Algae: Cheato

Should my Cheato have hairy crap in it?..
The only reason i was concerned was i bought it from a guy on the net, not knowing how his tank is.... algae wise anyways. I thought i saw a fern like piece of algae in there too.

is it just part of the cheato? the filamentous stuff?

 

It's hard to tell what it actually is. Many people also use caulerpa in their fuge, so that is probably the leaf you saw. As for the brown, it could be die off. Chaeto will basically break apart and liquify into a flakey glob when it dies. Get a turkey baster and see if the stuff will blow off the cheato strands.

 

no the hairy stuff is not part of the cheato. just some hitch hiking algae, that is trying to get established. when you harvest your cheato, just keep throwing out the dirtiest, most "infected" parts or take it out and aggressively swash it in a bucket of salt water, or a series of them. in other words see if a salt water rinse will get rid of the stuff. your cheato should be fine.

 

ya i was more concerned about the dt.