JonezNReef
Member
I would rather have less mulm (detritus) in my tank even if it does help with growing pods. But that is interesting that it would help increase the pod population and Paul B is full of good advice and some old school knowledge.
Pod-maximizing refugia
- Thread starter rlpardue
- Start date
Alexraptor
New member
I can say from personal experience that Mulm definitely promotes crazy pod/critter production.
Mulm in the display combined with a macro like Caulerpa has kind of been the cornerstone of my nano Mandarin setups, which are fuge-less.
Even my 15 gallon SPS reef has a lot of mulm in the display and supports a fully grown male Mandarin, though it does have a chaeto based refugium.
Mulm in the display combined with a macro like Caulerpa has kind of been the cornerstone of my nano Mandarin setups, which are fuge-less.
Even my 15 gallon SPS reef has a lot of mulm in the display and supports a fully grown male Mandarin, though it does have a chaeto based refugium.
Reef Frog
New member
I've often wondered if creating some large cavities inside pieces of live rock that fish & crabs could not enter, but would have small openings for pod entry/exit, would aid pod breeding inside the display tank. It could even be fitted possibly with some tubing to provide water flow & to flush it out occasionally and even inject some food with a turkey baster. Any potential as a good pod breeding condo or a dumb idea?
zeemofree
In Memoriam
I have this experimental test tank running with a two stage sand filter that has a gravity over flow back into the tank, I believe this setup once established will spit out plenty of micro fauna Into the display, I do not us a filter sock as I want to get as many filter feeders as I can established to remove what the sock removes, and the rest will feed my sand filters, then the broke down nutrients are exported via plankton safe skimmer. I believe filter socks take away the food micro fauna needs and with and established population of live filter socks so to speak will then produce more larvae and what have you for tank inhabitants to consume.
darrick001
Member
I have had an experimental 70 gal tank set up for about 2 months. There are no fish in this tank but it is gravity feed from my 210. The set up has a 7 inch dsb. It is split down the center length wise. Think race track and you will have the idea. One half of the tank has ruble from 1-5 inch with various types of algae. The other side is coral frags birds nest, acro, Zoas, chalice, mushrooms, blasto sponges, fan worms and rock anemones. 1 600 gph pump pushes water in the same direction as the gravity feed. Tho causes the water to follow the race track. A phosban 150 with 2 Tbsp of Bp. The Bp are to increase the free bacteria available as a food source. The exit also flows in the same direction. It has 1 t247 led light on the coral side running at 20% on the blue spectrum 7 hrs and 10% full spectrum 4 hrs, and a PC on the other 10 hrs. In 2 months it is loaded with life 1000s of mysids, amphipods', copepods', worms, starfish. The water circulates around the top fairly quickly but the bottom 1-2 inches moves much slower. The bottom 2 inches contains 90-95% of the life. The coral are multiplying faster than I have ever seen in my 12 years of reefing. The lighting is turned way down and to my surprise the colors are better than ever. I have ran a refugia on the 210 for 8 years and there is way more life in this setup than the 8 year old setup. Both setups are connected to the 210. The starting culture was rock and algae taken from the 8 year old setup. Additives bacteria 1 tbsp every 2 weeks, reef bugs 2x per week 1/16tsp, vodka .5ml 1x per week. These are added to the 210 display. These are all to increase the free bacteria count. If I turn the pumps off you can see plankton swimming to feed on the reef bugs. The display has 1 very fat mandarin and a leopard wrasse along with 2 clowns flame angel, gobies', tangs, shrimp, starfish, yellow tail damsel. The older system is also a 70 gal it has 2 inches of mud same algae, rock, same PC light, no led no direct Bp feed. Gravity feed in one side out the other.
JonezNReef
Member
Do you have any pictures of your setup darrick? Sounds pretty sweet. I have been thinking about running multiple tanks on 1 system so I can boost my overall diversity of life to see if it will make a difference. Glad some people are really testing out some new ideas
darrick001
Member
I will try to take some tomorrow.
darrick001
Member
I can't get my photos to load for some reason. I will post as soon as I figure out what the problem is.
