Chaetomorpha in tank

[jacksmom]

I don't have a refugium or a sump yet but my nitrates are a little high and I have read everyone's glowing praise of chaeto so I was wondering if I got some of this could I put it in my main tank? Has anyone ever done this? Or maybe I could stuff it in my filter. Thoughts?

[Spuds725]

Chaeto isn't the prettiest of Macros-- it would probably be ok unless you have fish that would eat it.

You would have to put it where it will get some light.

I will give you a little idea that you might want to try if you have fish that might eat it. I was building a sump and adding a fuge a few months ago-- no place near me sells Chaeto so I drove up to a place that did (about 80 minutes away) and bought some before my fuge was ready-- to keep it fresh until I was ready to put it in my tank, I poked a bunch of small holes in the bag and then tied the bag to my sump return (my old sump had no fuge)-- so the water returning from my sump went through the bag and over the Chaeto-- it was near the top of my tank and got plenty of light-- I kept it in there almost a week without any problems... you could do this with a small powerhead I imagine.

Alternately you could make a HOB fuge but have it inside your tank and just make it out of egg crate so the Chaeto doesn't float all over the tank....

Just some ideas--

Spuds

[asfullax]

My only concirn is how fast the stuff grows and how hard it is to remove it once it takes hold. it took about 1 month for my chaeto to take over in my 20+ gallon fuge, and it will superglue itself to everything (including glass, powerheads, rocks and sand. so if you dont have anything that eats it, I would assume it could get pretty ugly fast, and if you do, as spuds said, they won't give it enough time to grow.

The baggie trick sounds like a winner. the HOB is better but will cost more.

[romunov]

I have had chaeto in my main tank for about a month now (just tuck it behind the power heads), it's been growing nicely and didn't "overtake" yet as asfullax describes. I've had strings of chaeto on the sand bed, but nothing else.

[bertoni]

I've had Chaeto in various tanks for years now. It doesn't attach, and is easy to remove. I'd worry only if I was leaving for a long vacation. Two weeks is no problem, IME, for my setups.