Macro for nutrient export or not

[baldbloke]

i kinda agree with acroman as since i've had an obscene amount of cheato in my sump i have had issues with stn, all params check out A1,
i removed half of it and within a few days all looked ace again, but now it has grown back am seeing issues again, my tank is well stocked with sps and lps and my fuge was crammed with cheato which grows at an alarming rate! i harvest regularly but not enough, my thoughts are along the same lines as acroman, if a vast amount is growing so fast and no detectable p04 and n03 is detectable on merc kits and hannah...whats it feeding on?
also i stupidly added some pulse coral when i first set the tank up, now i am riddled with it! between the cheato and pulse i feel they are rapeing my system of valuble minor elemnts.

[ColinPopcorn]

I swear by Cheato. As far as I'm concerned, there's no down side.
I'd advise anyone to ditch the caulerpa, and get some cheato.

To grow macro, you may need to supplement trace lelments, as it needs certain elemtents, like iron, to grow properly.

I've seens some systems with high amounts of nutrients where the macro just wasn't growing. The problem was lack of trace elements. What a difference once the macro got growing.

Of couse, regular water changes are the best way to replenish trac elelments. For those of us who occasionaly miss them. Funky Old Reef Mud (FORM) is a great product to replenish trace elements.

[RichConley]

Originally posted by baldbloke
if a vast amount is growing so fast and no detectable p04 and n03 is detectable on merc kits and hannah...whats it feeding on?

The fact that its feeding on the phosphate/nitrate is WHY you have readings of 0.


I would almost bet that the reason you're having issue is that when the chaeto gets to 'full mass' and can't grow anymore (or as fast) because of space/shading issues, its not taking up as much, and your nitrates/phosphates go up quickly.

When you prune it out, it can grow quickly again, and your tank looks great.

This sounds like a maintenance/husbandry issue, and not a cheato issue.

[baldbloke]

they must shoot up and down damn fast then as i test at least once a week and have never ever had a trace of p04, and the max on a hannah for n03 has been 3ppm? not convinced myself mate
maybe i should chuck on a phosban reactor too and see what happens?

[TwistedTiger]

Cheato is a nutrient trap IMO, but as long as you have decent flow and move it around occasionally I feel the benefits are great. Just like sock filters, canister filters and skimmers if you never do any maintenance they all can have negative effects. I get great PE and have lost no corals with a 20 gallon fuge stuffed with cheato but I do turn it over and blast it with a power head every now and then. Nothing but positive results from my fuge so far.

[Dog boy Dave]

I find over the years that I can regulate my macro and cheato growth by controlling the nutrient load with fish load and feeding. When I have driven it down so low the corals begin to fade all the algae quits growing. I like the colors and growth rates much better with a higher nutrient load and higher algae growth rates. Also my observations lead me to believe that the other macros propensity to crash is highly dependent on the strain you have growing. I have a batch that has been going for years with out a crash. But I do harvest aggressively but I have had strains that would crash in the past. Truth is there is a strain of chalerpa growing in the Mediterranean sea that doesn't crash and its causing all kind of problems. Seems it is a strain of algae from the aquarium trade that was introduced by one of the large aquariums on the French coast.