Snails in Fuge

[thebradybunch]

I want to increase my copods in my fuge. I currently have several snails in the fuge. It appears the snails are eating many of the pods. Do most of you have snails in your fuge? Would removing them increase the number of pods in the fuge? Are there real advantages to the snails in the fuge?
Thanks

 

[Aquarist007]

Snails do not eat copopods---other copopods eat copopods

You need a balanced ecosystem in your fuge to keep the population of a variety of zooplankton
thick chaeto macro, reef rubble and a sand bed----different species of copopods use these elements for protection ect from other predators

Feed DT phytoplankton to the refugium twice a week--copopods consume phytoplankton

Make sure your flow is minimal through the refugium so that less of them are swept back into the display tank

 

[Aquarist007]

the danger with snails in the refugium is that they can crawl into the return lines and partly block them causing the water to back up in the fuge and overflow---I have had this happen twice now

 

[thebradybunch]

Hey Capn thanks for the reply. I have LR,sand, and Cheato in there now. I have very minimal flow thru the fuge due to the baffles. I actually wanted to get more pods to the DT. I want to add a Dragonet and was hoping to get more pods in the tank for him to eat. There may be plenty in the tank now but I am not sure. The tank is a 72 gallon and has been set up for 7 months.

 

[Aquarist007]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13035240#post13035240 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by thebradybunch
Hey Capn thanks for the reply. I have LR,sand, and Cheato in there now. I have very minimal flow thru the fuge due to the baffles. I actually wanted to get more pods to the DT. I want to add a Dragonet and was hoping to get more pods in the tank for him to eat. There may be plenty in the tank now but I am not sure. The tank is a 72 gallon and has been set up for 7 months.

how is your fuge draining back to the display tank. You must make sure that you are not reskimming it but it is being returned directly to the tank

Remember there are many species of zooplankton that are not visible to the naked eye--after 7 months I would expect that your water is loaded with them.

 

[thebradybunch]

The sump is divided into 3 sections. The first comes from the over flow and contains the skimmer. The middle is the fuge and the third is the return. I have a mag pump pumping water back to the DT.