How often / how much pruning chaeto

Mombo · Mar 5, 2018

Hey y'all I added a golf ball size of chaeto about 1 month ago to my young tank and it has grown to the size of about 4 volley balls now growing like a weed! Its getting pretty crowded in my large-ish fuge.

How often should I be pruning my chaeto?

How much chaeto should I be pulling out when I prune it? Can I cause anything bad to happen by pulling out too much? Take about a 1/4 our or 1/2 out?

Crabs McJones · Mar 5, 2018

@Jason mack may know, he trims his chaeto regularly

Kremis · Mar 5, 2018

I usually take out 1/4 whenever it looks like its getting full (about every 1-2 months) This is usually 3-4 gallon ziplocs full

saltyhog · Mar 5, 2018

I take out about 1/4 of it, usually about every 3 weeks. My chaeto growth has increased tremendously since I started dosing nitrate and phosphate (battling dinoflagellates).

LV3 · Mar 5, 2018

I trim about half of it every 4 weeks or when it starts impeding the flow through the sump.

Pete1968 · Mar 5, 2018

LV3 said:
I trim about half of it every 4 weeks or when it starts impeding the flow through the sump.

i trim about a volleyball size once a week!

Chuk · Mar 5, 2018

I trim every 3 weeks. I take it back down from the full fuge size to a racquetball size and repeat. I get it to about a basketball size in the 3 weeks

Jason mack · Mar 5, 2018

crabs_mcjones said:
@Jason mack may know, he trims his chaeto regularly

@crabs_mcjones you must mean manscaping , cause i dont even have a refugium let alone chaeto !!

Crabs McJones · Mar 5, 2018

Jason mack said:
@crabs_mcjones you must mean manscaping , cause i dont even have a refugium let alone chaeto !!

.........I may or may not have gotten my user wrong...

Jason mack · Mar 5, 2018

crabs_mcjones said:
.........I may or may not have gotten my user wrong...

@crabs_mcjones , I do run triton on my tank , but it’s the other methods I use

Crabs McJones · Mar 5, 2018

My sincere apologies. It's @Mark Gray

@Jason mack I had you on my mind for some reason

Mark Gray · Mar 6, 2018

crabs_mcjones said:
My sincere apologies. It's @Mark Gray

@Jason mack I had you on my mind for some reason

Lol yeah I have to cut mine about every 5 to 7 days or it grows out of the water. Hey Crabs how's the cheato doing?

Crabs McJones · Mar 6, 2018

Mark Gray said:
Lol yeah I have to cut mine about every 5 to 7 days or it grows out of the water. Hey Crabs how's the cheato doing?

It's doing excellent, thank you for asking

Mombo · Mar 8, 2018

Well I just ended up ripping out tons and filling gallon bags for locals. THAT STUFF IS DENSE! So much more in there then I thought.

One thing I notice is there is a lot of broken up tiny pieces of chaeto and when I disturb the ball much or start ripping it out they going all over the place and make a mess. Slowly they filter out of the display and into my sock to remove.

Is this natural for chaeto or is there a way to keep it from breaking apart?

Chuk · Mar 9, 2018

I've found that there are always some small pieces that come loose when I trim. I put a coarse sponge before the return section of my sump for ~a day after I trim and just throw that collected stuff away. I seem to get less small stuff if I cut the mat with scissors prior to removing the bulk of the material. What tends to break up is the stuff that gets stuck to the rock rubble in the bottom of the fuge section.

Bow69 · Mar 30, 2018

What has everyone found as far as absorption rates on the amount they pull out? Basically, do you find more in the fuge = more No3 and N04 removal from the system? Or, less in the fuge with more of it actually growing because it has more room to grow actually removes more of the nasties?

Chuk · Mar 30, 2018

Bow69 said:
What has everyone found as far as absorption rates on the amount they pull out? Basically, do you find more in the fuge = more No3 and N04 removal from the system? Or, less in the fuge with more of it actually growing because it has more room to grow actually removes more of the nasties?

Yea I notice when I trim it my nitrates pick up to about 1 ppm but when it start to get bigger in a week or so they drop back to 0.5 - 0.75 ppm.