Feeding Refugium Directly

[pledosophy]

I have a planted tank an use my refugium more for pod production then nutrient export. I actually have to add nutrient to my systems to have some detectable nitrate and phosphate.

I am considering begining to feed my refugium directly with food for the pods to increase there population. I have a very large population of pods now, even getting some small mysid shrimp, but the more the merrier.

If anyone is doing this, what are you using to feed the pods. I was planning on some frozen foods, maybe mysis shrimp.

Any other thoughts are welcome.

 

[Faisal1976us]

feed them phytoplankton ,,,

 

[bandsaw2]

i was thinking of sending some unfiltered overflow into it.
any thoughts about doing this

 

[jjdude18]

i wouldnt recommend sending unfiltered overflow in, too hard to control how much food/ crud going in. I simply dose a couple drops of phyto to mine and i have pods like crazy.

 

[bandsaw2]

hey thanks jjdude18 for your thoughts
i'm thinking your right and not going to do that

 

[Dooly]

what's wrong with draining straight to the fuge?

i drain 25% from the overflow straight into my chaeto fuge, which in turn goes to my live rock rubble section of the sump, and then returns back to the display. the other 75% of the drain goes to my skimmer

I have so many pods/snails/critters in the fuge it's hard to find space without something crawling on it.. save your money

 

[pledosophy]

Since I have no mechanical filtration and no skimmer on this tank all of the water that drains to the refugium is unfiltered.

Not all pods and mysids eat phyto IIRC. Am I wrong? I thought different secies of pods had different food source, some being calanoid, some being harpcitoid and the mysid generally fed on detritus.

 

[shivvy]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13316085#post13316085 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Dooly
what's wrong with draining straight to the fuge?

i drain 25% from the overflow straight into my chaeto fuge, which in turn goes to my live rock rubble section of the sump, and then returns back to the display. the other 75% of the drain goes to my skimmer

I have so many pods/snails/critters in the fuge it's hard to find space without something crawling on it.. save your money

I like sump/fuges that are set up this way.

 

[das75]

I feed direct from one of my overflows. Do get some detritus but since fuge is BB just it siphon out

 

[BigJay]

I dose live phyto and rotifiers directly to the sump, into the refugium after the skimmer section. That way some of it ends up in the tank as well.

PS: The dozens of tiny feather dusters living in there love it. They really open up when I dose the "live" phytoplankton.

 

[rainmkr07]

phytoplankton vote here as well. they will love it.

 

[lilalove]

I dump a couple of shrimp pellets in there once a week.

 

[rivoth]

The mysis shrimp, amphipods, and the benthic copepods do not eat phytoplankton unless it dies and settles. For them I feed a pinch of small formula one pellets. Like everything, build up the dosage slowly until you get the pod production rate that you are looking for. I've also found that my baby bug population loves a little powdered coral frenzy.

 

[pledosophy]

I would like to thank everyone for there input on this thread. Thanks for your time.

I already have a very healthy pod population, but the more amphipods and lil shrimp I can grow the better.

I am going to continue to feed mysis and will start feeding some pellets as well.

I will come back to the thread in some time to report how it goes.

 

[BigJay]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13334728#post13334728 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by rivoth
The mysis shrimp, amphipods, and the benthic copepods do not eat phytoplankton unless it dies and settles. For them I feed a pinch of small formula one pellets. Like everything, build up the dosage slowly until you get the pod production rate that you are looking for. I've also found that my baby bug population loves a little powdered coral frenzy.

The phyto that I dose has a lot of nanochloropsus in it. It's my understanding that this plankton is immotile, so whatever hits the bottom will probably stay there (alive assuming that it gets light) until eaten.

I'l check out the coral frenzy, thanks for the heads up.

 

[rivoth]

The main reason I want to suggest something other than phyto is that the alternatives are a whole lot cheaper, and the majority of bugs in our tanks don't require phyto.

 

[JaredWaites]

Nothing is cheaper than growing your own phyto...

 

[The Cardinal]

I feed my hang on back refugium three times per day with otohime (very small pellets) that mysis can grasp. I have great growth of mysis and pods which my seahorses, mandarin and pipefish relish. There is a big difference with and without active feeding imo.

 

[pledosophy]

I have noticed a very large increase in pod and shrimp production out of the refugium since I started feeding it directly two weeks ago.

I have also noticed a larger amount of bristle worms.

JME so far.