Cheatomorpha - To Tumble or not Tumble?

[attml]

For those of you that are growing Cheatomorprha in your sump, are you using a pump to tumble your Cheato or is it stationary and just receiving the pass-through flow that is produced by the pump / return? I am particularly interested to hear from the folks that are producing a ton of Cheato daily / weekly and whether they tumble their cheato using a pump, whether they provide additional flow but don't tumble their Cheato or just use the natural loop flow from their pump and overflow? Both of my refugiums have cheato under Kessil H80s and they are both growing well. I dose CheatoGrow and Ferrion. I had both tanks tumbling in the fuge but one of the sumps has sand and it seems to cause the Cheato to come apart. I have just start experimenting with that refugium with no flow or tumbling. The refugium with no sand produces a nice tight ball that grows well and tumbles very well. Just wondering what everyone else's experience is, again, especially the folks harvesting a ton in a short amount of time and what method they are using. Please vote in the poll above. Thanks in advance!

 

[Pistondog]

Not necessary to tumble. Just need enough flow to get nutrients circulating, < 10% of return flow.

 

[mfinn]

I found long ago it's almost impossible to keep the chaeto tumbling for any length of time. It always seems to either get stuck in a corner, or just grows just enough to stop tumbling. It seemed like I had to mess with it everyday.
Now I just keep a powerhead ( Tunze ) in the refugium to add extra flow.
Been working for me for a very long time.

 

[El Toro]

I have a Refugium reactor with separate pump at Max Flow. The Cheato doesnt tumble. My Copepod population is off the charts

 

[Derrick0580]

Mine was a mixed bag when I used it. When I trimmed it back to a softball size it would tumble for a week or so until it grew to much then I just used regular pass through until the next trimming. If I noticed it started looking weird or whitish on top before time to trim again I would manually just turn the mass over in the sump.

 

[Spare time]

I tried but the pump would get clogged or the chaeto would get stuck. Now I just flip it every few days or so.

 

[biecacka]

I just use my drain line as the flow. Water pass through. I flip it every few days.
seems to grow just fine for me

corey

 

[FUNGI]

I have lights at top and bottom of refugium.....from what I understand, tumbling is so the "ball" gets light across all regions....so no dark areas minimizing growth. so I have two lights....

 

[Mark Gray]

I tried to get mine to tumble but it stops, now I don't worry about it I just flip it when I cut it back.

 

[Zach B]

I've only been able to tumble it in one of our tanks with a pump pointed at a wall. The main tank just has an extra pump in the fuge area to increase water circulation, no tumble. Good flow definitely helps though. Best of luck

 

[Quintin]

Mine tumbles by default using stock return section in sump.

 

[Gill the 3rd]

Mine never tumbles. I just flip it around every now and then.

 

[attml]

Thank you all for the replies! I had mine setup to tumble in the beginning which was pretty cool but after it started growing it became unmanageable. I did add a secondary pump to the cheato section of my fuge and it made a big difference. I am now throwing out big clumps of cheato weekly. If I had to pinpoint the things that really made my cheato growth taking off I would say they are the following: 1. Start with a good sized amount of cheato from the start. If you don't have enough surface area of cheato to pull the nutrients out of the water it will grow slowly. Adding extra flow through the cheato compartment allowed more tank water to pass through the cheato allowing it come into contact with more nutients in the water column which allowed those nutrients to be pulled out of the tank via growth. Having good lighting was also a big factor. My growth really took off when I added the Kessil H80 and a Tunze 8811. Finally, dosing Cheatogrow and Ferrion by Brightwell Aquatics made a difference! Hopefully these final comments help someone that is having trouble growing cheato! These are all things that made a big difference for me! Good luck!