How to get pods up from my refugium to the main tank

[jonathanw]

Things are going well with my two tank system. The upper tank is filled with LR and fish and GSP. The bottom tank is almost empty with just a starfish, some macroalgae, and jumping with pods.

The question is how to get the pods up to the top tank for the Scooter Blennie to eat?

[dfisch1]

In the past I would shake my macro out in the main tank. Some of the pods are probably making it to your main tank via the return pump.

[rroselavy]

Things are going well with my two tank system. The upper tank is filled with LR and fish and GSP. The bottom tank is almost empty with just a starfish, some macroalgae, and jumping with pods.

The question is how to get the pods up to the top tank for the Scooter Blennie to eat?

Funny you should mention it, because I just started a similar thread. Please read THEJRC's (Joe's) interesting reply (http://www.talkingreef.com/forums/snails-crabs-others/5993-harvesting-copepods.html#post70959), and follow his links!

[THEJRC]

he he I was gonna reply here too.... nice catch rr...

In afterthought the little hand pumps are at lowes, I could only find the battery powered ones at home depot, the idea of impellers defeats the purpose of manual pod transport

[jonathanw]

ok, tried shaking out some macro in the main tank and sure enough quite a few of the little critters fell off. The Blennie is amazingly good at finding them though. For being something that easy to eat, they sure don't hide very well. Guess they make up for it in numbers. After a very short while if there are any more in there, the Blennie sees them long before I do.

Thanks for the help

[THEJRC]

he he they hide well, thats why you dont see them. Also keep in mind many of the "pods" as we call them are itty bitty as in less than 800 micron, shine a flashlight into the rock crevaces at night and look for little things swimming around, it's quite fun when you get a good population.

For now though, it appears the algae shaking method is working so might as well stick with it! Once you find something that works your in good shape I've found (no matter how many of us idiots tell you your wrong he he)

[rroselavy]

Also keep in mind many of the "pods" as we call them are itty bitty as in less than 800 micron, shine a flashlight into the rock crevaces at night and look for little things swimming around, it's quite fun when you get a good population.

I was shining a flashlight on my sump chambers last night, and oh boy. There were many small Amphipods (bred in the tank no doubt since they are much smaller than any I imported from IPSF), and other 2mm long critters that were quite active on the LR (like fleas). Much more active than the copepods I have seen slowly moving on the glass.

[CarmieJo]

I love looking in my sump!

[THEJRC]

he he it's the mysids that I really enjoy looking at, course most the copepods we have but dont see are calanoids and thus they spend all their time in the water column, also most species are much much smaller. magnifying glasses rock!

[RocketSeason]

If your two tanks are plumbed together, chances are pods are getting into your upper tank through the pump.

[jonathanw]

The bottom tank is now very thick with copepods. Probably about 20-30 per square inch on the glass. I have a bit of red algae that I scoop out every morning and evening and shake into the main tank for the "Blennie". Only thing is that it turns out that I misidentified it. It is actually a Hawkfish. Still very very good at finding the copepods.

2 questions.

I have had a problem with hair algae so wanted to reduce the amount of food that I have been putting into the tank. The Hawkfish is now the only fish, so I want to know if just feeding him copepods morning and evening is enough or should I also add in flake food?

I have tried to put a few different kinds of green macroalgae into the bottom tank and within a week it disappears. Completely gone! Are the copepods eating it? The red algae is quite hard and it doesn't seem to be affected at all. The only other things in the tank are some turbo snails and hermit crabs -- and a hitchhiking anenome.

[JustDavidP]

Does it really disappear? Or is it turning clear and breaking up? What kind of light is over it? The macro should really be blossoming if you have hair algae, and therefore rob the hair algae of the nutrient load, wiping out the nusiance fuzz.

I'm thinking it's a lighting issue.

Dave

[jonathanw]

In the refugium there is a double flourescent hood. Each is 18 watts, one white and one blue.
I used to have Caluerpa in that tank when it was my only tank, and they grew like weeds.

In the display tank I have a 24 watt compact flourescent. I have been leaving the refugium lights on as much as possible and limiting the display tank lights to 6 hours a day.

The hair algae is significantly slowed down -- I manually removed a lot of it and it doesn't seem to have grown back.

[JustDavidP]

In the refugium, you NEED to give it some "dark time". You need both the Krebs Cycle (photon) and the Calvin Cycle (enzyme) to have healthy macro. Many people had problems with this when using caulerpa because it would go "sexual" on them during the dark phase and ruin the water. However, with proper pruning and care, this shouldn't happen. Furthermore, if you use Chaeto, it will not happen. But the bottom line is, you should have an equal (approx 12 hours) dark and light phase for the fuge too.

Dave