Cheato Harvesting....When and.....

[cashman95]

When do you usually harvest your cheato from your refugium? AND could the cheato be the source of some of my phosphates if left growing too long?


I had a bad problem with Phosphates after getting some live rock and CHEATO from a friends tank after he shut it down. I since bought a phosban reactor and have tried to rid my tank from PO4. I even went as far as taking out MOST of the rock he gave me to keep it from leaching, but I still have the cheato. Could the Cheato be leaching phosphates back into my water? I took the phosban reactor off line after thinking that it was "used up" and waited 3 weeks to see if the levels rose any. They apparently did,Salifert Kit .01, because yesterday I put in new phosban and my SPS IS already Coloring up VERY well........

I am just trying to find the source of my phosphates!?!?!?!?

Another good friend of mine has pretty much the same setup as me, feeds the same food as me, and has about the same bioload as me, and he has NO problem with PO4!?!?!?!?

Comments Please!!!!!

 

[MattG]

Well i would usually thin mine out when it filled the fuge up. I think the most important part of maintenance with cheato is to occasionally swish it in saltwater to free the detritus. I would usually do this when i did water changes (~2 weeks).

It is amazing how much crud it traps.

 

[cashman95]

Yes I have noticed, but how much do you thin it out?
softball size?

 

[MattG]

i had a 90 gallon fuge. I would let it fill up and then toss 80% of it. Id say i would leave a basketball size chunk. Its hard to suggest how much to throw out because i dont know how much you have

 

[cashman95]

Thanks...anyone else?

 

[AquaReeferMan]

After mine fills the fuge I remove 3/4 of it and then start over.

 

[wrott]

Just cut it w/ scissors when it doubles in size or becomes too much. Unless it dies, it won't release nutrients back.

 

[Sangogo]

Once mine grows so large that it's pretty much blocking the light and parts of it are in danger of dying and releasing the nutrients back, I remove about 2/3s of it and start over.

 

[Aquarist007]

I rotate the ball once a week and pull it apart. Cut off any brown cheato and or cheato covered in corraline.
This is how you remove the nitrates from your system and prevent them from reentering the water column when the cheato dies.

 

[cashman95]

Thanks Everyone!