Saltwater tumbleweed: what is your experience with Chaeto?

[hubble]

I use to grow it in my sump but got tired of the mess it and the light made. I had all kinds of algae growing in all places of my sump and even in my skimmer body.

 

[Dburr1014]

I grew it in a reactor. It was a total mess All kinds of slime and junk also grew in it. I had to constantly remove and wash the chaeto, and scrub the reactor.

Mine used to be a mess also.
Nutrient imbalance.

Now it grows quick and it's a deep green. No slime at all.

Also, I use a home depot 65k flood light.

 

[Nemo&Friends]

Voted other. I tried to grow chaeto several times, never succeeded at all. It always died. I am doing ok with dragon breath, cadmium and caulerpa. Did not do well with Uva either.

 

[PigDaddyF15E]

I voted other:

I bought a softball sized ball about 9 months ago. Installed a grow light (Kessil on 6+ hours a night). Never had to harvest...as this point it's probably about triple the size. Clearly something isn't right when I read posts about other people having to harvest every week.

 

[BeanAnimal]

I had it - detritus, aiptasia and everything else trap. Takes up space, costs money to tumble and light and has to be "fed". Why put in an export means that requires more import? Does not feel efficient to me.

 

[Tired]

I had a literally half-inch-long strand hitchhike into my tank and grow into a softball-sized mass that eventually blew over and killed a somewhat pricy zoa colony while I was on vacation.

 

[Terry Brown]

Chaeto is my main nutrient export. I would not run a reef tank without one. I used to have problems with it dying. I solved that by dosing ChaetoGro, Chaeto uses lots of iron to grown as most plants do. ICP test once a year to monitor iron levels and other things. I also have found if you really want Chaeto to grow in a sump you have to out complete the main lights on the display. I am using 350+ watts using 3 led grown lights used in the plant industry. I throw away 2-3 lbs of Chaeto every 2-3 days. And I have tons of Pods!!!

 

[Jerlet80]

Saltwater tumbleweed: what is your experience with Chaeto?

Whether in a refugium or an algae reactor, Cheatomorpha (often referred to a Chaeto) is a tool that reef keepers use to improve the water quality in their tanks. What is your experience with Cheato? Have you grown it? Did you grow it in a refugium, algae reactor, or something else? Have you been successful growing it, did you run into problems, or maybe both? Was it wiry or soft? What shade of green was it? Tell us about your experience and please share any tips or challenges in the discussion thread.

View attachment 3102752
Photo by @hart24601

I currently have Chaeto a grape Caulerpa in my refugium and love how clean and clear my display is. One thing of concern is my nutrients are always near zero and my corals may be suffering because of it. I remove roughly a gallon size ball every other week to maintain room in my sump. I am honestly thinking of shortening the photo period on the refugium to see if my corals may brighten back up.

 

[rsumner]

My current setup: I grow Chaeto in a dedicated 18gal sump that gets 100% of the overflow before any mechanical filtration. I have a 40w Kessil H160 that grows enough to allow me to throw away at least 2 to 3 gallons every two weeks. I agree with @Terry Brown and had even more growth when I auto-dosed Brightwell ChaeoGro. The Chaeto will definitely strip the iron from your water, so you may need to supplement iron to keep your corals happy. I also found that I get much more Cyano trapped in the Chaeto when I stopped supplementing w/ChaetoGro.

My new 450 gal tank (that's near completion) will have about 70gal of my sump dedicated to refugium where I'll probably grow Chaeto and other macros. This time, it will be after my mechanical filtration to help reduce the detritus cleanup.

 

[Reeferbadness]

I grow lots of it. I mean about a 5g bucket a week. I was growing it in the overflows of my outdoor frag tanks. But after a coral wipeout last March I ignored the frag tanks for 6+ months and the chaeto went from the frag tank over flow to the 180g (2 of ) frag tanks. And the chaeto just lying in low flat tanks and soaking up the winter sun was producing enough chaeto to remove a full size plastic trash bag every two weeks.

