In Tank Chaeto (no sump)

[Logzor]

First of all my tank has no sump and it is a 55g.

Here are pics to give an idea of what it looks like: http://www.cincyreef.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=10398

As you can see i have softies, lps, and a few new sps corals. My fish consist of two clowns and a goby. I also have 30 snails, 30 hermits, 9 nassarius snails, an emerald crab, and cleaner shrimp.

As you can also probably notice I have a slight problem with dictoya algae. It has spread all around the tank. I put in some dragons tongue algae to hopefully steal some of the nutrients from the dictoya.

Is putting chaeto in the back of my tank a good idea? I have a nice spot that could work for it, not to mention it would be a good place for pods to breed. The clowns seem to like to eat them.

My lights are 4x54 tek light, skimmer is coralife 125 super skimmer, and my flow consists of two korilia 3's + the skimmer pump.

Nitrates 0
nitrites 0
ALK 7.7 dkh
ph 8.2
calcium 440

I recently got a nice ro/di unit, the lights are also relatively new. I was using water from kroger (ro water) that measured around 30 on the TDS meter. Now the new water measures zero. I am hoping that this will help. I do a 7 gallon water change once a week usually.

[McTeague]

I keep my cheato in the main tank as I do not have a sump:

[SurfnFish]

I have almost the same setup, and I was also wondering that. Bump for tagging along.

[Logzor]

That looks decent McTeague. I think it adds a nice element to the tank, just like my dragons tongue does.

I just wondered if it added any other complications?

[McTeague]

Well, I just shake it a bit every so often to keep too much gunk from accumulating in it. I have had it in there for only 3 months so I cannot give you any long term results. But it has been ok so far.

[tigereye37]

I stuck some in my 25g a few weeks ago so i'm curious to hear from someone who's done this long term........
I think it looks cool

[LockeOak]

As was said, make sure it has decent flow moving *through* it and isn't getting covered by detritus (or even coralline, I've seen it happen).

[LockeOak]

Oh, and hang-on-the-back refugiums like modded Aquaclears work well too.

[SurfnFish]

Could I put it on the return side of my CPR BakPak Skimmer?