How do I clean cheato w/o loosing pods

[IE Reefer]

Hey everyone,
I have been having this ball of cheato for quite some time and I've started to realize that the cheato is collecting/growing any floating debris (detritus, algae, cyanobacteria) and I've thought about cleaning it. How would I do so without bringing the pod population down?

 

[GARRIGA]

I have a similar issue saving my amphipods when changing out floss frequently as it will clog and often. I've discovered that if I hang the floss over above my DT on an egg crate the amphipods will find their way rather quickly back to the tank. Not sure how this can be confirmed with copepods that might be hard to see.

BTW, I wouldn't be concerned with detritus or algae attached to chaeto. One will decompose and be consumed by the pods and the other will likely be consumed as well. Don't know about cyano. Have only experienced that once and it was on initial setup of a phyto culture. Went away on it's own. Perhaps address the imbalance creating it as it might reappear if not corrected.

 

[DE FISH]

Sort of impossible if you clean your going to lose pods either way. They will repopulate if you do decide to clean though.

 

[REEFTIDE]

I think over time the loss of some pods isnt really that big of a deal. You have pods everywhere. I put mandarins in my tanks to eat them because they become a pain over time