When to add pods and clean up crew?

[AnthonyA5059]

15g tank. It cycled 2 weeks, then now has had a pair of clowns for another 2 weeks. I’m just starting to get small amounts of diatom brown spots on the sand, rocks, and light film on some parts of the glass. But nothing crazy just small spots here and there. I’d like to add galaxy pods to seed my tank, I have no plans on dosing phyto I just want to seed some pods. I’m wondering at what point it’s good to add the pods and when I should add some CUC snails?

 

[Tinnerito]

15g tank. It cycled 2 weeks, then now has had a pair of clowns for another 2 weeks. I’m just starting to get small amounts of diatom brown spots on the sand, rocks, and light film on some parts of the glass. But nothing crazy just small spots here and there. I’d like to add galaxy pods to seed my tank, I have no plans on dosing phyto I just want to seed some pods. I’m wondering at what point it’s good to add the pods and when I should add some CUC snails?

In a healthy tank, diatoms dissappear with time as they consume silicates. But you can have a CUC as long as you have fish. In my first tank, i introduced 5 nassarius snails at the same time as a single neon goby and they all did great. When it comes to pods, they just need places to hide and things to eat. Pods will generally eat phytoplankton, and certain algaes and other protists. But you'll need another opinion for copepods because I've never been able to successfully diagnose whether or not my pods are healthy. They do live within rock crevices and macroalgaes, but a lot of reefers keep them in a refugium/sump where they can reproduce without predation. Hope this helps a little

 

[exnisstech]

I have pods in all of my tanks of my tanks. I know many love to add them but I've never felt the need because they always appear naturally in every tank I've had.

 

[EnterName]

Pods can be added as soon as you have some diatoms and detritus in the tank, which is pretty early. The population will adjust itself according to the availability of food.

Snails are a different topic. They might be fine as long as the tank is going through the diatom and green hair algae phase, but afterward they can sometimes struggle to find enough food, especially if you used a lot of dry rock to start your tank.

My current system was started with 100% dry rock and sand 6 years ago. Up to this day I would not be able to sustain a decent snail or hermit population in 650L / 171gal. If you started with live rock it might be a different story, but 15gal is not a lot and you will probably only be able to keep a few snails fed long-term. Note that this starvation process is very slow as there is always something to eat, but just not enough.

I gave my LFS some baby-snails after mine spawned and they grew to full size within a few weeks even in a relatively new tank started with live rock, while mine stayed very small for months. You will have to decide based on the perceived availability of algae and bio-film if your tank can sustain snails long-term.

 

[AnthonyA5059]

Ok so sounds like I should add pods soon I’ll probably wait another week or two then snails I’ll do farther down the line once I see some more detritus and algae. Maybe I’ll add 1 nassarius soon just to have something to clean up the pellets that sink

Thanks for the responses.