Got Copepods????

[povsan]

Hello and thanks in advance.

My tanks been doing really well since I've had it (about 4 months) now and I've just noticed that I have alot of copepods, I mean ALOT of them.... like it's infested with it or something. I don't want to put in a mandarin right now for the simple fact that I just want to put in fish last, due to past experience. Is this way to many copepods for the tank? Can it handle it with out the mandarin? I have a sailfin in there now and a few softies. If I need to then I'll get a mandarin.... what do you guys think?? any ideas or comments would be appreciated. Thank you.

 

[Blown 346]

No copods are great even if they are all over, they will help eat detritus.
I wouldnt add a Mandarin until the tank is atleast 6 months to a year old, hasalot of rock and a refugium. You will be amazed on how fast a mandarin can make your tank barren of copods.

 

[povsan]

Thank you,
taht puts me at ease alot.

 

[unimike]

I have copepods that are all over in my refigium, yes they do eat the detritus and goes into the main tank at nights and eats the microalgae on my LRs

 

[Sk8r]

They'll grow about as numerous as they need to in order to handle the algae your tank produces, but a mandarin can knock them down amazingly fast. The sand has to practically crawl with them at night to supply one of those greedy little fish and keep its population up.

 

[Danfish]

This may be a dumb question, but...
How do the pods get from the refugium to the tank w/o being chopped/killed by the refugium pump, or get mechanicaly filtered out (I assume you avoid using any form of filter pads in a refugium? Baffles instead to stop bubbles?)

I ask because I've been trying to wrap my head around the whole refugium practice and I completely get using it to tackle nitrates, but with pod production I can't help but wonder how they survive going through the pump.

 

[Phong33]

Some do get chopped up in the pumps but a lot does get thru the pump without any problems. I do not use any pads, just baffles to stop the bubbles.

 

[Danfish]

The next dumb question would be...
If I wanted to keep my wet/dry working as a wet/dry, would that hinder pod production?

Not only do I have (several) filter pads in the line but there is a sponge and the balls, and the difussor plate.

Or would the overflow dam tend to prevent them from getting down into the wet/dry sump?