Too early for copepods?

[boboyo]

So I have my current tank of 55g, I have my upgrade 125g tank fully cycled pretty much (no lights yet)

I'm letting my old tank fallow before I move inverts and corals in the new one while I QT all my fish to eradicate ich. The mandarin is in a separate tank in hyposalinity and I plan on feeding him baby brine shrimp from the eggs hatching


I have a copepod culture to make sure my mandarin has enough food and I would like to know if it's a good idea to put them in my empty DT of 125g so they can settle and reproduce in my tank while its empty. I still have some live phyto I use to feed the pods in my culture which I can also dump in my tank. I know with no lights you cant have copepod food but I have a pink light thing for my refugium, would that be enough to sustain some food for the pods? I'm iffy about using the chaeto from my current tank since some fish had a bit of ich recently (my current refugium is a diy fuge I made with a hob aquaclear filter if that changes anything about the whole ich is bottom dwelling thing and if its safe to reuse before the fallow period is over)

If its too early, how long should I wait after installing the DT lights to put the pods?

 

[Jekyl]

As long as their is algae it should be fine. Then need a food source.

 

[ImaFlippinDolphin]

You don't need lights really for the pods, but they do need phytoplankton. I say order up the 5260 ocean Magick bundle from algae barn to kick start the population. Pods are a great part of CU

 

[boboyo]

no lights = no algae lol.

I guess regular live phyto feeding until I install the lights will do the trick