thinning cheato out ?

[myfrostymember]

ok i have a 55g sump that i have been letting grow cheato like a mad-man its almost totally full with thousands of pods all living in the cheato

i want to thin it out considerably so i can do a little bit more eye apealling with the sump so

question- how do i thin out cheato down to 1/3 its size and not take all the pods out of the tank? i would like to keep them in there
i know that if i take out 1/3 there will still be alot of pods in there - still i really dont want to lose any if possible
matt

[doc2981]

I would separate the cheato you want to remove then place an eggcrate across the sump and lay the cheato on top of it.The copepods/mysis,etc. will crawl out looking for water and drop down back into the sump.If you can't place an eggcrate across the sump use a bowl with some water in it.If you don't have eggcrate and can't get any use a spaggetti strainer.

[Nano Chris]

When i have to 'prune' my cheato out i just rip some off, than shake it around in the water, so that if anything is on it it will fall off.

[ChrisB]

If you don't have any room in your sump to shake it out, you can always shake it out in your display tank. Most likely this where you intend for your pods to end up anyway.

[Shagsbeard]

Pod's reproduce pretty quickly... you're not going to "save" too many of them. Most have a life span measured in days, not weeks. I'd not worry about the pods that were lost due to thinning out the cheato.