Trying a Macro & Copepod tank

[AustinW78]

Hello everyone I am currently attempting to try my hand at farming some copepods! I have a 10 gallon tank with a lid, light, and a good AirStone which I keep in the back corner of the tank. I currently have some Atomic broccoli macro algae in there for them to live in and the pods I have currently are tisbe. It is anchored to some small rocks to keep them on the floor. My main question is will this Atomic broccoli do all right in this tank? The flow seems to be fairly moderate not too high for the copepods to handle but definitely seems to sway the branches of the macro algae slightly. I read the pods prefer lower flow and I'm worried taking the air stone off and using just the hose bubbles would not create enough flow for the broccoli. My goal is for this to be a place that I can bring cuttings of the macro algae from my main display tank in order to trade to my LFS, and also give me the chance to farm copepods for my reef at the same time. I figure pod numbers won't be as high as a jar farming method but do we think this will do alright? Will the phyto and macro do alright together? Is the flow too low for the macro? Any copepod farming advice or general advice in this discussion would be greatly appreciated! Thanks as always :-)

 

[vittpsu21]

Hey there, I culture my own Phyto and Pods (have done Tisbe and Apoc). I have never put macro algae in before, I simply use a 1 gal container with air going down a rigid line (to keep pytho suspended and oxygen). As I understand it copepods do not require light but can get some benefit from it as long as it doesn't mess with the temp from the lights too much. I add 1 quart of fresh saltwater + 1/3 of my last harvest pods (reseed), I then add 1 quart of phyto. I let it run until the quart clears, then I add one more quart, do the same waiting game, then one last quart (1 gal total) once this clears I harvest it through a 20 micron sieve.

I imagine that they will do just find on the macro algae and I am not sure what method you will take (I imagine putting macro in mine would probably not do well because of the phyto? though I could be wrong). My tisbe just hang out on the glass, tubes, and also to the pieces floating around in the water column.

 

[vittpsu21]

For reference I bought a kit off a vendor on this forum and it looks like below

Has served me well.

 

[AustinW78]

Hey there, I culture my own Phyto and Pods (have done Tisbe and Apoc). I have never put macro algae in before, I simply use a 1 gal container with air going down a rigid line (to keep pytho suspended and oxygen). As I understand it copepods do not require light but can get some benefit from it as long as it doesn't mess with the temp from the lights too much. I add 1 quart of fresh saltwater + 1/3 of my last harvest pods (reseed), I then add 1 quart of phyto. I let it run until the quart clears, then I add one more quart, do the same waiting game, then one last quart (1 gal total) once this clears I harvest it through a 20 micron sieve.

I imagine that they will do just find on the macro algae and I am not sure what method you will take (I imagine putting macro in mine would probably not do well because of the phyto? though I could be wrong). My tisbe just hang out on the glass, tubes, and also to the pieces floating around in the water column.

I was reading that as long as I am dosing nitrates and phosphates that the macro and phyto would do okay together but of course I wanted to come here to double check as I'm still fairly new to this stuff! I HATE throwing away these macro balls and my LFS enjoys selling them. Do you think if I was to dose phyto along with nutrients regularly that they would all coexist together well? My goal is to have it be just the algae and pods as neither need real filtration if monitored well. Thank you for your help!

 

[vittpsu21]

I’d imagine if you fed them lightly and didn’t overload it would work just like a really small tank and be fine. The air will keep oxygen and phyto suspended so in my brain it makes sense. I wouldn’t overload the thing with phyto tho as I think that might have negative effects but certainly dosing phyto for them to eat is going to be good