Dosing PODS?

[naesco]

Originally Posted by paddyob

So, wondering. Does anyone regularly add PODS to their tanks... or live planktons?

Wondering if they just become food or if they will actually become a breeding population.

I have a small refugium, and have considered adding a Bag of live pods here and there, but don't want it to be a single feeding for my fish.

Your refugium should have a slow flow which you can accomplish by having a turned down valve bypass from the outlet from your sump to your main tank,
The outlet from the refugium to your tank should be near the water line. What this means is that the pods and other live goodies are not flowing immediately into the tank. Some of the pods will make it to the main tank and to avoid them being eaten immediately run an ABS pipe right down to the bottom of your tank. Saw some slits in the pipe near the bottom to decrease the flow further and put rock around it. That way when the pods exit the refugium they find protection and a home to breed in the main tank.
Keep an ordinary light on over the refugium at all times. Overfeed the refugium phytoplankton to keep them healthy and multiplying.
Hope this helps.

[daniella3d]

Ha ok, I thought they were colder water pods because the need to keep the bottle in the fridg.

How do you "overfeed" the refugium with phytoplankton without it all leaking into the main tank? Also I have notice that a lot of my copepods go on the glass when there is a coat of green algae, I guess they eat that too?

Originally Posted by naesco

Your refugium should have a slow flow which you can accomplish by having a turned down valve bypass from the outlet from your sump to your main tank,
The outlet from the refugium to your tank should be near the water line. What this means is that the pods and other live goodies are not flowing immediately into the tank. Some of the pods will make it to the main tank and to avoid them being eaten immediately run an ABS pipe right down to the bottom of your tank. Saw some slits in the pipe near the bottom to decrease the flow further and put rock around it. That way when the pods exit the refugium they find protection and a home to breed in the main tank.
Keep an ordinary light on over the refugium at all times. Overfeed the refugium phytoplankton to keep them healthy and multiplying.
Hope this helps.

[naesco]

Originally Posted by daniella3d

Ha ok, I thought they were colder water pods because the need to keep the bottle in the fridg.

How do you "overfeed" the refugium with phytoplankton without it all leaking into the main tank? Also I have notice that a lot of my copepods go on the glass when there is a coat of green algae, I guess they eat that too?

What I did is shut off the partially opened valve to the refugium. This allows the phyto to sink down to the bottom and be eaten by all the little inverts including pods. Yes, they love being in the green algae and for that reason the walls of the refugium are left natural
unless the refugium is in the living room and you have a non-reefer spouse/partner.

[Rotifer]

If you add a centrifuge harvested microalgae to your system you can add large quantities to both your refugium and main tank without any negative affective. Centrifuge harvesting removes all the nitrates and phosphates from the growing media, so you don't run into a problem of adding nutrients and creating an algae bloom in your system. The amounts of nitrates and phosphates in the actual microalgae are negligable.

The more free floating microalgae you add to your system, the more copepods and other zooplankton you will end up with in your system. Its the bottom of the marine food chain, feeding everything else up the chain.