?? about Chaeto growing in display.

[risin]

Hello, new guy here. I found out about this website while watching one of Anthony Calfo's seminars on reefvideos.com.

Anyway, I have what appears to be Chaetomorpha growing off a rock in my display tank. I will post a picture later for a positive ID. Is it ok to have it growing there? Will it overrun my display? Will snails, hermits, or my lawnmower blenny eat it? It started to grow about a month after I started my tank and is now (2 months later) several feet long if I were to stretch it out.

Right now I am running a sump with bioballs, I plan on making a larger sump with a refugium over the next month or 2. My plan was to let the Chaetomorpha grow and then cut it and place it into my refugium. Thanks in advance for the advice.

55g reef tank, 60-70lbs live rock, 265W PC 10k/actinic, 10g sump, bioballs, protien skimmer, seachem purigen, UV sterilizer etc...

 

[jakleen]

eventualy your tank might get overun by the chat. mine did . if you do not wanted this to happen ,if you can move the rock with your chat. to the refugium. after all is well and your tank and ref. is settled start taking bioballs out (not all at the same time,remove them slowley) you do not want nitrates in your reef tank. jakleen

 

[Krish]

eventualy your tank might get overun by the chat. mine did . if you do not wanted this to happen ,if you can move the rock with your chat. to the refugium. after all is well and your tank and ref. is settled start taking bioballs out (not all at the same time,remove them slowley) you do not want nitrates in your reef tank. jakleen

First off...Welcome to RF!! I agree with jakleen. You typically want your macro to grow inside your sump not the main display so it doesn't take over everything and you can manage it properly. You'll also want to keep it trimmed back as well and not let it get several feet long as you need to export the excess nutrients it binds up (nitrates and phosphates) to get them out of your system. As for the bio-balls, I agree as well. I'd remove them slowly over time and allow your rock to do all the biological and denitrification functions for you. Bio-balls are nitrate factories because that is their end product as well as they have no way of ridding the tank of nitrates due to not having any anaerobic zones for the necessary bacteria to convert it into nitrogen gas by denitrification so it just accumilates over time. The live rock however can perform denitrification so people tend to ditch the bio-balls as a result. Good luck with it all and I hope you enjoy the forum

 

[risin]

Thanks for the info.

The problem is that it is growing on a large display rock that is also home to some Green star polyps. Is there a way I could cut the chaeto off and kill the root it is growing from in the rock? Or, I could take the rock out and crack off the chunck that the chaeto is growing from.

When I do manage to isolate the chaeto, will it survive in my sump even though there is no refugium environment setup? If not, I guess it wouldn't be a big deal to just dispose of it; I just like the idea of having a chaeto ball that originated in my tank and not from the LFS.

 

[Krish]

If you put it in your sump, you just need a light over it for it to survive. Some people say one bulb is better than the other, but couldn't say for sure. As for removing it from the rock, not sure what is the best way to go about it. Not very many people will want to chop up their rock, but if you are willing and feel that will be the best way, then I'd chop away

 

[risin]

Well, it's not a huge piece of rock, but far too big to fit into my sump. I would rather chip a few square inches off my rock than have chaeto take over my tank. If I don't find a way to stop the chaeto from growing on the rock, it will get the hammer tomorrow night.

 

[jsmkmavity]

i would try to cut, scrape, and brush the area its growing from forst and then if it grows back there again then chip the rock away.

 

[jakleen]

i agre with jsmkavity . cut ,scrape and brush first and then if it returns ,break the rock and put it in ref. you just have to put a light on it ,any regular flouresent light,no incandesent,useless and generates too much heat. you can keep the lights after then tank lights go off or you can keep the light on 24 hour a day(mine are on 24 hours). summer might be a problem with heat. i have chiller so i do not worry about it. if you have airconditioner in the house ,turn it on in summer and you can also put a small fan to move the heat away. with the airconditioner and the fan you might be able to keep the heat at bay .good luck . jakleen

 

[risin]

Ok, thanks for the advice, again. I will cut, scrape, and clean and see what happens. Also, I already have a florescent shop light above my sump just so I can see, so I will just leave it on. I'll make a square box outta that plastic square stuff that we all use, and just drop it in the sump w/chaeto inside. I don't have a refuguim setup yet, but I will in a few weeks.

As for the heat/fan info... I have been doing that since day 3 of my tank when I noticed it was hitting 84-86 degrees during the day. the fan works like a charm.

 

[Krish]

Just a quick note...Make sure if you take out the rock and put it in a seperate container to scrub it off, make sure you use something like old tank water or a batch of newly made saltwater and not freshwater. Good luck!

 

[risin]

I did the cut and scrape today on lunch. I was also due for a water change so I took the rock out of the tank and put it in the bucket with the old saltwater. took the rock out of the bucket, cut the chaeto off, carved out two small divets where the roots were w/razor blade, lightly rinsed with RO/DI water, put back in saltwater for a few minutes, took it out and brushed the area w/nylon brush, lightly rinsed with RO/DI water, and then put it back in the tank. The green star polyps survived the episode. I will post back on this thread to let you know if it worked or not. Thank you all very much for the help.

 

[Krish]

Sounds great...Good luck!