Can i put chaeto in my overflow?

[mfs1855]

Hope this isn't a dumb questions but if it is, be sure to let me know.:biggrin:

First thought is of course that it will get sucked into the overflow and flood my house.

However, I was wondering if i put the chaeto in a mesh bag with a rock at the bottom (to keep it down) and a string at the top (so i can pull it up to maintain it), would this cause any problems.

I have a 60 gallon cube (24 x 24 x 24) so the overflow capacity is about 20" x 4 x 4 (minus the piping). There isn't any room to add it to the sump so i thought this might be a simple solution.

Thanks in advance for your input.

Matt

 

[skunkcleaner]

For chaeto to work best it should really have good flow making in tumble in circle motion .. I've never tried it so couldn't say if it would work but I guess if it's getting light it should still grow

 

[Z06-Hec]

i have been trying this for the last 2 months... i do not think its working... Its definitely getting light as my Led are right over it. What i did was i got some Egg crate, like for frag rack, cut a custom size around my down pipe and wedged it in there, then i cut a small piece and put it in the down pipe so none goes into the pipe and sectioned off about 4 inches of space from the top for the cheato. It definitely is filtering cause i can see it catching a bunch of crap but as for growing and eating nitrates, i do not see any action.

 

[mfs1855]

I guess I'll give it a try and see what happens. Mine will get some natural light in addition to the LED. I'll let you if I have any better luck.

 

[rookie07]

Inwouldnt do it because that will allow for detritus to build up back there... You want the detritus to get to the sump and get filtered out, not let it build up and settle in the overflow.

 

[mfs1855]

Ah. I think that's the answer. Case closed. Thanks!

 

[johnsonpics]

I've put cheato in the overflow of my Solana tank with some success. The only bad thing was that it slowly degraded over time and would get all the pumps clogged up. I tried putting it in a mesh bag, but it slowly died as well. I've recently put different, thicker algae in there, and it seems to work great for the nutrient export and it stays together and doesn't clog anything up! I've even put some in the display and it looks great!

 

[mfs1855]

Do you have a picture of the setup and do you know what algae you are using?

Thanks

 

[johnsonpics]

Here's a picture of the macro algae in the tank and a top down shot looking into the overflow. I was told it's called Red Dragon, but I'm not sure how accurate that is. It's been in there about 2 months and I've already had to trim it back and give some to friends. The green macro algae honestly just started growing, and I have no idea what it is. It's not hair algae, so I'm just letting it do it's thing and see what happens. The light is an LED from Innovative Marine and it just hangs on the back of the tank with a magnet. Try it out, what could it hurt?

 

[mfs1855]

Wow. That looks great. I'll give it a try. Thanks!