Equipment - Harvesting Chaeto

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Harvesting Chaeto

Printed From: Utah Reefs
Category: Specialized Discussion
Forum Name: Equipment
Forum Description: This is the place to ask question about reef equipment.
URL: http://www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=38969
Printed Date: May 17 2025 at 4:29pm
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Topic: Harvesting Chaeto

Posted By: Deluxe247
Subject: Harvesting Chaeto
Date Posted: February 25 2010 at 1:59am

Ok, so I'm running a small fuge in my sump for my 55G setup. So far I have some chaeto and caulerpa fern. I keep reading stuff about needing to harvest chaeto, but I'm not sure the purpose. Is it just because it grows too big, or is there another reason? Any explanation would help. thanks!

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90G Mixed Reef

Replies:

Posted By: downhill_biker
Date Posted: February 25 2010 at 8:28am

Basically chaeto removes nutrients from the water, the problem is that once it is removed the chaeto is still in the water and has the ability to release it all back in if it were to die. So, chaeto is a form of nutrient export, but if you dont harvest it and trim it back every once in a while you arent actually "exporting" any nutrients.

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Posted By: Deluxe247
Date Posted: February 25 2010 at 8:51am

Thanks Curtis. I kind of thought that had something to do with it. So I guess chaeto doesn't actually convert nitrate, but rather just traps it. Hopefully mine will start growing fast again - it's seemed stunted ever since I "harvested" a batch a while beck.

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90G Mixed Reef

Posted By: snoyce
Date Posted: February 25 2010 at 11:07am

In my experiance with cheato the more I have the more growth I get to harvest. I used to harvest down to a softball size chunk and it would almost seem to stop growing after a harvest for a while.

Now I harvest every waterchange so every 3 weeks, I only havest down to about a half full 29 gallon tank so around the size of a basketball, by the end of 3 weeks the tank is almost full, so I pull out about half of what I have every 3 weeks or so. I never got that kind of growth with a smaller ball. It just seems to grow better for me from a bigger chunk.

I have never had cheato die, so I guess I don't worry much about it dying and releasing nitrates back into the water.

How big is yours? how big could you let it get?

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Scott Noyce
90G reef ready AGA display
basment 20G sump, 29G fuge
4x54 watt T5 retro SLR
Octopus NW150

Posted By: Deluxe247
Date Posted: February 25 2010 at 2:06pm

Mine is only about baseball size right now. When I got it it was a little bigger, and doubled in size pretty quickly, then I pulled some out (when I had a much smaller fuge area). It does seem like it grew a lot faster before. I could let it get to about volleyball size now with the space I have. I'll probably have to just get a bit more to throw in for now.

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90G Mixed Reef