Wishing to keep a display refugium- would a 30 extra high accumulate enough pods to feed one Blue Mandarin?

[MalibuTheBetta]

So, right now absolutely everything I’m doing is preliminary research. This tank will also have some gorgonians in it, and perhaps a few other things such as tube anemones, but mostly just macroalgae and a few hefty chunks of live rock. If I were to get suitable tankmates (aka a jawfish, Royal gramma, or firefish), would it be alright in the tank, as the last thing in and supplemented with frozen food/bottled pods? Or should I just keep dreaming?

Edit- tank will have HOB filter, but it’s likely just going to be used for minimal mechanical filtration due to all the algae. No sump, no other culturing facilities for the mandarin. My LFS sells mandarins they’ve trained onto frozen food, but I like to see them hunt for pods and I’m worried about vacation feeding in that scenario. I’m willing to get a smaller type of mandarin but would prefer the Blue.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Personally I did try it in a 32 gallon, it lasted about 4 months before it died of starvation. It was a long, stressful 4 months, always stressing if its eating enough, feeding more to the tank to get it to eat, spending money on pods, and it led to an insane algae outbreak. And the fish still died. So it was a bad experience for me.

I think a sump or a fuge is the key, the pods need somewhere to reproduce without being eaten.

Obviously, every person and every tank is different, so you might not have the same result as me. Good luck