How to increase copepod population

[pmcustom]

I've had a healthy mandarin for about 2 1/2 years now, so I know I have a decent enough (at least for now) supply of live food, but I'm worried that as I continue to stock the tank with corals, I may have problems in the future. I have a 90gal tank with around 150lbs of live rock. The sump/refugium holds around 20gal total, and has one high flow compartment for macro and one low flow compartment which, when I get some LR rubble, will be the refugium. The tank is very lightly stocked for now, so up to this point I haven't dosed phyto or anything really.

My question is, is it possible to substantially raise the live food population (copepods, amphipods, etc...) by dosing phyto regularly, or will it just be used up by filter feeders and the like before helping out? Or do I have to have a seperate culture setup to really make a difference? Also, does anyone know of or use a successful continuous copepod culture? I envision one operating like a kalk reactor, slowly pumping tank water and maybe phyto into the copepod "reactor", and then draining back into the tank. but i don't know anything about it, so i have no idea if it's possible.

Thanks.

 

[boxfishpooalot]

grow diatom algae. Dose sodium silicate. Randy HF does this, i use silica sand which I grind up once in a while. The pods explode in size when diatoms are present.

 

[manofcoral]

Sounds like I have the same question. OK, how do you grow diatom algae? Thanks

Paul<><

 

[pmcustom]

i thought the object of an ro/di was to get rid of silicate? won't elevated levels cause nuisance algae? if so, i'd rather not fix one problem by creating another.

 

[pmcustom]

also, isn't diatom algae what you scrape off the glass? i know that helps feed everything, but wouldn't dosing phyto do the same thing without promoting nuisance algae growth?

 

[SDguy]

live rock rubble/crushed coral in a section of your sump will help with a healthy pod population. FWIW, I'm talking amphipods and similarly sized crustaceans here. Copepods are really small. Do some google searches on the two.

 

[unclereefer]

I know a guy with the fattest mandarin you have ever seen. He took a strawberry basket and covered a pile of live rock rubble with it behind his show pieces as a protected culture site in the display.

 

[SDguy]

Oh yeah, if you can put it in the main display, even better. :thumbsup:

 

[Sudad]

I dose DT's Phytoplankton (Premium Reef Blend).

The Premium Reef Blend contains instead of the normal Reef Blend diatom algae and other phytoplankton algae (Nannochloropsis oculata, Phaeodactylum tricornutum and Chlorella with a cell size of 2 â€"œ 20 microns. Phaeodactylum tricornutum is a large and very nutritious diatom ).

I dose it for one year now and I'm very happy about this product. A lot of copepods, mysis and other kind of zooplankton grew up in my tank.

Here the link: http://www.dtplankton.com/phytoplankton.html

I dose 6 ml a day for my 66 gallon tank. I dose it at night.

Sudad

 

[pmcustom]

sdguy i've been reading a lot about them already...from what i've gathered so far, most corals and the mandarin feed primarily on copepods and similarly sized zooplankton, so that's what i'm going to focus on, although i'm sure the amphipods and such don't go to waste i think if i start dosing phyto (i'll prob use dt's premium, sudad) it will help a lot...it surely can't hurt! and i need to get a bunch of lr rubble too...i'm sure that would be much better than the macro, which is all i have in the refugium so far. thanks.

 

[Sk8r]

I feed Phytofeast every morning before the lights come on, and sustain a mandarin in a 9 month old 52g. I got the mandarin in March, when the tank was 3 mos old and supplemented pods from www.reefnutrition.com plus started this feeding. The pods had to be supplemented monthly until September, when we reached break-even. The Phytofeast feeding has increased the size of tubeworms, sponges [wild sponge growth] and made my crocea clam very happy too. Plus certain corals open up and feed when it goes in, so they may like it too. Phytofeast, DT's, both good products.

 

[pmcustom]

You might read this link:

http://www.dtplankton.com/mgw2/main.html

the DT's guy did a very in depth study to try and substantiate Reef Nutrition's claims about their "live" phyto-feast product. The results were pretty scary. Basically, they use alcohol and fragrance to preserve and mask the dead cells. In all the tests, they couldn't find any live cells whatsoever in the Phyto-Feast, and did find a lot of ingredients you wouldn't want in your tank. I know DT's would obviously love to discredit its competitors, but Reef-Nutrition didn't even try to back up any of his claims with any proof whatsoever, so it seems legitimate. My 2cents anyway....good luck.