Chaeto vs. Caulerpa. Which is more effective?

[KVYA]

So I’m sure a bunch of you have seen @Bulk Reef Supply ’s videos on chaeto in a refugium and their graphs of nitrate and phosphate over time. Does anyone have anything similar for caulerpa? Or, anecdotal evidence for caulerpa to compare against chaeto in terms of phosphate and nitrate réduction alone?
Preferably fern caulerpa (mexicana, taxifolia), grape caulepra(racemosa), and blade caulerpa(prolifera)
Disregarding that caulerpa can go sexual.

 

[ThePurple12]

In my experience chaeto grows faster, therefore taking in more nutrients. They're both great, though.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Interesting question. IME the reason most people keep chaeto over calerpa is because 1) calerpa has a tendency to go sexual and 2) because chaeto is more available from other hobbyists (probably because of point 1). I'm not certain that chaeto is better for reducing nutrients as much as people try to eliminate the risk factor.

 

[Sdot]

I know this thread is old, but i want to chime in on this. A little back story. My new tank is a transfer from an older tank.
To get nutrients up, i was dosing both Po4 and No3. After a few months i backed off of Phos (feeding was enough to maintain levels) and now only dose nitrates.

Having had chaeto in my fuge it was being out competed by hair algae. I purchased at the time a small sea hare to help clear things up. My chaeto was growing so fast i used to donate it the LFS. Long story short, the sea hare started eating the chaeto!! (I thought it was just growing slower). I purchased online Caulerpa Prolifera, with in a few months of me having just a little bit of this stuff... ive had to feed more to keep phos up and raise my nitrate dosage.....this stuff will quickly bottom out your nutrients if you let it. In my experience caulerpa is much better at using nitrate and phos than chaeto.

 

[Mono]

They both seem pretty good at removing nutrients. I have both growing in my refugium.

People might shy away from Caulerpa since it has a higher likelihood of invading your display tank. So far it hasn't happened to me but I can see how it might happen. It attaches itself to the rockwork and is harder to completely remove. All you need is one leaf.

That said, the Caulerpa seems a lot easier to grow. My Chaeto seems to grow in boom and bust cycles. I haven't figured out why yet. However, the Caulerpa seems pretty indestructible to me.

 

[Jerry Barnes]

I've experienced the same thing. Can't seem to get the chaeto to grow much even under the ideal lighting that BR says is the best. But, the caulerpa grows steady. Don't understand how these folks pull bucket fulls of chaeto from their tanks. I've gotta be doing something wrong.

 

[Mono]

I've experienced the same thing. Can't seem to get the chaeto to grow much even under the ideal lighting that BR says is the best. But, the caulerpa grows steady. Don't understand how these folks pull bucket fulls of chaeto from their tanks. I've gotta be doing something wrong.

I get a bucket of Chaeto and then it just sort of craps out. I dose iron manganese etc but nothing seems to help. I'm a heavy feeder with a pretty heavy bio load so I just can't figure it out. There's gotta be plenty of nitrates and phosphates in the tank. The Caulerpa grows in spite of everything I do!

 

[kathouqc]

For my first refugium I can only find caulerpa in stock did is s great choice or I am better to start with cheatos?

 

[pufferfish_jake_98]

Caulerpa. I understand the risks over chaeto, however just like some in this thread, my chaeto never took off in my Refugium. I experienced a hair algae problem that I narrowed down to my salt actually causing the problem, mixed with other smaller factors, but the chaeto always died in my small 2-gallon fuge, even with tuned fuge water flow and red light settings. Then… I got caulerpa. I’ve never seen anything grow faster. Took about a month to establish, but once I got better flow in my fuge on its mass, the thing outcompeted all hair algae and my copepod population exploded. This change also happened with changing to RS Coral Pro salt, which I highly recommend if you have hair algae problems with IO Reef Salt Crystals.