Adding pods now or later?

[bmac300]

My tank is about 9 months old. It is a 120 gallon with a 40 gallon sump (small refugium after my skimmer). The inhabitants are 2 clowns, 1 royal gramma, 6 or 7 hermit crabs, fighting conch, peppermint shrimp, cleaner shrimp, a few snails, and a tuxedo urchin. I also have a few corals, purple monit, frogspawn, clove polyps?, and an acan lord. Everything is doing good.
In addition the tank is full of bristle worms, feather dusters, sponges, vermitid snails, and spaghetti worms. I was thinking of adding some pods to increase the biodiversity. I was thinking of getting tigger pods.

I'd like to eventually in a year get a mandarin, if i get the pods now would i have a sustainable population of pods in about a year? Are they self-sustaining or will i have to feed them or add more? I don't think my existing inhabitants would eat them but i could be wrong. Just wondering if i start with the pods now or wait until i get closer to getting the mandarin.

 

[Crustaceon]

I’ll bet your tank is already loaded with pods and whether or not a mandarin will obliterate a pod population depends on how much of the rockwork it has access to and how you maintain your tank, which in turn either allows a pod population to thrive or starve. If you look at the wall of your refugium and see pods grazing, you probably have enough in the display too. A key way to know for sure is by watching a mandarin eat. If it isn’t eating something every thirty seconds or less, you probably need more pods.

 

[Uncle99]

With 9 months of age, I agree, you should be able to house 1 mandarin.
One of the most common mistakes is more than one exclusive pod eaters.
Mandarins, scooter blennies, some wrasses (which have that mouth configuration) are examples of pod eaters.
While it’s noble to add pods, it comes at both a price of money and time, and you don’t need to supplement.
Pods in a bottle IMO is a rip-off, there is no where near the amount stated on the bottle.
He has to survive on his own and if he’s the only exclusive eater of pods, your ready.
So pick a nice mandarin and enjoy....
This one is coming up to 4 years old, never have I added any pods, and he touches nothing else.

 

[hawkbait]

Should a refugium go before or after a skimmer or does it matter?

 

[Keen4]

Should a refugium go before or after a skimmer or does it matter?

Same curiosity here. Not sure if this is gonna work.

 

[hawkbait]

Same curiosity here. Not sure if this is gonna work.

That's how my sump is set up but with more live rock. It's been working for me!

 

[Keen4]

That's how my sump is set up but with more live rock. It's been working for me!

OMG finally someone else with this set up- I was reading last night that this is actually the triton method order. Fuge then skimmers and reactors then return. So how is your algae control? Did you have this set up when you first set up the tank?

 

[hawkbait]

Right now my algae is a little out of control.... But that's due to I'm currently not running a fuge light so my nutrient export isn't up to what it was. I had a light go swimming and got shorted and I'm trying to figure out how to better secure my new light. Prior to my issue It was doing great! It cleared up my excess nutrients from adding reef roids when I only have small frags in my tank currently in a matter of days. So I would recommend it highly! It's been my set up the whole time I've had my tank. I'm also not running any reactors at the moment. I plan on adding a charcoal one maybe a calcium I'm not sure yet. I am running charcoal in socks in the area between my return pump and skimmer area.

I ordered the algae barn starting kit once my tank was cycled that came with the extra rock blocks, Pods, Phyto, and macro Algae. I would recommend that starting pack the rock they give you is super porous giveing pods a great habitat to thrive in, and more surface area for bacteria.