Chaeto and Amphipods

cesau

New member
I am looking at getting some macro algae for my refugium. I understand chaeto is free floating, hardy, and home to amphipods which can be used as an additional food source for the tank.

My question is how do I get the amphipods to the display tank... do they just get sucked out of the chaeto naturally and pumped into the display tank or do I have to go digging in the chaeto and manually place them in the display tank when its "feeding time"? Do amphipods become a pest or do they adapt well to the size of their enviroment?

Additionally, I assume most macro algaes will probably not have a compatibility issue with others, any comments?

My refugium area is 16" x 12" x 9" - are there better suited macro algaes? My primary goal is to consume building nitrates in the tank. My secondary goal would be to have an additional food source for the tank, but first things first, of course.
 
The cheato should work nicely for you. Once youve established a steady growing population of pods they will work their way into the display. Some macros I believe do exude some chemical which helps prevent epiphytic algae from growing on it whether this works against other macros I dont know, but I'm sure someone else here could probably answer that. Umm Sarah.
 
Allelopathy is the term for the chemical production by one plant to suppress the growth of another. I am not sure that this would be the major worry with macros though. More then likely one plant would out compete the other for light and nutrients.

Cheato seems to work well for fuges so I would start with that. I have had both cheato and caulerpa grow into the shape of it's container. It then started to grow out of the water and was somewhat bleached by the light and exposure to air I guess. When I pulled it out it maintained the shape of the fuge.

One of these years i will learn how to post pics on this site and I will post a picture of my mutant macro.

Bruce
 
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