Chaeto?

[10g Reef]

I read this on reefcleaners..... "The point of keeping chaeto is to get it to grow, so you can harvest it removing "bound" nutrients, allowing the macro to continue growing for future additional harvest." Is this true? I thought chaeto used nutrients as it grew, do you really have to keep removing chaeto to get the nutrients out?

[mmcguffi]

True.

 

The chaeto does use the nutrients but you completely removed them from your closed system when you harvest part of the algae. Think of it this way, if the algae died it would release all of the stored nutrients it took up but if you remove it this is not possible. The algae is simply sequestering it in a convenient location for removal.

 

Also it grows super fast so you will need to remove some to make room for new growth

[snowflake ell]

can you eat chaeto

[sogreedy23]

Yes. Great salad topping.

 

Chaeto uses and absorbs the nutrients, but they don't disappear. They are still in your system but are used up and unavailable for microalgae to use. Removing the chaeto is completely removing it from the system. Because of this, as mmcguffi said, a dead macro would release the nutrients back into your water.