trimming my chateo

[JKDMan]

my buddy told me trimming my chaeto would help it do its job better is this right ?

[jer77]

There is evidence for and against this really. Originally it was thought that trimming chaeto was the better thing to do than letting it grow, but recent evidence has shown that it might not matter. Trimming it is a way to harvest and throw away nutrients that was used as food by the chaeto. I find it also may help it grow better since a higher percentage of it is in the light. What I also find that helps is to now and again try and thin out its mass to allow more light to hit it and more water to flow around it so it has space to grow too.

[vanmo92]

Eventually you will need to trim it so it doesn't grow to thickly, mine actually grows out of the water when it gets to thick. As far as it working better when trimmed, I think it would grow slightly better if kept trimmed, but not a whole lot.

[smoothdog]

Well, I haven't done any official scientific studies, but I can tell you from personal experience that if I don't harvest out some of my chaeto every couple weeks or so the stuff on the bottom gets pale and I start to get a hair algae outbreak. Once I thin it out and scrape the hair off the glass things return to normal within a day or 2.