remove the nutrients, but while they're all bound up in the chaeto, they act as if removed from the tank. Some people remove a chunk frequently, some people remove a huge chunk less frequently.

Though, question: are you trying to fix an actual problem (unhappy corals, algae beyond what CUC can control, etc), or are you chasing numbers? Make sure you actually need to remove nutrients, before setting about removing nutrients.

I agree. With my experience with chaeto I had lots of gha and elevated nutrients so it worked well in my situation. Seen lots of folks try chaeto and dies out or doesn't grow because they don't have enough nutrients for it.

 

[Hermie]

the smaller the container the more often youll need to harvest it to get the most export