Sustaining Copepods

[Johnseye]

I've done a bit of background reading on copepods, amphipods, phyto. Aside from feeding mandarins and other livestock that need these guys to survive and general tank biosphere benefits, there seems to be some benefit in reducing dinos. I've added various bottles of pods from the LFS from time to time along with phyto. I haven't added them consistently. I could visibly see the pods at night before I got wrasses. Once I added a pair of melanurus the amount of visible life diminished. Clearly they eat up any pods they find all day long.

I'm wondering if it's possible to seed a tank/sump so that it sustains itself even with predatory fish in the DT without constant restocking of the pods. I know that many with mandarins raise their own pods. This leads me to believe that the population will diminish without constant restocking. If I don't have livestock that need the pods am I just wasting money in trying to seed the tank?

Algae Barn recommended 1 gallon of pods and phyto to seed. Reasonable?

 

[BlackTip]

Because I have just one fish in the tank, I drop few sinking algae tablets in the fug to feed the pods.

I don't know whether this is working or not. I can see pods on the glass, but I don't know how to determine whether I have an established culture or not. I can, also, see plenty of them on the glass of the DT.

 

[fish flipper]

I'm curious on this as well.

 

[Johnseye]

Anyone have experience sustaining a copepod population in a DT/sump?

 

[BlackTip]

I experimented with something the other day. I shut the water flow to the fuge, and put few drops of phyto, after I mixed them with tank water. I let the fuge without water feed for a day. I looked, and there were so much pods on the glass and all in water surface.

I basically was feeding the pods and giving them enough time to consume the food, before it is swept away by the circulation system.

I am going to do this every other day or so to see if it works.