Seeding a Tank- Yea or Nay?

[0481]

Guys and Gals,
So I have been looking into seeding the tank with copepods and/or amphipods. Other than my maintenance crew I dont really have anything that would eat them at the moment. In the future I plan on getting a mandarin and figured that it (as well as any corals I get in the future) would benefit from a healthy population. I do have a small population building from my liverock and can watch the little critters crawling around on the glass.

My question is...does/has anyone every seeded their tank or do you just let the liverock do its thing? If you have is that something you have done just once or do you need to do it on a continual basis? I was reading on another forum (DONT SAY ANYTHING...I ALREADY FEEL LIKE I CHEATED ON RC...WONT HAPPEN AGAIN) that people had to reseed every 6 months or so..is that the case? I would think that they would multiple as they do in nature and reseeding would not be required if they are allowed to multiply without any main predators.
If you do seed is there a particular brand that you use? A articular amphipod or copepod that you use? Rotifores? Phytoplankton? Zooplankton? I just want to make sure that when I do start adding corals and the mandarin that there is ample food for everyone.

Any thoughts and tips are greatly appreciated.

Greg

 

[nathan1986]

Do you have a fuge? I never seeded before but ive seen other tanks with fuges have a pretty healthy pod population. Id think if you had a place for the pods to reproduce and not get eaten like in a refugium, then your population would last alot longer. If you only have living space for the pods in your main display then id assume you wouId have to add pods to the tank more often. Just my thoight on it

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[cnreef]

You're going to get a wide variety of opinions here. Some will say seeding is a waste of money, and it'll happen on its own naturally. Others think seeding is a good idea at the start, some will reseed every so often depending on how fast their critters take down the population. It's really up to you. Personally, I seeded my DT and fuge only once and haven't done it since then, although I'm not against reseeding it sometime in the future, not because I feel I need to, but because I think it wouldn't do any harm and could be beneficial.

 

[0481]

Nathan- Yes I do have the refugium. I was planning on putting some in the DT as well as in the refugium. Like I said...right now there is nothing to really eat them in the DT so that would basically be an additional refugium for them. Then once I get the corals up and mandarin the refugium would relenish the depleted stock in the tank (ideally)

 

[0481]

CN-Did you seed at the start or for specific critters? What did you seed with? There are so many options that I am not sure what would work out best...and I really hate the "trial and error" approach when it comes to wasting money...lol

 

[Ted_C]

I dont have specific experience with a mandarin - but from what I've seen with others and my experience with "live eaters" - the population in the tank will be wiped out in 2 weeks. All of these live eaters (Mandarins, Butterfly's, heck most all fish will eat live) are voracious. They feed all day and all night.

The refugium wont produce enough to maintain the required population in the main display for the mandarin's feeding requirements. I hear you need a refugium that's the same size as your display tank (or bigger if you have a small display) to maintain a healthy pod population. Even then - some additional feeding may be required.

Some suggest a couple pod hotels (rock rubble in a flow through container) moved back and forth from the refugium to the display. Pods jump into it in the refugium then get manually transferred to the display. Also gives the pods a place to hide in the display.

Also - to maintain pods - your going to need something for the pods to eat. detritus and poo only go so far. They are going to need some green algae to keep them happy. Maybe some phytoplankton too.

That all has the makings of a really dirty tank. Sometimes though, dirty is good. your sps might not grow like these tank of the month tanks - and you might not have frags to sell for quite a long time - but you'll have a more complete little ecosystem living with you.

Here's a good quote from another reefer on Mandarins: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2009308

mine would not accept anything other than the pods. Some mandarins eat brine, as well as others will accept cyclop eeze but some accept nothing other than pods. every individual is different. That being said, I cultured my own pods and added few hundred every day to my dt as i do not have a fuge and was only able to keep the mandarin alive for 3 months

Another good read if your thinking of keeping a mandarin:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1492650

 

[UnlcleLuke]

i dont have specific experience with a mandarin - but from what i've seen with others and my experience with "live eaters" - the population in the tank will be wiped out in 2 weeks. All of these live eaters (mandarins, butterfly's, heck most all fish will eat live) are voracious. They feed all day and all night.

The refugium wont produce enough to maintain the required population in the main display for the mandarin's feeding requirements. I hear you need a refugium that's the same size as your display tank (or bigger if you have a small display) to maintain a healthy pod population. Even then - some additional feeding may be required.

Some suggest a couple pod hotels (rock rubble in a flow through container) moved back and forth from the refugium to the display. Pods jump into it in the refugium then get manually transferred to the display. Also gives the pods a place to hide in the display.

Also - to maintain pods - your going to need something for the pods to eat. Detritus and poo only go so far. They are going to need some green algae to keep them happy. Maybe some phytoplankton too.

That all has the makings of a really dirty tank. Sometimes though, dirty is good. Your sps might not grow like these tank of the month tanks - and you might not have frags to sell for quite a long time - but you'll have a more complete little ecosystem living with you.

Here's a good quote from another reefer on mandarins: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2009308


another good read if your thinking of keeping a mandarin:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1492650

+1

 

[anbosu]

I don't know why you would seed.

How big is your tank? Unless you can get one that already eats prepared food I'd just plan on getting a different fish unless you've got at least a 75 gallon display. It would cost you a fortune to constantly buy pods to feed the mandarin.

 

[0481]

I don't know why you would seed.

How big is your tank? Unless you can get one that already eats prepared food I'd just plan on getting a different fish unless you've got at least a 75 gallon display. It would cost you a fortune to constantly buy pods to feed the mandarin.

My DT is a 125g. The pods that are in there now are growing slowly from the live rock. My thought was if I seed the tank and refugium I could get a healthy self-sustaining population before I got the Mandarin. Same with the plankton. I would seed and get a healthy population to feed the pods before the fish goes in the water.

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[anbosu]

My DT is a 125g. The pods that are in there now are growing slowly from the live rock. My thought was if I seed the tank and refugium I could get a healthy self-sustaining population before I got the Mandarin. Same with the plankton. I would seed and get a healthy population to feed the pods before the fish goes in the water.

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You could just get some chaeto from somone cleaning out their fuge rather than ordering it. People often give it away on here, and it is always full of pods.

 

[jd371]

I started to culture pods in a spare 20 gal to seed my fuge and DT from time to time. The 20 gal is half filled with water and in there I have some rock and natural sea sponges. I'm also culturing phyto to feed the copepods. When I'm ready to harvest I'll take some of the sponges out and shake them out in the DT and place the sponge in the fuge overnight, and once a month I'll swap out some of the rocks from the culture tank into the fuge. I also hatch baby brine shrimp to feed my Mandy with a diy feeder.