Grow your own reef food! Do you have a DIY culture station?

[Duzzy]

I culture Tisbe pods just to keep my mandarin fat and happy.

Do they self sustain and breed in the tank?

 

[Reef By Steele]

Do they self sustain and breed in the tank?

Tisbe pods are known to establish colonies in an aquarium. They along With Apocyclops are very fast breeders. That being said it can depend on the size of tank and who else you have that targets them, what I call “pod hunters”. Sand sleeping wrasses, sand sifting gobies, anthias, dragonets, etc. Generally they can out compete with predators, if they are not overly hunted. Also water conditions and food supply. Dosing phytoplankton in you DT I believe to be really important in establishing a healthy and growing pod population. Even though they are omnivores in a sense as they eat algae and detritus, clean tanks that are not over fed won’t support as good of colonization without supplementing their diet.

 

[bshonesy]

The food I culture myself is bacteria snow, since 70% of a coral’s diet in the wild is bacteria, and I have quite a few coral that are hard to feed and may not even capture prey, such as the fox coral. I culture Eco Complete with NP+ and amino acids and use life source mud and marine snow to make it easy to consume and stick in the tank.

I buy live foods, currently live pods from Reef Nutrition on subscription. I have purchased also rotifers and phytoplankton in the past from Reef Nutrition and Algae barn. I tried culturing all if these, but it wasn’t worth it. I was always concerned about waste products like fertilizer and bacteria, too.

I sometimes grow baby brine shrimp.

Interesting. Can you elaborate a bit on how you do the bacteria? Do you have them on a shaker, what temp? Why do you have to combine with mud?

 

[Duzzy]

Tisbe pods are known to establish colonies in an aquarium. They along With Apocyclops are very fast breeders. That being said it can depend on the size of tank and who else you have that targets them, what I call “pod hunters”. Sand sleeping wrasses, sand sifting gobies, anthias, dragonets, etc. Generally they can out compete with predators, if they are not overly hunted. Also water conditions and food supply. Dosing phytoplankton in you DT I believe to be really important in establishing a healthy and growing pod population. Even though they are omnivores in a sense as they eat algae and detritus, clean tanks that are not over fed won’t support as good of colonization without supplementing their diet.

Do you constantly add? I am mid build but I’ll add to tank and refugium I think as well as do live adult brine for food.

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

Hey thanks for the shout out. We really appreciate it.

These are the kits I have been telling you about.

Ha forgot to paste lol.

Live Goods - SPONSOR - Livestock - Phytoplankton and copepod culturing kits $69.99-$249.99

BUY ANY COPEPOD BUFFET AND GET AN EQUAL SIZE OF OUR HARPA PODS FOR 50% OFF!! As previously discussed we have been culturing a copepod from the genus Harpacticoida that according to a University Researcher that we shipped a sample to are closely related to the Tisbe biminiensis. These little...

www.reef2reef.com

Isn't that an exorbitant price you're charging for very little that comes with the "kit"? I just looked real quick so maybe I missed something but it looked like 2 pickle jars and an airline. Perhaps you include a small amount of phyto? What else is in the kit that justifies the price? Curious, no insult whatsoever.

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

Guys, since this isn't an advertisement I can speak freely. This is extremely basic. Why not buy two pickle jars for a dollar from your grandma and an air pump with two airlines. Buying any pre-assembled kit is simply wasting money on extremely basic items that are very cheap. There are two essentials: pods, food and water for them. That is what they need. the other $100 is giving whatever company 100% free money. this is only my opinion.

 

[Reef By Steele]

Do you constantly add? I am mid build but I’ll add to tank and refugium I think as well as do live adult brine for food.

I constantly add to my tanks that are heavily stocked with dragonats, anthias and wrasses as i dont want them to run out.

 

[Reef By Steele]

Isn't that an exorbitant price you're charging for very little that comes with the "kit"? I just looked real quick so maybe I missed something but it looked like 2 pickle jars and an airline. Perhaps you include a small amount of phyto? What else is in the kit that justifies the price? Curious, no insult whatsoever.

Yes it includes more. Depending on the kit, it includes jars, airline, rigid tubing, check valve, regulator valve, and LED strip lights, then depending on the kit, it includes 1 or two phyto starters, and 1 pod starter 16 Oz of each, enough F/2 for about 1 year, Silicate if phyto chosen is a diatom, our culture guide email, and personal assistance with starting and establishing your cultures. Compare this to the kit you can buy on Bulk Reef Supply for $247.50 which does not com with phyto and pods or support and I would say the price is fairly reasonable. So you get the equipment that their kit includes, granted somewhat basic on the vessel, plus $43 worth of phyto and pods for $147.51 less than the product referenced above. On Amazon there is a similar vessel with only the rigid tube for $21.50 and it is only 64 Oz not a gallon. And yes if a person is capable they can buy every thing and drill the lid etc, plus purchase includes free 2 day shipping at $30-40 dollars and the expense of buying and storing the inventory. Often times some of the very basic expenses of running a business are over looked by individuals such as the Sponsorship fees, monthly website fees, credit card transaction fees. So our $99.99 kit may net us $25-30 after all of these, but when it arrives sterilized and assembled a person can have their cultures running in 15-30 minutes if they are prepared. So having someone else source and prepare everything has benefits as well.

 

[BanZI29]

I recently upgraded my setup. this is what it looks like now. I have Chorella and Pheao still growing, and have nanno, Rhodomonas, and thalas on the way, going to add Iso when its available. (yea I know, but gonna try anyway)
also have apocyclops, tigger pods going, and tisbe on the way. Yea getting a bit crazy with it but hey it's fun.
I did upgrade the lights too. after ALOT of reading, it has been shown that phyto grows better under red and blue spectrum lighting. So I got these panel lights with a pretty good spectrum. it has 3 modes too that changes the spectrum. The last pic is from the split I did last night. I now have 2 gal. of Chorella and 1 gal of Pheao ready for feeding. Also got a bigger air pump, glass jars, and the tubing I used for my RODI works great for air hose.

All of the starter cultures I got from @Reef By Steele. good stuff!!