Scrub with cheato?

[MorganAtlanta]

I'm wondering how much cheato I would have to harvest to account for a cube of food input, and how much space I would need to grow and harvest that much.

The reason is that I'm thinking of setting up another tank, a 25 gallon cube, but I'll have the space in the cabinet for a 20 long sump, or maybe even a 30 breeder. Given that much space for a "fuge", I'm wondering if I could grow enough cheato to "scrub" the system clean of N and P. I've got plenty of LEDs and heatsinks for 100+ watts of grow light I could put on it. Any thoughts? One cube a day of scrubbing power should be plenty for what I plan to have in the display tank.

[Garf]

From personal experience - I used to grow cheato in my sump, both in an immature system and in a mature set-up. I fear that the illusion of cheato reducing N + P is widespread, especially in newish set ups. It is widely accepted that cheato will reduce nutrients but I think the effect is minimal, compared to a waterfall scrubber at least. It is understandable that this illusion is so widespread because new set ups often have undetectable nutrients for a while ( contributed to cheato ), but it is actually just a very low waste organics load. When a system such as mine is fully mature it is quite evident that cheato cannot keep up. This is witnessed by oxygen production through photosynthesis. In a cheato ball, very little oxygen is developed, whereas a fully operation waterfall evolves oxygen at very noticeable rates. I would estimate that ( in my system at least ), photosynthetic growth from cheato was in the region of 5% of that I get from my waterfall.

[MorganAtlanta]

5% might be okay, since I'm only looking for a one-cube-per-day scrubber. I could probably dedicate a 12"x18" area to it (maybe more) with 100W+ of LED light.

Do you think adding a powerhead with a venturi to provide strong flow and oxygen could improve the growth rate? Kind of a UAS, but with cheato and no screen.

[Garf]

You'll need good flow to keep it tumbling to expose as much of the cheato to light as possible anyway. Not sure about using a mass of bubbles personally because a hell of a lot of light gets diffracted away from the target. Just a question because I feel nosey, why aren't you building a waterfall ?

[MorganAtlanta]

1. Just thought I'd try something different
2. I'd like a source of full grown pods
3. If it worked, it would be simpler than a waterfall, super easy to maintain (just trim, no removing a screen and scraping), absolutely quiet (no extra drains).

[Garf]

1. Just thought I'd try something different
2. I'd like a source of full grown pods
3. If it worked, it would be simpler than a waterfall, super easy to maintain (just trim, no removing a screen and scraping), absolutely quiet (no extra drains).

1). Excellent. Doing something different often yields unforeseen benefits.
2). I have loads of copepods in my sump, and mysids and bristle worms and amphipods and Asterina. They all seem to "hang out" on an almost unlit screen that I have in my sump from a previous pod growing experiment.
3). I find maintenance of the screen very quick. Suppose it's just how you build it. My waterfall is in my sump and is silent.

[Floyd R Turbo]

I know that Chrissu modded his SM100 before he got out of the hobby and turned it into a chaeto scrubber and it grew like mad. Not sure how well it filtered, but it's definitely possible with a closed-box scrubber.

[MorganAtlanta]

I really don't have very many pods in my current system. Not sure why. The only filtration I have is the scrubber, and I've got a sump full of rock rubble for things to grow in.

[RkyRickstr]

In order too see an impact i ran a 30g tank full of cheato to the top.. i had to run powerheads to keep it tumbling andit was a pain to remove and trim.
Cheato, IMO is useless. Tried culerpa and grape algae too, as well as mangroves, the water fall is a completely diferent ball.game. dont waste your time... Scrubber takes a whole 5mins to clean dude.

[MorganAtlanta]

Excellent. That's the feedback I was looking for. Since you've already tried it, I don't have to. I'm thinking a super simple one sided waterfall instead.

In order too see an impact i ran a 30g tank full of cheato to the top.. i had to run powerheads to keep it tumbling andit was a pain to remove and trim.
Cheato, IMO is useless. Tried culerpa and grape algae too, as well as mangroves, the water fall is a completely diferent ball.game. dont waste your time... Scrubber takes a whole 5mins to clean dude.