JonezNReef
Member
If your using a phone try using tapatalk app to load pics and videos... It's the only way I can get any to load on this sight. If not then try making the images smaller or put them on something like photobucket and post a link
darrick001
Member
darrick001
Member
I will post the rest after I reduce the file size
darrick001
Member
darrick001
Member
The old 70 gal mud setup was removed last weekend to make room for a new build. I'm planning on replacing my current setup with a 96x48x24 racetrack setup. No sump everything will be built into the race track. Filtration will be in a second chamber built onto one end then the refugia on the other end. It should use about 1/2 the energy of my current setup if things go well.
JonezNReef
Member
Sounds like an interesting plan. You will have to do a build thread for that so we can see how it progresses over time. What you have going on in the pictures looks good too
darrick001
Member
I was surprised how well the water circulates with only the one small pump. When the tank was empty I put lexan down the center and the flow was almost to much. You can control the amount of flow on each side by adjusting the position of the center. So with one pump you can have sps on one side and mushrooms on the other. For it to work the center must break the surface of the water.
darrick001
Member
It is caulerpa prolifera. If your nutrients are high it can. The light spectrum makes a big difference. I put it under 10k and it grew faster than in the tank in the pictures. It seems to grow very slow in that tank and My tang , angel and blenny seem to like it.
vikinglord13
New member
I have a few questions:
1) When I perform water changes I always siphon the sand bed in my Display Tank. Is this harmful to any worms or pod populations? My understanding is it is good to siphon the bed to prevent hazardous gases from building up. Is it just better to inject it with water with a turkey baster every now and then?
2) Since mulm/detritus tends to promote pod populations, is it better to just go without a filter? I currently have a filter pad before my refugium so I'm curious if that's preventing any pop colony growth.
3) Does anybody know of specific species which eat specific foods (like algae vs. detritus). I read somewhere that pods from R2G are all detrivores, other pods eat phytoplankton, and others eat smaller pods, and others eat algae. Anybody have a good source for this?
4) Forgive my noob status. I'm not understanding how a gravity fed refugium will help prevent pods from being killed by the propeller in the pump. I understand the water gets into the fuge by gravity, but it has to get back into the tank so doesn't this require a pump?
Thanks everyone! I find this thread to be quite interesting. I'm a fan of a natural filtration method as well as a balanced ecosystem so this helps my planning quite a bit.
1) When I perform water changes I always siphon the sand bed in my Display Tank. Is this harmful to any worms or pod populations? My understanding is it is good to siphon the bed to prevent hazardous gases from building up. Is it just better to inject it with water with a turkey baster every now and then?
2) Since mulm/detritus tends to promote pod populations, is it better to just go without a filter? I currently have a filter pad before my refugium so I'm curious if that's preventing any pop colony growth.
3) Does anybody know of specific species which eat specific foods (like algae vs. detritus). I read somewhere that pods from R2G are all detrivores, other pods eat phytoplankton, and others eat smaller pods, and others eat algae. Anybody have a good source for this?
4) Forgive my noob status. I'm not understanding how a gravity fed refugium will help prevent pods from being killed by the propeller in the pump. I understand the water gets into the fuge by gravity, but it has to get back into the tank so doesn't this require a pump?
Thanks everyone! I find this thread to be quite interesting. I'm a fan of a natural filtration method as well as a balanced ecosystem so this helps my planning quite a bit.
karimwassef
Active member
I have a large pod population and I use a surge that holds between 20 gallons and 100 gallons of water at different times.
In terms of what works -
1. No mechanical filtration. filter socks and sponges kill the fauna unless the water is allowed to flow in both directions (which noone practically does).
2. The pumps push water up into the overhead tank, this is a source of food and fresh water, but this is not where the pods are. The pod population lives up in the overhead tank and reproduces there creating the mass of life. When the water flows down into the DT, it doesn't go through a pump, so the pods stay alive.
In terms of what works -
1. No mechanical filtration. filter socks and sponges kill the fauna unless the water is allowed to flow in both directions (which noone practically does).
2. The pumps push water up into the overhead tank, this is a source of food and fresh water, but this is not where the pods are. The pod population lives up in the overhead tank and reproduces there creating the mass of life. When the water flows down into the DT, it doesn't go through a pump, so the pods stay alive.
