Culturing phyto, copepods or both

crys

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I’ve recently decided to start a phytoplankton culture. But after second thought, I’m not sure if I should grow both copepods and phyto rather than just phyto.
I would be dosing phyto and/or copepods into my 20 gallon mixed reef. I do have a mandarin in there.
My thought process is, I’d be growing phyto to help the copepods in the system but wouldnt it be more efficient to grow copepods and dose them regularly rather than just phyto.

I was wondering if anyone else has any experience with culturing both and what you guys think would be the most beneficial.
 

Pistondog

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I’ve recently decided to start a phytoplankton culture. But after second thought, I’m not sure if I should grow both copepods and phyto rather than just phyto.
I would be dosing phyto and/or copepods into my 20 gallon mixed reef. I do have a mandarin in there.
My thought process is, I’d be growing phyto to help the copepods in the system but wouldnt it be more efficient to grow copepods and dose them regularly rather than just phyto.

I was wondering if anyone else has any experience with culturing both and what you guys think would be the most beneficial.
Both are easy, phyto is fast, ready in a few days. Pods take longer and need to be strained thru a net to harvest.
 
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crys

crys

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Both are easy, phyto is fast, ready in a few days. Pods take longer and need to be strained thru a net to harvest.
Yeah that’s true. What do you think would benefit a nano reef more? I have a feeling I’d be harvesting a lot more phyto than I’d be dosing so I’m leaning towards culturing both
 

Pistondog

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Yeah that’s true. What do you think would benefit a nano reef more? I have a feeling I’d be harvesting a lot more phyto than I’d be dosing so I’m leaning towards culturing both
If you culture phyto, you can feed some to tank, some to pods.
Your mandarin will eat all the pods from a culture pretty quickly.
 

eric33014

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I did both had a plethora of phyto. So much I couldn't give it away. Pods maintained and dosed to both tanks weekly. Stay on the schedule or you'll lose the culture. I'm about to start back up after I lost the culture.
 

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Phyto is easy, 6/7 days to harvest, pods 20/30 days.
If you have a sump, get a ball of Cheato that's been in a system, and you'll never have to culture pods again.
I got a ball from my LFS and my mandarin is fat and happy and I have never supplemented the pods.
 
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Phyto is easy, 6/7 days to harvest, pods 20/30 days.
If you have a sump, get a ball of Cheato that's been in a system, and you'll never have to culture pods again.
I got a ball from my LFS and my mandarin is fat and happy and I have never supplemented the pods.
I actually do have a sump with a Refugium and I’ve seeded the system quite a few times in the past.
I’ve had a mandarin in the past and I wasn’t able to sustain him. My current mandarin is doing okay but I think dosing more phyto/copepods would give him a better chance. I also have a Melanurus wrasse and 2 clowns
 

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I actually do have a sump with a Refugium and I’ve seeded the system quite a few times in the past.
I’ve had a mandarin in the past and I wasn’t able to sustain him. My current mandarin is doing okay but I think dosing more phyto/copepods would give him a better chance. I also have a Melanurus wrasse and 2 clowns
It definitely will help. I gauge my pod population by what I see on my glass, they are always on the glass and the population goes up and down but they always keep a high enough population to feed my mandarin.

Good luck with your new mandarin, I wouldn't have a tank without one!!!
 

Jay'sReefBugs

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Both are relatively easy depending on species. I would make sure you have a solid local reefing group as you will have way more phyto then what's needed especially if it's only a 20 gallon
 
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crys

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Both are relatively easy depending on species. I would make sure you have a solid local reefing group as you will have way more phyto then what's needed especially if it's only a 20 gallon
Yeah I think the starting culture for my phyto was too dense so I already have 3 6oz bottles of phyto. Also I pretty much only know 2 people that are reefers.
 

GuppyHJD

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Both are relatively easy depending on species. I would make sure you have a solid local reefing group as you will have way more phyto then what's needed especially if it's only a 20 gallon
Jay,
For a newbie, is there a recommendation for a species ?
I have tried adding pods to my sump and tank twice and have not seen any evidence of them being in the tank.
I am thinking I will start with phyto and then maybe copepods or just buy them from you and keep them fed with the phyto. How long before you will be back online ?
Thank you
 

Jay'sReefBugs

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Jay,
For a newbie, is there a recommendation for a species ?
I have tried adding pods to my sump and tank twice and have not seen any evidence of them being in the tank.
I am thinking I will start with phyto and then maybe copepods or just buy them from you and keep them fed with the phyto. How long before you will be back online ?
Thank you
Tisbe, Cyclops, psuedo all seem to do pretty good this due to how fast they reproduce. The big key is feeding your reef tank phytoplankton it helps the whole Eco system and really help's the copepods to get going . I would try to avoid dosing any time of chemicals into your system as well major elements, trace elements are all perfectly fine but people run into issues when they treat tanks with things like Dino X etc
 

Jay'sReefBugs

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Jay,
For a newbie, is there a recommendation for a species ?
I have tried adding pods to my sump and tank twice and have not seen any evidence of them being in the tank.
I am thinking I will start with phyto and then maybe copepods or just buy them from you and keep them fed with the phyto. How long before you will be back online ?
Thank you
I'll be back online around March 10th just taking a much need break is all
 

Jay'sReefBugs

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Yeah I think the starting culture for my phyto was too dense so I already have 3 6oz bottles of phyto. Also I pretty much only know 2 people that are reefers.

Yeah I think the starting culture for my phyto was too dense so I already have 3 6oz bottles of phyto. Also I pretty much only know 2 people that are reefers.
Try doing a search on Facebook for a local group or club that's how it all started for me I had a surplus of phyto .
 

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