on the issue of sustainability, and fwiw, my mandarin is more than capable of wiping out the DT pod colony is short order, so I added a second sump to my system in addition to my HOB CPR large fuge. I moved the hardware to the below the tank sump and added an DIY eggcrate cube to hold rubble rock and cheato for additional pod fuge area and left the HOB with a few pieces of rubble rock and cheato for the sole purpose to seed the DT with pods in the flow.
Keep an eye on the mandarin and be prepared to enact short term (additional but expensive pod additions) or long term (more fuge space) fixes until you a certain the fish is well fed.
algae in the DT is ugly but it does serve to help the pod population.
Keep an eye on the mandarin and be prepared to enact short term (additional but expensive pod additions) or long term (more fuge space) fixes until you a certain the fish is well fed.
algae in the DT is ugly but it does serve to help the pod population.