Copepods and Phyto beginners questions

[marcosnano]

Hello reefers,

I'm about to dose my 6 month old 12G nano with copepods and phyto for the first time. What should I know?

How do I add pods from battle to tank, should I add it in water or at rocks, corals, sand? Should I do it with lights off, UV off, pump off?

What about phyto? Will too much phyto cause algae bloom? How should I dose phyto and how should I add it to tank? Can i keep it in fridge and for how long?

Thanks!

 

[bradreef]

You want to add pods with flow off for at least 20 minutes typically to allow them to settle into rocks. Generally when lights are out.
Phyto- You want to make sure it can circulate and have skimmers off and filter socks removed.

 

[marcosnano]

You want to add pods with flow off for at least 20 minutes typically to allow them to settle into rocks. Generally when lights are out.
Phyto- You want to make sure it can circulate and have skimmers off and filter socks removed.

cool thanks, should I target add phyto or just pour in the water? Also, is 5ml per 10G general rule?

 

[bradreef]

I target reef roids only.

 

[PotatoPig]

What type of pods are you adding?

These things are pretty hardy in general, if the bottle is chilled then float it until warmed, then the filter off for a bit and then dump em in.

If you have Tisbe pods these are real tiny, you’ll only see these if you turn lights off (including room lights) and light the glass up from the side with a flashlight.

If you have Tigger pods these will be much more easily visible, but if you have any fish in the tank expect the pods to all be wiped out almost immediately. Like within a day or so.

 

[Allaric]

cool thanks, should I target add phyto or just pour in the water? Also, is 5ml per 10G general rule?

The phyto will mix around pretty quickly, you don't need to target it unless you are specifically feeding a coral. I don't know how helpful that is, but I don't think it would hurt anything to target the phyto. I did about 2ml/gal when I setup my pods. They easily doubled or tripled in about 20 days, but I have no predators right now.

I would actually suggest target "feeding" the pods into the rocks if you have fish in the tank. Everything jumps on pods so fast, anything to help them hide in the rocks before they get eaten. You can lose $20 in pods real quick.

Be sure you rinse out the jar a few times in the tank after you dump them out (clean the outside of the jar first). There are a lot of tiny baby pods in there that will get stuck to the side and lost. You won't be able to see most of them. Rinse and dump a few times to capture most of those.

 

[Allaric]

What type of pods are you adding?

These things are pretty hardy in general, if the bottle is chilled then float it until warmed, then the filter off for a bit and then dump em in.

If you have Tisbe pods these are real tiny, you’ll only see these if you turn lights off (including room lights) and light the glass up from the side with a flashlight.

If you have Tigger pods these will be much more easily visible, but if you have any fish in the tank expect the pods to all be wiped out almost immediately. Like within a day or so.

I agree, but I would just say that you will probably always have some pods. But they will effectively be wiped out in a few days as the population will be too small to sustain fish or observe many on the glass. You have a chance in a large tank with large fish, but everyone else loves pods.

The only way you will maintain a pod population is to dedicate significant space to pod production somewhere fish can't get to. That can be something like pod hotels, bioballs or rock piles. But it takes a lot of real estate. I've had mixed results with the sump. It does push pods up to the display, but it seems to kill a number of them on the way. I just don't see the production from a sump as I would from a similar dedicated tank of the same size and setup.

If you really need pods, then the best thing to do is farm them in dedicated tank. They don't need much, just tiny breeder tank, airstone and some food. Phyto is best, but you can use algae pellets. Growing them is super easy. Getting them out of the grow tank without picking up the less-than-ideal water from the grow tank can be challenging. I used filters, but it wasn't a great solution. If anyone had a better method, I'd like to hear it.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

cool thanks, should I target add phyto or just pour in the water? Also, is 5ml per 10G general rule?

You can't you target feed copepods lol they are hiding inside the rock, out of sight.

I just pour phyto into the tank, I culture it myself so I don't worry about making it last. Its impossible to overdose the tank on phyto (as long as it reasonable).

 

[Jay'sReefBugs]

Lights off kill your pumps for 20 minutes dose them all to the tank done deal don't over complicate a simple process . Phyto dosing varies between different vendors as there's no set rule and the density of phytos are normally always different. It's virtually impossible to over dose phyto with that said don't go dumping the entire bottle in your system lol .

 

[Allaric]

You can't you target feed copepods lol they are hiding inside the rock, out of sight.

I just pour phyto into the tank, I culture it myself so I don't worry about making it last. Its impossible to overdose the tank on phyto (as long as it reasonable).

I wasn't meaning target feed pods. I meant target spray them to the rock so they can be in the rocks before the fish get them. They have a better survival rate if you inject them into the craggy rocks rather than make them swim for safety.

That was why I put it in quotes, but it may not have been clear.

 

[AlgaeDepot]

For pod dosing, turn off power heads and lights so they can find hiding places, then let the fish hunt them down. For phytoplankton you just dose directly in the tank with everything on MINUS THE UV which could damage the live cells, then causing an algae bloom depending on how much you’re dosing.