Pods eat the bottom and the growth, and the growth can detach and get away. And, any growth the pods eat is growth you can't remove. Sometimes the pods are so thick the growth cannot get started. RO solves this. So for fastest nutrient removal, pods are not wanted. Just feed the growth to the fish.
Once nutrients are where you want, then growing pods is good if the fish can eat all of them, thus transferring nutrients from the water to fish growth.
ChaetoGrow will probably not help because your growth looks fairly dark already.