Seeding Tank with Copepods and Live Phyto

[Sdoutreefer]

Hello!
My tank has cycled (completely Nitrite and ammonia spike, sitting about 5ppm on Nitrates) and I am wanting to add some more diversity to my tank. So today, I bought a jar of pods and live phyto.

My question is, how much phyto should I be feeding the pods? The bottle has zero feeding instruction on it and I want to make sure that I'm not wasting it.

 

[shcrimps]

how big is the tank?
if it really is cycled technically the pods can eat stuff in the tank but their populations will boost with food additives
i dose 1-2 ml a week my pods in my 20g tank and they’re everywhere

 

[Sdoutreefer]

how big is the tank?
if it really is cycled technically the pods can eat stuff in the tank but their populations will boost with food additives
i dose 1-2 ml a week my pods in my 20g tank and they’re everywhere

I'd say about 45 total gallons of water. The tank has not fully cycled, which is why I said ammonia and Nitrites have spiked, with Nitrates staying stable. It obviously still has some time before it is fully cycled, but I do believe it is time to introduce some diversity.

So 1-2 ml/20 gallons of phyto?

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

There is no rule, abundance of food will make them reproduce, shortage of food will keep the populations low.

If you started with dry white rocks, they will need more, if you started with some live rock then there will be algae and stuff on the rock so they will need less.

Keep your skimmer turned off or it will be skimmed out.

 

[shcrimps]

I'd say about 45 total gallons of water. The tank has not fully cycled, which is why I said ammonia and Nitrites have spiked, with Nitrates staying stable. It obviously still has some time before it is fully cycled, but I do believe it is time to introduce some diversity.

So 1-2 ml/20 gallons of phyto?

that’s just what i personally dose
i don’t feel the need for more because of the population in my tank but as the last person commented about dry/ live rock that will heavily take into play

 

[Sdoutreefer]

There is no rule, abundance of food will make them reproduce, shortage of food will keep the populations low.

If you started with dry white rocks, they will need more, if you started with some live rock then there will be algae and stuff on the rock so they will need less.

Keep your skimmer turned off or it will be skimmed out.

I started with dry rock and dry sand. Skimmer and roller mat are both off, and have been since I started the cycle.

Thanks for the input!

 

[Fenral]

If it is live phyto - you cannot really overdose…it will just coat everything on a new tank (easy to scrape off) and or get skimmed out. Your pod population will explode to match the food source - and die back to sustainable levels till you add something that eats them :)