To notice the pods, wait until about an hour after your lights have turned off and go in there with a flashlight and search the glass. You should notice some. The come in with the livesand/liverock/frags/corals, ect. ect. and are very very common. I'd be really surprised if you had none. And with a new tank, you usually tend to see tons of them before they eventually eat up there food sources and start to die back (which is why a refugium comes in handy) It's not BAD not to have them, but it is a benefit to have them. if you want certain fish that only eat on these, like a mandarin (I know people, they may eat other stuff too, but mostly pods) then yes, it would be bad.
If you wanna help their numbers, dose your tank with phytoplankton regularly. I culture my own phyto and dose every single day and have more pods than my fish can even think about eating. My poor mandarin needs the jenny craig diet.
