Although Chaeto can be utilized in a variety of ways to meet the needs of any marine aquarium, most use cases can be divided into two main categories: to control high or perpetually climbing nutrients, or to boost/stabilize PH in low nutrient systems.
In systems that maintain high or perpetually climbing nitrate and phosphate, Chaetomorpha crassa is the ultimate solution. Using Chaeto for this purpose is usually pretty straight forward. Typically all you need to do is add your chaeto to your refugium, start with a 10 hour lighting schedule and adjust your lighting intensity and/or photoperiod from there to achieve the desired nutrient levels. Keep in mind that the Chaetomorpha crassa grown at Chaeto Farm is already acclimated to extremely high intensity lighting. Typically chaetomorpha crassa kept under moderate to high intensity lighting can easily maintain near-zero nutrient levels even in the most heavily stocked aquaria, so if you keep corals, you’ll want to fine tune your lighting to achieve the balance you seek.
In some reef aquaria, robust, well maintained filtration systems can maintain low nutrients without the help of a macroalgae refugium. This is more common in systems designed for growing SPS corals. However stony corals are particularly sensitive to low and unstable PH. In these types of systems that have little need for additional nutrient export, a Chaeto refugium can be utilized to buffer the dip in PH that occurs at nighttime when the display tank’s lights are off (high nutrient systems benefit from this PH boosting effect as well). Since nutrient levels are already low, low to moderate intensity lighting on a reverse schedule to the display lighting is recommended. Nitrate and/or phosphate should then be dosed as needed to maintain desired parameters.