Cheato purning methods / techniques?

[cabrego]

Hi all,

I would like to learn more about how others are pruning their cheato. Specificaly, I would like to know why you do it, how often, how much to prune, and any other details you can add


My first batch cheato has easily tripled in the last 1-2 months, and I still have relatively high nitrates (20-30). In my mind the more cheato I have in the tank the better, so why should I bother pruning it? It seems that I would be reducing the rate that nitrates are being removed.

I understand there maybe junk built up in the cheato, so maybe I should just clean it all in a 5 gallon bucket and keep the entire inventory of cheato or am I missing something.

Thanks!

[djcoralife]

the more cheato the better,,you can just pull it apart slowly and it will separate.. try to put a power head towards the cheato to blow off any junk

[w16227]

Unless it is clogging up your fuge - you do not really need to remove it, but there are things to do that can improve nutrient export.

Like many plants - "pruning" will improve growth. Chaeto is a vine like growth. The growth points are usually at the "end" of the vines. You want to split the longer vine "strings" into multiple pieces for best growth encouragement and spread out the vines for maximum flow around the growth points. You can tear the larger growth in several areas and then widen the "ball". If this fills up the fuge to the point where it looks like it will be difficult to expand/grow more- then take some out. Having too tight of a "ball" will hinder growth.

[Uncle Salty 05]

As the cheato grows it feeds on nitrates and phosphates.
When you remove the cheato you are also exporting the nitrates and phosphates.
The faster the Cheato grows the higher your nutrient level.
I prune mine back to about half of it's original size then stretch it out to improve the flow through it then wait until it doubles in size again and repeat.

[400M1963]

I thought pruning chaeto was part of the nutrient export process

[Alaskan Reefer]

I pull out about half of the mat every couple months. The only thing I try to do is make sure the mat covers the entire surface of that sump section afterward -- to try and keep it well spread and maximize the room to grow. I don't think there's really much science to this -- just grip it and rip it.

[cabrego]

So there seems to be mixed opinions on the actual reason to remove the cheato, which was really the motivation of this thread. I have heard 2 basic things:

1) Removing cheato is "part of the nutrient export process"

2) You should only remove the cheato for physical reasons like it is full of easte products / detritus or it has filled the capacity of the sump.

Number 1 does not make much sense to me, I do not see how removing or pruning the detritus free cheato does anything as far a nutrient export.

Number 2 makes a little more physical sense, the more the merrier, until the max capacity has been reached.

I am not trying to over complicate this, I just want to make sure I am not missing something as far as nutrient export goes...

[1DeR9_3Hy]

As for #1 above:

When you remove the new growth on the chaeto, you are physically removing what has grown out of the extra nutrients your tank provided the chaeto. You are exporting the nutrients via a vessel, the vessel is the chaeto. If your chaeto is not growing, and you are still removing it then you are not exporting nutrients....but instead throwing money out lol...

[das75]

Found my Chaeto ball gets to a large size then growth slows. Might be something with the amount of water movement and light.

I just grab a handful I want to keep and rip it apart. I go from about a orange to a basketball in ~ 3weeks so doesn't seem to be hurting it.

[cabrego]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14957391#post14957391 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by 1DeR9_3Hy
As for #1 above:

When you remove the new growth on the chaeto, you are physically removing what has grown out of the extra nutrients your tank provided the chaeto. You are exporting the nutrients via a vessel, the vessel is the chaeto. If your chaeto is not growing, and you are still removing it then you are not exporting nutrients....but instead throwing money out lol...

Well I understand that argument, but I guess I would rather leave it in the sump to ensure that I am removing nitrates at the fastest possible rate.

[1DeR9_3Hy]

Chaeto will hit a point of diminishing returns if it gets too large for its environment (light, flow, container, nutrients). It will use more nutrients if it is growing vigorously compared too a clump that is larger and growing slower.

[jenglish]

I rip mine in half about every two weeks and throw half away.

[andrewkw]

I try and get rid of as much of it as I can as often as possible. I constantly post it on local forums or bring it to LFS. It grows super fast and unless you are using it for pod populations less is better. The more its growing the more nutrients it's absorbing. For example when I pulled some out today the whole this was a rectangle the shape of my fuge. It had no where else to grow. I probably took 70% out left it plenty of room so it will now get much better light and flow and grow back quick.

Often times people will want more then a ziplock bag from me but I will always try and convince them to only take one as you want it to be constantly growing.

[ludnix]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14957476#post14957476 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by cabrego
Well I understand that argument, but I guess I would rather leave it in the sump to ensure that I am removing nitrates at the fastest possible rate.

This assumes that the chaeto's rate of growth isn't effected by the density of the ball, which may not be necessarily true.

I just remove it when it gets the point of not being able to rotate around inside my refuge, regardless of whether it really does or not.