Copepods after cycle

[Tinklez]

If I’m cycling my tank with all dry rock and adding bacteria, when is a good time to add copepods to help fight algae and the ugly phase?

How much copepods will I need to add for a 50 gallon? Where can I buy them and do I need to feed them?

 

[slingfox]

If you are patient you will get copepods naturally as you add fish and corks to the tank. If you want to jumpstart your copepod population you can buy them online form the various copepod suppliers. If you have an LFS that sells saltwater stuff they may have copepods for sale. You don’t need to feed copepods anything specific—they can live off of whatever you feed your fish or clean-up-crew. People who want to try to increase their copepod populations feed phytoplankton.

I had a massive amount of copepods early on when all I had was a pair of clownfish and some snails. When I added copepod eaters like wrasse and anthias, the copepod population declined dramatically but they are still there—just a lot less of them.

 

[exnisstech]

Pods are like asterinas and bristle worms. In 9 years I've never added any but have them in every tank. The ugly phase is just that, a phase. Almost every dry rock start up goes through it. Its like a right of passage lol

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Yes you can add them right after the cycle, but I agree with above comments, pods will end up in your tank for free very soon.

 

[afboundguy]

If you see your tank it will help speed up the process since you used dry rock but as others have said you will still get them.

I have found that dosing tank with live phytoplankton helps the copepod population explode as well.