Chaeto worth it?

[Djbeasley05]

My tank has been running 6 months since I pulled all of the substrate out. I have a lot of rock, good size clean up crew and hob skimmer in my 28g jbj. Question is should I be filtering through chaeto in the back of the tank? I have extra less I could put behind the tank. Just not sure if it's needed.

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[tthouston]

Here is my opinion, Cheato will reduce the phosphate in your tank, but your tank is small, with one or two gallon water change weekly it will reduce the phosphate too. With me, I don't think your tank needs cheato.
If you have 100g tank or bigger, then I say...YES.

 

[mitch91175]

Man get rid of those turbo snails. Get you about 3 trochus snails and call it a day. You will be pleased.

 

[rocklobster1]

YEs absolutely chaeto will take out the nitrates and phosphates(and probably other harmful toxins) as well as give you a nice pH boost.

 

[Djbeasley05]

Man get rid of those turbo snails. Get you about 3 trochus snails and call it a day. You will be pleased.

I'm about to pull the turbos. They terrorize my zoas


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[rocklobster1]

I'm about to pull the turbos. They terrorize my zoas


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Turbos are fine great snails.

 

[ramseynb]

Turbos are fine great snails.

In a 28G tank? I guess they're fine if you want to feed them nori all the time.

I've done the "œmini-fuge" on a nano tank a few times and it's never really been worth it. The cheato doesn't grow very well and there just not that much room for it. YMMV. Personally, if I was going to use algae as a nutrient export method, I would like into an algae turf scrubber. I think it'd do better on a nano tank.

Finally, are you having issues with high nitrates or phosphates? If not, then it's pointless. On a small tank, a water change every week, religiously, will do more than pretty much anything else.

 

[Crooked Reef]

I agree with the water change. It will keep the tank cleaner than the amount of cheato you can get in the back and you won’t have to worry about keeping it lighted correctly or tumbling. Unless you need the cheato for pod production I would skip it.

 

[Djbeasley05]

I'm having problems getting my nitrates below 40ppm. 20% wc weekly aren't doing it. I feed sparingly with a plastic medicine syringe so there isn't much waste. I also rarely pull much skimmate do to oversized skimmer.


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[Crooked Reef]

Have you thought of adding a small biopellet reactor, if there is room of course? If you already have an oversized skimmer it will cover the biopellet bacteria output. I ran cheato for years on a 65 and never got my nitrates to what is considered low. Added the pellet reactor and an oversized skimmer when I switched to the 90 gallon and they register 0.

 

[mcgyvr]

Try carbon dosing if you don't want to increase water changes (even temporarily I guess)..
Vinegar is all you need..
IMO biopellet reactors are just too much work when a few drops of vinegar does the same if not better..

Unless you run a Chaeto reactor a little in the back of such a small tank isn't going to do squat..

 

[Djbeasley05]

I'm very new to all of the remedies. What exactly does vinegar do?


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[mcgyvr]

I'm very new to all of the remedies. What exactly does vinegar do?

Its one liquid that can be used as a carbon source to feed beneficial bacteria..
You can also use Vodka or sugar or other but IMO vinegar is the cheapest/easiest/least problematic..
Read..
http://reefkeeping.com/joomla/index...ar-dosing-methodology-for-the-marine-aquarium

 

[Djbeasley05]

Its one liquid that can be used as a carbon source to feed beneficial bacteria..

You can also use Vodka or sugar or other but IMO vinegar is the cheapest/easiest/least problematic..

Read..

http://reefkeeping.com/joomla/index...ar-dosing-methodology-for-the-marine-aquarium

So idea is feed bacteria so skimmer can pull more?


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[Crooked Reef]

Basically. Feed the bacteria a little and they will reproduce. They will then consume nitrate and phosphate and then get removed by the skimmer.

 

[rocklobster1]

In a 28G tank? I guess they're fine if you want to feed them nori all the time.

I've done the "œmini-fuge" on a nano tank a few times and it's never really been worth it. The cheato doesn't grow very well and there just not that much room for it. YMMV. Personally, if I was going to use algae as a nutrient export method, I would like into an algae turf scrubber. I think it'd do better on a nano tank.

Finally, are you having issues with high nitrates or phosphates? If not, then it's pointless. On a small tank, a water change every week, religiously, will do more than pretty much anything else.

I have a 20g JBJ nano with chaeto in the rear chamber. I pull out a baseball size per week. Both nitrates and phosphates would be zero if I werent dosing them and feeding heavily.

 

[ramseynb]

I have a 20g JBJ nano with chaeto in the rear chamber. I pull out a baseball size per week. Both nitrates and phosphates would be zero if I werent dosing them and feeding heavily.

But why are you dosing something only to remove it? Why harvest or use cheato at all if your nutrients are that low? It seems like your feeding the cheato only to remove it.

I ever had any luck with the mini fuge thing. It was some time ago though so maybe a better light source would have given me better results. On my old 185 though, I had a T5 with grow lights over a huge chamber in my sump and I had about 2 basketballs worth of cheato tumbling in there and would remove about a basketball's worth every couple of weeks.