Chaeto vs. Caulerpa. Which is more effective?

Tristan · May 19, 2020

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 · May 19, 2020

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

Daniel@R2R · May 20, 2020

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 · Jan 19, 2021

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 · Jan 19, 2021

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 · Jan 19, 2021

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 · Jan 19, 2021

Jerry Barnes said:
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!