I have had the same copepod cultures going continuously since 2004. I had them collected from the Caribbean and keep them at 1.025 salinity. It take a long time to figure out the right balance of phyto, nutrient export and harvesting.
The type of phyto you feed should match the species. Based on your photo, I'd guess a tigriopus species and I would suggest culturing nannochloropsis or Nannochloris Oculata. I culture in 2ltrs and gallon carboys. I set container to be harvested in 7 days and 11 days based on amount of phyto I'm restarting the culture with. This allows me to feed my cultures 2x per week. Don't worry about the phyto settling or going yellow. Tigriopus copepods are benthic and will crawl on the bottom of the culture container and eat the settled phyto.
This is basically how I have my cultures setup: https://reefs.com/magazine/the-breeder-s-net-a-simple-how-to-on-home-culture-of-copepods/
You don't need to light the copepod cultures. In fact, I've had better luck not lighting them. I've also had better luck with minimal to no air flow and none of my cultures have any flow. Just clean tanks, fresh saltwater, live phyto and copepods. You don't want anything else in the culture system for them to cling to or hide in.
Tigriopus take about 8 weeks to reach maturity so give your cultures 6-8 weeks before you start harvesting. Also when you first start your cultures, the adults will usually mostly die off after a week or two and people think the culture crashed. The nauplii (babies) are microscopic so you have tons in there, you just can't see them but they will start being large enough to see after 3-4 weeks.
Over the years, my most common cause of crashes is from ciliates being introduced and out competing the copepod nauplii. Also, I only restart my cultures about every 6-8 months. Outside of that, I harvest weekly which becomes my mini water change, topoff with freshwater to keep salinity stable, and siphon detritus every 2 months or so.
Let me know if you have additional questions.
The type of phyto you feed should match the species. Based on your photo, I'd guess a tigriopus species and I would suggest culturing nannochloropsis or Nannochloris Oculata. I culture in 2ltrs and gallon carboys. I set container to be harvested in 7 days and 11 days based on amount of phyto I'm restarting the culture with. This allows me to feed my cultures 2x per week. Don't worry about the phyto settling or going yellow. Tigriopus copepods are benthic and will crawl on the bottom of the culture container and eat the settled phyto.
This is basically how I have my cultures setup: https://reefs.com/magazine/the-breeder-s-net-a-simple-how-to-on-home-culture-of-copepods/
You don't need to light the copepod cultures. In fact, I've had better luck not lighting them. I've also had better luck with minimal to no air flow and none of my cultures have any flow. Just clean tanks, fresh saltwater, live phyto and copepods. You don't want anything else in the culture system for them to cling to or hide in.
Tigriopus take about 8 weeks to reach maturity so give your cultures 6-8 weeks before you start harvesting. Also when you first start your cultures, the adults will usually mostly die off after a week or two and people think the culture crashed. The nauplii (babies) are microscopic so you have tons in there, you just can't see them but they will start being large enough to see after 3-4 weeks.
Over the years, my most common cause of crashes is from ciliates being introduced and out competing the copepod nauplii. Also, I only restart my cultures about every 6-8 months. Outside of that, I harvest weekly which becomes my mini water change, topoff with freshwater to keep salinity stable, and siphon detritus every 2 months or so.
Let me know if you have additional questions.