Quick question about Cheato algae

[Gdbyrd]

I picked up some cheato from my LFS(Stuff was super expensive) and stuffed it on the other side of my Bakpak skimmer. After about a week I'm noticing a LOT of gunk in it. I pushed it down a little bit in the overflow/return chamber and a TON of crap came out into my tank.

What can I do to alleviate this or is this normal and I just shouldn't mess with it?

Also, how much light should I have on it? My main lights I've cut back on because of algae issues on my rock. Right now I have an 8" cheapo wal-mart fluorescent hanging down the length of the chamber I'm keeping on 24/7. How much more do I need and what do you recommend?

 

[Bifferwine]

You could take it out and rinse it off. It should be in a space large enough that it won't catch crap. It should have enough space to move around a bit. Macroalgae will grow under pretty much any light. You don't need anything special or strong.

 

[Gdbyrd]

You could take it out and rinse it off. It should be in a space large enough that it won't catch crap. It should have enough space to move around a bit. Macroalgae will grow under pretty much any light. You don't need anything special or strong.

Thanks for the advice. It's a really small piece and it can move around in the chamber pretty freely, it just tends to go to the top where the water exits the chamber. I think it's just because it's a higherflow area that it's snagging so much gunk. Do I just mix up some saltwater with same SG and stir it around in it or how do I go about it?

Maybe with water changes I can stir it up in the water I pull from the tank..hmm..

 

[Bifferwine]

I'd rinse it off in a little tank water. And you could just roll it a bit every couple days to dislodge any crap in it.

 

[Gdbyrd]

Thanks!!

 

[Bifferwine]

Another idea, if you can cut a small piece of filter floss or sponge to sit ahead of the chaeto, that could trap and collect any detritus that would other wise get caught in the chaeto. That way you could just remove and rinse off the sponge every once in a while instead of having to take the chaeto out.

 

[Hornet]

You say it was super expensive, I'm curious how much did you pay for the cheato from the LFS?

 

[sen5241b]

Estimate how many gallons of water is needed to hold the chaeto and then give it 2 watts of florescent light per gallon. I had some chaeto start to die off cause the light wasn't strong enough. Ii will turn white when it doesn't get enough light.

 

[Gdbyrd]

You say it was super expensive, I'm curious how much did you pay for the cheato from the LFS?

It was a little under 40 bucks for a piece about 1.5x larger than a golf ball. Seems high to me, some of their other stuff is better priced..but some things...Common clowns are 40, yellow tangs are 80, cleaner shrimp are 45, live rock is 9$ a lb and it doesn't look good at all.

 

[Hornet]

It was a little under 40 bucks for a piece about 1.5x larger than a golf ball.

WOW, somebody gave me some when I bought some rock from them while setting up my tank. Seems like every month I'm cutting cheato back and throwing it in the trash. I would have assumed the stuff would be pretty cheap.

 

[dcantucson]

That's a LFS for you!

 

[daugherty]

that is a rip off for almost 40 bucks. i got mine for 5 bucks a pound.

 

[Ted]

dang i got mine for 5 bucks just the day before yesterday. Its the size of a softball maybe a little bigger.

 

[PufferGuy]

sounds like you need to switch stores... those fish are extremely high priced also, everything at my LFS is about 1/2 the price of what you listed, except for the LR, thats like 6-7 bucks a pound here

 

[Gdbyrd]

There's not much else to go to. And it's funny..I live on the coast basically and you live way north US..sigh.

 

[daugherty]

LR here is 4.99lb

 

[Ted]

There's not much else to go to. And it's funny..I live on the coast basically and you live way north US..sigh.

Have you check out www.maast.org Thats the south texas marine club I have seen posts on it from people down your way. They do frag swaps and give cheeto and stuff away to other members. I havent joined yet but I will be soon. Might be a good way to conect with some one more local to help with getting stuff.

 

[Bifferwine]

Wow, I hate to say it, but you got ripped off when you bought that chaeto.

I got mine off of Ebay -- a ziplock bag full -- for $5. Why didn't you just order yours off of Ebay or something?

I give chaeto away for free to anyone in the area that needs some. There's no reason to charge that much for something that grows so quickly and so easily.

 

[Wes888]

wow! I thought my LFS is expensive. Like everyone said, your LFS charges more than double than others. I got 95% of my live stock from online stores. You may want to try that as well. Save a lot of money.

 

[lilyicu]

Gdbyrd where in south texas are you at?