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

[Gumbies R Us]

I don't trust myself to culture my own pods haha

 

[Jeremy_d]

lovely... does the tigriopus and tisbes there compete? I would like to culture tigriopus due to their size but I've already got tisbes in and I don't have any transparent vases left. Galaxy sounds like the same deal as phyto - feast, except with copepods.

I’ll be honest, the algae is so thick on the glass I can’t see much, and I can’t really recognize the different kinds of the smaller ones but I do know what the Tig pods look like and they are everywhere, but they are also the first ones to get eaten when I add them to my display. Almost immediately actually. My clowns tear them up

 

[Alpha_and_Gec]

I’ll be honest, the algae is so thick on the glass I can’t see much, and I can’t really recognize the different kinds of the smaller ones but I do know what the Tig pods look like and they are everywhere, but they are also the first ones to get eaten when I add them to my display. Almost immediately actually. My clowns tear them up

nice. Waiting for the biofilm to grow... fed some mysis last night to keep up nutrients.

 

[Daveobrien]

I hatched baby brine shrimp daily for 6 months, to feed some fry.
I've grown five 1 gallon jars of phyto (nanno and tetra), for a little over two years
I've grown two 1 gallon jars of pods (tigri and tisbe), for a little over two years

 

[Reef By Steele]

I just recently started tto grow phyto, and plan on starting pods also. @Reef By Steele has helped me out alot. He's got his own setup growing all kinds of phyto and pods.

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

 

[Reef By Steele]

I run live brine because of my Sally project. I don't know if that counts but every tank gets live brine shrimp daily. No other live foods.

Brine shrimp culture for dummies like me:
scoop out a cup of tank water, put in shrimp eggs, there you go you just grew live food for your tank.

Maybe people who actually understand this stuff will see this, why doesn't tossing shrimp eggs into my sump work?

My guess would be that the nauplii are to weak to survive the currents as they hatch in stagnant vessels. Do you feed the nauplii right after hatch or are you letting them grow first?

 

[Reef By Steele]

I have a phyto reactor and occasionally will hatch brine shrimp. I think it would be awesome to have a mysis tank for fresh food as well.

I’ve been looking into the mysis, but more setup needed as the adults will eat the nauplii before the reach maturity. I’m trying some different tank set ups to see if I can culture them long term.

 

[Stealthreefer]

My guess would be that the nauplii are to weak to survive the currents as they hatch in stagnant vessels. Do you feed the nauplii right after hatch or are you letting them grow first?

They eat biofilm or algae on the container. They only get fed if I hatch too many and that doesn't happen much anymore.

 

[Reef By Steele]

I’m going to try and grow “out” Brine Shrimp! Babies are to small, my fish can’t see

Pods would be a better choice. Adult brine shrimp lack a lot of nutrient value. Really have to “gut load” them for them to be a good food source. Freshly hatched they are super good for raising fry like my baby clowns (that’s how all this got started lol). First rotifer, then baby brine, then started culturing phyto for the rotifers then pods now, wow what a trip.

To “gut load” them you need to put them in nice rich phytoplankton for a while before feeding. You can also add the brine and some Selcon to a measuring cup for an hour and then feed. They will gain nutritional value from the Selcon.

 

[Reef By Steele]

i seed my tank every few months with copepods from @AlgaeBarn. i would like to believe i am "growing" or culturing them in my sump during the months i don't dose/seed.

Regular dosing should establish colonies in your refugium and DT, depending on the tank. Having lots of “Pod Hunters” Mandarins, Anthias, some Wrasses etc can keep the populations pretty low. We love those fish and that is a main reason I started doing my own. Also dosing with live phytoplankton really helps them to reproduce.

This is my phyto station.

 

[Debramb]

Pods would be a better choice. Adult brine shrimp lack a lot of nutrient value. Really have to “gut load” them for them to be a good food source. Freshly hatched they are super good for raising fry like my baby clowns (that’s how all this got started lol). First rotifer, then baby brine, then started culturing phyto for the rotifers then pods now, wow what a trip.

To “gut load” them you need to put them in nice rich phytoplankton for a while before feeding. You can also add the brine and some Selcon to a measuring cup for an hour and then feed. They will gain nutritional value from the Selcon.

We’ll I already have Your phyto!! BTW, my release went great, gave them no protein skimmer or filters for 6 hours!

 

[Reef By Steele]

Oh and does anyone know if having the skimmer right next to copepods in the sump will just completely remove the population? My sump isn't big enough for a standard fuge and the only compartments wide enough to accomodate LR and chaeto is either the return compartment or the skimmer compartment.

Best to have them after the skimmer if possible. Same area might be ok if flow can pull them away instead of into skimmer. They will establish in your main DT in the rocks if seeded and fed properly.

 

[Reef By Steele]

Well I already have Your phyto!! BTW, my release went great, gave them no protein skimmer or filters for 6 hours!

Yes and thank you. Just didn’t know if you knew to let the brine soak up some phyto.

 

[Reef By Steele]

They eat biofilm or algae on the container. They only get fed if I hatch too many and that doesn't happen much anymore.

Yes the nauplii are very nutrient rich. I think for 24-48 hours maybe, if I remember what I learned when I started them for raising clownfish.

 

[Reef By Steele]

I used tank water instead of fresh saltwater for the tisbe... guess we'll see how that turns out. They're pretty big so I don't think anything is predating on them. Dosed a crap ton of phyto on day 1 and I'm planning to just go with a few drops daily since Phyto - feast is some concentrated stuff.

Yes phyto feast really needs to be fed in a manner that they consume it within a couple of hours as it is dead and can cause ammonia spikes. I used it for my rotifers and it is a great product. They include an ammonia reducer in it.
That is one reason I switched to live phyto as much less likely to overdose.

 

[Alpha_and_Gec]

Best to have them after the skimmer if possible. Same area might be ok if flow can pull them away instead of into skimmer. They will establish in your main DT in the rocks if seeded and fed properly.

Ahead unfortunately, the skimmers are the last stage before bioballs and nothing can go into the bioballs.They're in a basket though, not sure how much that helps.

 

[Reef By Steele]

I don't trust myself to culture my own pods haha

I can help you if you ever want to try.

 

[Alpha_and_Gec]

Yes phyto feast really needs to be fed in a manner that they consume it within a couple of hours as it is dead and can cause ammonia spikes. I used it for my rotifers and it is a great product. They include an ammonia reducer in it.
That is one reason I switched to live phyto as much less likely to overdose.

actually it's live phyto feast. Got it to start a culture.

 

[Reef By Steele]

actually it's live phyto feast. Got it to start a culture.

Ok, but you may experience difficulties with that. Culturing multiple strains of phyto generally leads to one out competing all the rest. Most likely you will end up with Nanno or tetra.

That’s what I was going to do when I started, but found this info when I started asking around.

 

[Alpha_and_Gec]

Ok, but you may experience difficulties with that. Culturing multiple strains of phyto generally leads to one out competing all the rest. Most likely you will end up with Nanno or tetra.

That’s what I was going to do when I started, but found this info when I started asking around.

That's fine, I wasn't working for a multistrain culture anyways. There isn't any other live phyto product available in my area other than what comes with the pods.