Pods, Rotifers, and Copepod dosing.

[wooglins]

I have decided to go all in with dosing phyto, rotifers, and pods to attempt to return vibrancy to my aquarium. My tank has been up for fifteen years and I am going to document possible benefits from using these items.

Here is a youtube video that details the coralreefing product that I tried and have decided to go all in with.



I will follow up with photos of possible improvements.

 

[Sabellafella]

Thanks for sharing!!

 

[wooglins]

Thank you for looking, I have not been as active sharing the hobby and plan on becoming more active. It should be fun seeing how I can take a tank from autopilot back to overdrive hopefully.

 

[Sabellafella]

It happens man, after a while things get less exciting, untill you get a new tank!!

 

[wooglins]

I have continued to enjoy my feedback, but got uninterested in the maintenance related to trimming coral almost weekly due to explosive growth. Helping another generation of young people get their tanks started and figure my 15 year old coral frags are a good start. Plus it will be fun.

 

[Lowstorm]

I threw in pods at the start of my tank too they've exploded but my tank is empty right now.

 

[wooglins]

So here is my first dose. Video may be somewhat basic, but perhaps someone will find value. I decided to place the pods 1/3 in the Tank, 1/3 in the overflow, and 1/3 in the sump refugium area.

 

[Ryengoth]

My sump is loaded with amphipods "tigger/tiger pods". You only need a dozen or so adults to start the farm. They keep the media clean and reproduce like mad if conditions are good. The rocks also have them inside so I know the rocks are staying fairly clean inside. I stopped feeding rotifers and only dose local live (refrigerated) phyto once a month or when I have to stop feeding for a while to control nutrients. Nothing is really benefiting from the rotis right now. Once you get a detritus trap running in your sump the pods will reproduce and grow there so keep in mind where that will happen and how you can retain them easiest. I use 3 different sizes of media to house all growth stages. If you want a small square of media with large, live pods let me know. I'm growing out some 300-micron felt squares and starting a farm tank soon.

 

[wooglins]

Thanks. I have a deep detrius trap below my grape calpura in the sump (I call it a trap, its about an inch of yuck). I have only seen medium to large sized pods in the refuguium, but have never had a visiable population of the smaller pods. Great idea using felt squares. I would definitely like more info and would love to grab a small square if for nothing more than getting an idea of the media.

 

[Ryengoth]

Thanks. I have a deep detrius trap below my grape calpura in the sump (I call it a trap, its about an inch of yuck). I have only seen medium to large sized pods in the refuguium, but have never had a visiable population of the smaller pods. Great idea using felt squares. I would definitely like more info and would love to grab a small square if for nothing more than getting an idea of the media.

You'll never see the babies or juvis unless you house and feed them in media by trapping that junk in it instead of letting it settle. I have some sugar sand and a few small rocks in with some Halimeda in my refug. That's it for live stuff in the refug. They're everywhere there's food but I don't see them in the sand because they stay buried. If I lift a rock out they wiggle out and swim to the sand.

Here's the felt I'm using. It comes with dual-layer floss as a filter kit. I'm cutting up both the floss pads and felt for the farm tank but I'm only using the felt to transfer the smaller pods in larger volume. Some big ones feeding on the outside will likely refuse to let go but most of them will be smaller since most of the food will end inside the matrix where the big ones can't go. I have a large open sponge on the bottom of my mechanical stack, then 300-400 micron floss pad and then 200-300 micron felt on top. The main filtering bacteria grows in the sponge and the big ones keep it from clogging. The middle floss layer has organics and bacteria and the top layer is fresh detritus, algae and diatoms.

 

[revhtree]

I have decided to go all in with dosing phyto, rotifers, and pods to attempt to return vibrancy to my aquarium. My tank has been up for fifteen years and I am going to document possible benefits from using these items.

Here is a youtube video that details the coralreefing product that I tried and have decided to go all in with.



I will follow up with photos of possible improvements.

Glad to see you're going to spend some time here on R2R. :D Share some more of your videos!

 

[revhtree]

Oh and avatars are free! LOL!

 

[Ryengoth]

Oh and avatars are free! LOL!

^^^^ this guy! smh...

 

[john.m.cole3]

My sump is loaded with amphipods "tigger/tiger pods". You only need a dozen or so adults to start the farm. They keep the media clean and reproduce like mad if conditions are good. The rocks also have them inside so I know the rocks are staying fairly clean inside. I stopped feeding rotifers and only dose local live (refrigerated) phyto once a month or when I have to stop feeding for a while to control nutrients. Nothing is really benefiting from the rotis right now. Once you get a detritus trap running in your sump the pods will reproduce and grow there so keep in mind where that will happen and how you can retain them easiest. I use 3 different sizes of media to house all growth stages. If you want a small square of media with large, live pods let me know. I'm growing out some 300-micron felt squares and starting a farm tank soon.

I have marine pure spheres and a block in my sump. Do you think they will reproduce in there since the pore structure is so diverse?

 

[Ryengoth]

I have marine pure spheres and a block in my sump. Do you think they will reproduce in there since the pore structure is so diverse?

Sure. As long as it has pores large enough for the various growth stages. I have sugar sand in the bottom of my refug so there's about 4 or 5 different sized hiding substrates for them. My bottom sponge has ~ 3/16" pores and the adult pods hang out down there until the food is gone and then migrate up and eventually into the refug or the return chamber if there's diatoms or anything else to eat around there. The main thing is it can't be clean. If you have a squeaky clean sump the pods will need lots of of phyto. Running a bio-pellet reactor in the refug will help feed carbon directly to the diatoms in there and the pods will love it growing on any of the mechanical media. I'm still trying to figure out what the best media stacking method should be used to allow food to all pore sizes and encourage growth without clogging the filter basket or allow too much detritus into the return chamber. fun stuff!

 

[Bob Escher]

Ryengoth is that in your refugium? I presume last baffle before the return?
Boy am I interested, my tank is coming this week so started up is soon finally.
Who has the best Rotifers and copepods?

 

[Ryengoth]

Ryengoth is that in your refugium? I presume last baffle before the return?
Boy am I interested, my tank is coming this week so started up is soon finally.
Who has the best Rotifers and copepods?

Yes sir! It's the only mechanical stack and there is flow across all chambers to it, before the return chamber. Heavy stuff gets sucked either into the skimmer or flows up and falls into the refug. Light stuff ends up in the algae mat or in the filter stack.

I usually get the BOGO Cope/Amphi set from Reefs2Go and dump one in the DT and one in the sump when I see population disappear. I let them grow and then shake a pad periodically into the DT to see the fish go crazy. :D The Reef Nutrition bottle of tiggers isn't bad. I've started a large population before with 1 bottle. For $25, though, you can't beat Reefs2Go's pouches. (order qty of 1 and you get 2 pouches). As far as rotifers I never really sampled or studied any differences in sources or effects. I'm in the beginning stages of coral introduction. That said Reef Nutrition is a good brand all-around IMO. I get my phyto from a local farm so it's the freshest I can get, until I start my phyto grow chamber.

 

[Bob Escher]

Thanks good info. For the first part my tank is going to be a JBJ 45 gallon ( can't have anything bigger says the pocket book and wife) but will get a cube refugium for it down the line. But adding them to the back of the tank into my mechanical part seems like a no brainer.

 

[wooglins]

Try coralreefing.com. My order arrived fast and the bottles were dated the day of shipment.

 

[Bob Escher]

Thanks I was trying to see the name on your bottles as I was watching your video. I was impressed with the packaging. Do you know how long they can last in a bottle if refrigerated?
Thanks I went to their website