Chaeto Questions

[Futurecanadian]

I was just reading in another forum that when people trim thier chaeto they "shake" the discarded plant in the main tank to remove access pods and such into the tank. People also had mentioned throwing a bit of Chaeto in the main tank as a food source for the fish. Does anyone in here do either of these things and if so, what are the results?

Oh yea, will Chaeto help with nitrates?

Thanks a ton,

Shawn Paul

 

[Ohiomom]

I actually do both..my tang and clowns love to pick at the extra chaeto..and it all gets eaten very quickly. Shaking it also has its purpose for the pods and I usually find a few micro starts in there too so yes I think it helps a lot. It also does help with nitrates..helps doesn't cure the issue..you still need to find the underlying cause of high nitrates unless you have a huge sump/fuge with a huge amount of chaeto.

hth

 

[the budman]

yest it helps like Ohiomom said. i dont like the stringy looking suff in my DT though so i dip it like a tea bag into a bowl of tank water to get out the pods and stars then after i pick out the loose strands of cheato i pour the water back into the DT. one thing to remember with the cheato is to give it room to grow in your fuge/sump. if it gets to big and stops growing it will not reduce nitrates. thats why people are always giving some away. i usually trim mine to 1/2 full then start over and give the extra away.

 

[BrunstuckyJoe]

Very good point, budman.

 

[Futurecanadian]

Thanks everyone... I am goign to shake some chaeto in right now as a bonus treat for my fishies

 

[alix2.0]

i thought that fish couldnt digest cheato very well?

 

[Futurecanadian]

My fish were not too pumped. Actually they ignored it. Oy.