Pod-maximizing refugia

Thanks,

Would periphyton compete with calcareous algae? This makes me think back several years when I added live silica based sand, straight from a trip to the beach.

I got a bad out brake of diatoms so I mistakenly used antibiotics upon the advice of the local store vender. Afterwords, I got a resurgence of calcareous algae like I had never seen before nor sense in any tank. It was growing so fast that I had to brake up the mono color land scape by turning over some of the rocks that were white underneath.

I am certainly not suggesting that you kill your entire protective bacterial population to get some pretty purple rock but it does beg the original question because my rock does not grow any calcareous algae or any other type. I do get some brownish stuff that comes and goes, in this nitrate limited, high bacteria environment.

NOTE: This could have been caused by many other factors and probably could not be duplicated.

That being said, does this spark any thoughts?
 
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I can't answer that question, but if that's really the case, then it seems like you wouldn't want coralline algae taking up valuable periphyton real estate.

I have a question about some new life I am seeing in my refugium. I introduced 2000 pods into my tank a couple weeks ago and i am wondering if what i am seeing are offspring. It's hard to describe what everything looks like so I took a picture. Maybe you guys can help me indentify the new inhabitants. There are 3 new life forms on the glass in the picture that look different than the copepods and amphipods I received a few weeks ago.
The first one to appear was the white spiral with a small fan.
The 2nd was the very tiny thing that looks like an ?amoeba?
The 3rd showed up today and looks like a bug.(this is the one that I'm thinking may be baby amphipods.
 

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Today I answered my own question about filter socks decreasing your pod population.
I was running my tank without a filter sock for a few weeks but decided to reinstall it on the overflow drain.
I recieved some chemipure today and went to put it in the filter sock. The inside of the sock reminded me of the bag of pods i purchased from reefs2go. It was crawling with amphipods, maybe around 100 or so. I have only had the sock installed for 1 week. I had no idea this many pods were being sucked into the DT and then overflowed back into the sump.
I am leaving the filter sock installed and plan on dumping the pods every few weeks back into my refugium. This might actually save some of the pods from the protein skimmer.:spin1:
 
When I use socks there is always pods and little starfish in them. I am trying to just use my socks when I blow of my rocks in display.I do hate the fact though that a lot of detritus settles in the fuge which is harder to clean than my sump due to all the rock I have to move. I have been thinking lately to raise my rock off bottom of fuge and blast it with power head every now and than. When i do a water change than I would make something to siphon from the bottom of fuge to get left over waste out. This way I don't move the rock around a lot and don't need to run socks except when I blow the rocks off or want to polish the water. My goal is to greatly reduce socks useage and start to dose phyto to get pods backup and strong.


QUESTION??
How do pods do with high nitrates does that affect them?
 
Erics, I will say that pods thrive on detritus if there aren't predators to cut them back. I moved all my livestock and half of my live rock from my 75g to my new 150g a couple weeks ago, and last night I looked at the glass in the 75g and saw an awful lot of pods on the glass.

Since I'd been neglecting water changes on the 75g in the weeks before the transition to the new tank, the nitrate levels were up to 50ppm. I think that pods (or at least certain kinds of them) don't mind the nitrates as much as your other tank inhabitants will.

I like the idea of keeping live rock off the bottom of the fuge. I used eggcrate and PVC "spacers" to lift rock above a sand bed in my seahorse refugium. That way the worms and small sand-sifters could stir the sand bed and help process detritus more easily. I found an old acrylic tank for $60 that I'm going to use as a live-rock/crypto fuge for the 150. Plan is to elevate the rock like you're suggesting, but put a Koralia 4 or something underneath it all to keep detritus from settling on the bare bottom. (I'm going to have a second fuge with a DSB)
 
Can we get more pics from people with successful remote planted refugiums? I have a remote that is currently empty except for an 8" coarse sand bed. I just purchased red mangrove, but want to add something that will fill in the bottom under the waterline.
I think you find more pods and critters living in the macro rather than free swimming for a number of reasons. Safety, micro algae growing on the macro as a food source, and breeding areas. I admit I don't have the scientific data to back this up, but think about a trip to a tidal pool at the ocean. You don't see much swimming around, but when you lift and shake out a piece of seaweed, tons of critters fall out and start swimming for shelter.
 
Still looking for some help identifying these 3 different refugium inhabitants.
1) white spiral with a small fan.
2) very tiny thing that looks like an ?amoeba?
3) thing that looks like a bug with 10 legs.(this is the one that I'm thinking may be baby amphipods.)


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Number three is an amphipod of some sort. Number one is a harmless filter feeder... Name I don't recall... There is a thread I read somewhere that identifies all of these... Can you point out number two?
 
There is one of the filter feeders directly in the center of the picture. Number 2 is up and just to the left of this filter feeder. It is directly below a salt stain. It is the shape of a pacman ghost lying on its side. There is also one dead center of the red macro algae.
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Yeah I see them... Those are flatworms.... They can be bad or just an annoyance. I had a few as well and haven't seen them for a couple of weeks...
 
Thanks for the identification help! Should I start trying to rid the tank of the flatworms? I don't really know how serious of a problem they are.
 
Hi Doug,
There are lots of different kinds of flatworms; since this is in your refugium I don't think it's bothering anything, and is helpful in that it at least is eating stuff (none of which is on "display").

Wrasses eat flatworms. "Yellow coris" and any of the other Halichoeres wrasses will enjoy them. I think they're cool to let live in the fuge, but if they start covering corals in the DT or something then I'd start thinking about controlling them. There are many kinds of harmless flatworms and only a couple of harmful ones; if they only live on your Acropora corals (and not on glass, etc) then you know you have a harmful one lol.

So yesterday afternoon I prepped an old acrylic tank that I'm going to be using for my uber-fuge. It's 36"x15"x20" (~45gal) and you can see it on the right in the picture below. I drilled two 1.5" bulkhead holes in the left side so water can drain back into the sump at a slow speed. I'm going to plumb a 3/4" vinyl hose from my main return pump (downstream from skimmer) into the "overflow" section of the refugium. (This is an annoying part of my acrylic fuge - I would rather have the extra space than the overflow section, but it's built-in so I have to live with it).

I'm definitely going to be adding a DSB in the fuge, and I'm going to have a live rock section too. I'm not sure whether I'm going to section it off so that the sand is on the left (with med-low flow) and the rock is on the right (with high flow), or whether I'll just make a PVC/eggcrate platform for the live rock to rest on above the level of the sand, in order to keep detritus from settling under and around the rocks. There is a section of my sump (to the left in the pic) where I'll have mangroves and chaeto growing. The plan is to keep the main refugium unlit.
 

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I agree with Hatonhed! I am considering plumbing in a above tank fuge and was hoping there was a solid way or secret to get a big pod population. Maybe someone out there has some more up to date info on all this.
 
I would love to hear some more input from people who have had success. I would love to have a fuge filled with pods.
 
I am tagging along for fun as well. However, I think the key to success is some macro/micro algae and some live rock. The pod condo is a really cool idea.
 
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