im looking to grow cheato to sell and i have some questions
-what kind of light does it need
- can i grow it in my main tank
-what kind of flow do i need
- how often does it need to be pruned

1. It doesnt need that strong of lighting
2. Yes i grow it in my main tank
3. Anything, just not to high (not positive mine is in medium flow and is growing like crazy)
4. Once every few weeks or so

thanks for the help man

6500k-10000k, most people have the best growth with 6500k.
Yes, you can grow it in your main tank.
Low to medium flow, just enough to slightly tumble it is best.
Pruning frequency depends on growth rate :-p Growth rate depends on available nutrients and lighting.

mine grows the quickest in dechlorinated tap water. salinity at 1.024. i can't keep up with the pruning.

For fast growing retail chaeto, I got an average of 4-6" per day of growth on my systems with this method.


1. Soft white 2700k 42 watt lights from home depot.



Put them in these reflectors evenly spaced to keep the tank bright.



Lights need to be on 24/7.

2. Not if you want to sell it and grow it out quickly.

3. Low flow.

4. As often as you want, I waited until it was a pretty thick mat. Prune the bottom and leave the top.

Hadn't thought of using tap water to farm it, too used to RO/DI for everything.

I'm actually considering farming chaeto in a ~20g rubbermaid tote with ferts and CO2...

i think the tap gives it excess nutrients to grow. mine is under some old t8 bulbs. organism's bulb would work great

- I use a 20W halogen puck.
- Yes, I used to when I had my sumpless 20L (link in sig).
- Any amount.
- As often as it gets out of control or starts to self-shade.

i have medium flow and 1.5 watts per gallon i only have mushrooms growing in it (growing fantastic ) would i be able to throw in some cheato?

IME, chaeto will grow under almost any flow/lighting conditions... The question is how fast it will grow.

Depends on what kind of light is giving you that 1.5 watts per gallon. If you're trying to farm it for retail you'll need lower flow and higher, yellower light.

there compact floors

mmk, depends on what kind of compact fluorescents then.

they cam with the hood

In that case no, those won't grow chaeto fast enough for retail, the lights are way too white and blue on those to reliably grow algae.

its just a single light , it was for a fresh water tank i believe

Still not likely that it would grow chaeto as quickly as you'd need it to, you can't fit one of those home depot clip-on lights over the tank? They look gross though, so if the tank is somewhere easily viewed then that might not be the best way to go unfortunately.

how would one put chaeto in a display tank ? just let it float around?

u could buy a brand new shower/soap dish with suction cups from walmart or somethin. cost a few bucks.

I have chaeto in my 20 long all in one in the first compartment. medium to high flow, with a 13 watt fluorescent bulb (ikea lamp). I started with a tiny golf ball size just a couple weeks ago. Now its about 3 fists size.

Seemed like for a while everyone was doing the soap dish "O" cheato. I did it in my BC29 and it worked really well. You just have to to remember to turn it and prune it. I just made it part of my regular water change / maintenance routine.

how exactly does one prune chaeto

You just pull off pieces from the main clump and either give it to a friend, sell it or throw it away.

Cheato does not need much light. You can pretty much put any kind of lighing over it and it will grow.
Yes you can grow it in the main tank. I recently purchased one of these Soap Dish and I placed it right under my HOB filter where the eater is flowing out. The Soap Dish is the newer version that I got. It has smaller holes which is go so I dont have floating chaeto around lol.
I dont think they need much flow. I had the chaeto in my tank for a while now and it just sat behind my liverock and it did good.
You just need to prune it when it looks to be over grown. If it gets real big maybe you can sell it online or locally.

Yes.

could i grow it in a plactic tote with some live sand in it under a 100 watt regular light

Plastic tote?

yeah plastic tote sorry like a rubbermaid tote http://www.rubbermaid.com/Category/Pages/S...CatName=Storage

The end-all-be all of chaeto growing:

(Read the entire page - scroll to bottom for side by side test between K values in lights)

http://melevsreef.com/fuge_bulb.html

mine barely grows... i have it in a soap cup, on my AC110, and my QT tank. they all dont seem to grow. wonder why... i still get algae on my glass however.

isnt it kind of hard to sell chaeto since they grow like wildfire...

if u want to grow it the fastest possible. u need a seperate tank or container.

a good light (LEDs red and blue (5:1) would be best but any old light will do fine. even sunlight. (reverse cycle if u want to cheap out on power. sunlight in the day and light bulb light at night so it grows 24/7)

add a little bit of liquid plant food.

i grow my plankton this way. about 5 drops in 1liter turns into a thick green soup in a week.

Very cool, Marc always has the best stuff on his site

Hmmm. Maybe I should try that. I have mine under a Coralife Slimline 50/50 6000k/Actinic 03, 15 watt lamp and my Chaeto doesn't grow very quickly.

i've found that it grows great under 6500k bulb or soft white with a clamp on light from Home Depot. Bulbs kinda look like a reptile basking light but its CF.

Is sunlight a good source of light?

Good article, lots of useful info there

Sunlight is absolutely worthless. Over-rated in fact. Stick to artificial light.

For a refugium yes... For your tank no.

how is this thread still goin on? lol

I'm going to try using sunlight and water-change water to grow some chaeto in a bucket outside, I'll see how that goes, and update in a week or so if there is any growth.

they dont just need light to grow they also need nutrients.

same with coral. how can they grow without calcium? (with mag)

in a separate container (bucket) with old water changed water put in a few drops of liquid plant food (miracle grow) and lots of light.
should take off in a few days.

in 3 days my lightly green water became dark green. when i was growing plankton.

thats why i'm using 'waste' water, Its high in nitrate, and I'm diluting it with some tap water for added phosphates. I'll see how it goes, and experiment as necessary.

u need something a lot higher if u want to grow it super fast.

btw make sure u clean the chaeto before u put it in your tank. some of the high nitrates maybe still on it.

I'm considering adding fertilizer, but fist I want to see if the chaeto can handle temp swings

and this isn't, as the op planned, to grow to sell. it'll go to supplement feeding my foxface and longspine.