I would keep it

 

Keep it.

 

Just to be different and because i really feel this way....i think your fuge would be put to much better use by adding appropriate lighting and making a frag tank out of it.....gentle flow like you describe might not be so good....maybe throw a PH in there if you really are going to keep frags

 

if you really really want to keep it. than throw a light over the sump and stick it in there. i on the other hand would not keep it, mainly for the reasons you have stated.

G~

 

it does seem to work for me for keeping algae at bay in the display. even better if i keep the light on it 24/7. just make sure to remove(harvest) some of it every week or so. i have it on top of a bunch of lr rubble, but im thinking of doing away with that since i stopped using a filter sock its getting full of detritus

 

In a sandbed tank I think it is very usefull. I have a BB area in my sump, right after the skimmer, with a clump of Cheto and a light. This is BB because allot of detritus settles out in my sump (on purpose) and no sand in the fuge makes it much easer to clean.

Whiskey

 

I noticed my tank start ot look "hairy" and traced the issues back to my fuge
which had been set-up for over 2 years

I tore my fuge out 3 weeks ago, and after a major water change, the tank is starting to recover

my vote is to make it a frag tank

 

as part of a algea scrubber of sorts. It has been ok, How effective it has been as a nutrient exporter is questionable,

but many things love living in it's mass. it's ability to trap ditrius makes putting it in the other tanks unwise,

Chris

Am I the only person that thinks it's very strange that an algae that acts like dirty filter fluff - does not grow hair algae and cyano all over it?

 

Well, some more items for thought.

very strange that an algae that acts like dirty filter fluff - does not grow hair algae and cyano all over it?

I don't get cyanos, but it does very much act like a floss filter. look at this picture.

I took my cheato out of the tank it was in and rinsed it in the waste water I hadn't yet dumped from a water change. the water was almost clear and all the sediments had settled out in a different bucket. it is almost 5 gallons of sludge that came out of the cheato. yuck. and there was still more, but I didn't have more waste water to rinse it in, I'll just have to change the floss filter again tonight.

The current plan, until I can come up with a better one is to move the cheato to a different 'fuge, one that had been empty, and doesn't get good light, for now. The tank it had been in has now been emptied except for a few frags and a couple Bistle Worms and hermit crabs. then weekly as I do the waterchange, rinse the cheato out.This will be until I figure out what I want to do with it. Anyone want some? I read recently, that it isn't that common to find. I don't know if that is true, but I'm willing to trade for some zoa's. Lol.

 

and we all know that letting detritus sit in a tank, like having dirty filter floss, is a certain recipe to have a tank full of hair algae.

So why do you think a big dirty wad of chaeto would not do the same thing? or even better, healthy chaeto under lights in a refugia, full of detritus, still does not get covered in hair algae and cyano.

 

i always assumed it was doing some kind of "chemical warefare". the same way Caleurpa does with stonies.

G~

 

Exactly

There's a reason that those algae (chaeto, caleurpa, etc) grow in a highly competitive, high nutrient environment and are not covered with faster growing algae/cyano.

Do you think having a big wad of (pick your poison) growing in your system, is removing nutrients? or just inhibiting the growth of other, faster, algae?

 

Jerel, your mail box is full - please pm me regarding room for rent in the keys... hope you get this message. cheers.

chris

 

so what does it mean if your chaeto IS covered with cyano... and with a thick foam on the water surface over it???

 

Need more skimming/ new cheato/ treat it like dirty floss. Not sure, never had that problem.

 

It's not happy.

Seriously, it would only have cyano if it was dead/dying and the foam is what you would expect leaking from dead algae.

..but I don't know, I'm not there.

 

:lol: ok, well there is no longer chaeto in my sump! guess im no longer a believer in the "benefits" of a fuge, at least not on my tank. guess we'll see what happens now. just a skimmer, lights, and water-flow!