Adding live mysis and copepds to tank/sump?

Eleni18 · Oct 30, 2020

Hello all. I will be buying 2-3 bags of live copepods and mysis to add to my tank so as to boost my population of pods for my two resident mandarins. I have done that in the past by just adding them to the tank after lights out, I have quite a lot of live rock and a good population of pods, as far as I can tell, since my mandarins are plucking at the rocks all day long. My question is, would it be better to add some/all of them to the sump? My sump is rather small and consists of three compartments. One has the heater, filter floss and carbon, one has the skimmer and the third has the return pump. Won't the pods die if sucked up by the skimmer? Please advise as to the best way to do this.

LiveWire · Oct 30, 2020

Have you considered installing a Refugium? The pods wont do well in the filter or skimmer chambers but may do alright in the return chamber. Although they wont populate like you would like them to and over time will eventually just parish or be pulled to the main display so they wont last long in that area.

Dark_Knightt · Oct 30, 2020

What size is your tank? Relatively large i woud assume, you have 2 mandos. To answer your question, yes, the pods and mysis will die if sucked up by the skimmer and probably the filter too. As said above I would probably start a refugium. If you have space and a small tank lying around, use that. If not, you can always just use a bucket and a heater with a light on top.

Eleni18 · Oct 30, 2020

Dark_Knightt said:
What size is your tank? Relatively large i woud assume, you have 2 mandos. To answer your question, yes, the pods and mysis will die if sucked up by the skimmer and probably the filter too. As said above I would probably start a refugium. If you have space and a small tank lying around, use that. If not, you can always just use a bucket and a heater with a light on top.

Hi, thanks. The tank is 150 gallon. I would rather do this without a refugium if possible.

Dark_Knightt · Oct 30, 2020

Eleni18 said:
Hi, thanks. The tank is 150 gallon. I would rather do this without a refugium if possible.

Mmm... so no bucket fuge? ok umm... maybe turn off the skimmer, (ill assume if you have a UV its external, so no worries about that), wait for the fish to start sleeping and then add the pods. Keep the skimmer off for a day or two to let them get settled, and then they should start populating

Eleni18 · Oct 30, 2020

OK....as always, I am starting to get great ideas here. The thing is, I don't know how many pods I have. I should have plenty in a 150 gallon with quite a lot of live rock (see pic below) that has been running for 4 years or so at 10 nitrates or more. But I always worry about the mandarins and buy a couple of pod bags every 6 months or so. The thing is, I don't know how many of these are eaten at once and how many populate. My sump is just a partionned off section on the right side of the tank consisting of 3 compartments like I said. The second compartment is the skimmer and cannot be changed, as it is a HOB Deltec MCE600 that would not fit any of the other two compartments. The third is the return pump. The only way to make a refugium would be in the first compartment. Would this work and how? Never had one before. Would it be enough to put some pieces of rock and some macroalgae? Or do you think I have enough pods already and should not worry?