For over a decade of monitoring phosphate levels the levels in my system have been high. Usually Phos is 1.6-1.8 but it's run as high as 2.4 for over a year - Without any algae issues.

Now after 10+ months of outrageous chaeto growth I'm seeing phos level of .06 to .08. And now I have algae issues in the frag tanks I didn't have with the higher phos levels.

Dave B

I also have a lot of chaeto in my refugium and Phos is 0.02 or less. Hair algae is a real issue for the last 3 months. Nitrate was also 0.00 and now I’m slowly dosing that. Considering taking chaeto out and using chemical warfare on hair algae

 

[bakbay]

Growing it for the first time in my RS250 with a Neptune GRO light. I don't run a skimmer so this is the only source of exports. It will be an interesting experiment...

 

[TWYOUNG]

Had a softball sized amount in a fuge. Grew great for 6 weeks or so then stopped growing and was smothered by gha which grew all over it.

 

[ccunningham]

Saltwater tumbleweed: what is your experience with Chaeto?

Whether in a refugium or an algae reactor, Cheatomorpha (often referred to a Chaeto) is a tool that reef keepers use to improve the water quality in their tanks. What is your experience with Cheato? Have you grown it? Did you grow it in a refugium, algae reactor, or something else? Have you been successful growing it, did you run into problems, or maybe both? Was it wiry or soft? What shade of green was it? Tell us about your experience and please share any tips or challenges in the discussion thread.

View attachment 3102752
Photo by @hart24601

I am having a terrible cyano and diatom issue in my tank. My nitrates are extremely high but my phosphate is low. I’m doing weekly water changes and added a bunch of copepods to display and sump, a small ball of chaeto and Pom Pom to sump. Was told it should start bringing my nitrates down with the addition of copepods. We will see. I’m only a year into saltwater tank so still learning.

 

[vlangel]

My display has different macroalgae, including cheato.

 

[MnFish1]

I think we want to pretend its easy - BUT - unless there is a chaeto harvesting operation - that is regular - that you're supposedly matching to (pick your numbers) nitrate and PO4 - its just a disaster waiting to happen. If you want to act as a chemist, just do testing - and use chemical means. If not - try cheat

 

[fish farmer]

I've done well with it. I grow chaeto in a small area of my sump under a 20 watt grow led array, started with nitrates at 30 ppm and phos at 1ppm, eventually got them very low, chaeto slowed. I cut the photoperiod down. I boosted the nutrients up a bit from feeding, turned the photoperiod back up and started to grow again. I just maintain a little bit in the sump at all times. It may get a little GHA on it as well, just export that with the chaeto. I don't roll it or add anything specific for it.

 

[Borat]

Chaeto is my only biological and mechanical filtration.

2x20w led arrays, a bit of nitrate and iron dosing and i harvest football size lump each week.

this keeps my nitrates at 0 (its zero even after dosing about 2ppm daily) and phosphates relatively low 0.1ppm

 

[BTimms]

I recently started growing chaeto. I believe it has dropped out my PhO4 and NO and has kicked off an infestation of dinos’s.

 

[nkyreef]

Never had luck growing it. Plenty of nutrients. Cheap light/expensive light - no difference. Some said I might have lacked iron but it wasn't worth the trouble when other methods exist.

 

[Aardvark1134]

Saltwater tumbleweed: what is your experience with Chaeto?

Whether in a refugium or an algae reactor, Cheatomorpha (often referred to a Chaeto) is a tool that reef keepers use to improve the water quality in their tanks. What is your experience with Cheato? Have you grown it? Did you grow it in a refugium, algae reactor, or something else? Have you been successful growing it, did you run into problems, or maybe both? Was it wiry or soft? What shade of green was it? Tell us about your experience and please share any tips or challenges in the discussion thread.

View attachment 3102752
Photo by @hart24601

I have a cheato sheet about 3 ft long x 2ft wide x 6 inch thick in my refugium