Algae Scrubber vs pods

Schnizzle · Feb 26, 2020

I tried Chaeto twice and it melted. I had good luck with Sea Lettuce for a bit but it recently stopped growing. I'm contemplating going to an external algae scrubber but I am wondering what affect it will have on my pod population.
Is two large blocks of marine pure and the detritus in the drain chamber of the sump enough or do they need some vegetation to thrive?
Anyone with experience making this switch? Or better yet, anyone with a scrubber still seeing plenty of pod life?

theMeat · Feb 26, 2020

It’s going to vary depending on how many pod eaters you have in tank

Sleepingtiger · Feb 26, 2020

theMeat said:
It’s going to vary depending on how many pod eaters you have in tank

Sure, the pod population is dependent on type of fish and fish population. However, if taking the fish factor out, what will pod population with the removal of vegetation from the sump? I think that is what the OP is asking.

Schnizzle · Feb 26, 2020

Sleepingtiger said:
Sure, the pod population is dependent on type of fish and fish population. However, if taking the fish factor out, what will pod population with the removal of vegetation from the sump? I think that is what the OP is asking.

Yes, that is what I was getting at.

I have two wrasses and a cardinalfish that actively hunt. As stated above, I'm more concerned with the potential loss of habitat for the pods. Having a struggling refugium seems to be enough of a haven for a constant supply of pods. I'm worried that if I do away with the macro algae in the refugium and leave only rocks I will no longer have a replenishing supply of pods and would have to restock them far more often.

theMeat · Feb 26, 2020

Rocks or rock rubble instead of macro in fuge would be just as good a pod habitat.
If you have pods they’re all over your display as well. Although not safe to breed away feeding fish

If you have nutrients you may want to check iron and mag if you’re having a hard time growing macro

Schnizzle · Feb 26, 2020

I’ve been doing quarterly ICP tests. Maybe I’ll send another out tomorrow. Magnesium has always been a touch high. Manganese I usually have to dose to bring up. Assuming you meant magnesium.

theMeat · Feb 26, 2020

Yeah, me too. Growing macro consumes magnesium. Although can usually tell mag to s low from coral condition while macro thrives. Wear as when iron is low macro suffers first

theMeat · Feb 27, 2020

Would also say try a few dif macro at same time, see which if any grow better. As an example grape caulerpra likes low flow, cheato hi. Caulerpra does better under 6500k, etc...

Schnizzle · Feb 27, 2020

theMeat said:
Would also say try a few dif macro at same time, see which if any grow better. As an example grape caulerpra likes low flow, cheato hi. Caulerpra does better under 6500k, etc...

That's something to consider... I have a H80 and H380 Kessil to choose from. I'll look into that, the Sea Hare would probably like it as well.

ReeferKC · Feb 27, 2020

Schnizzle said:
I tried Chaeto twice and it melted. I had good luck with Sea Lettuce for a bit but it recently stopped growing. I'm contemplating going to an external algae scrubber but I am wondering what affect it will have on my pod population.
Is two large blocks of marine pure and the detritus in the drain chamber of the sump enough or do they need some vegetation to thrive?
Anyone with experience making this switch? Or better yet, anyone with a scrubber still seeing plenty of pod life?

Hi Schnizzle,
So I’m running an algae scrubber I got off of eBay for 159 the cheapest I could find but it’s made really well I was surprised come with a controller that controls your two lights and a water pump! The only bad part is that it’s mad in China and it took about a month to get to my house. The solution for the pods, I found was a thing called pod hotel, it’s a little block that is a safe-haven for pods in your case I would get a few so you have enough pods for your fish. The pod hotel come all apart so if you need to clean it but some of the other products don’t there just a block with holes were the pods go into.

Schnizzle · Feb 27, 2020

ReeferKC said:
Hi Schnizzle,
So I’m running an algae scrubber I got off of eBay for 159 the cheapest I could find but it’s made really well I was surprised come with a controller that controls your two lights and a water pump! The only bad part is that it’s mad in China and it took about a month to get to my house. The solution for the pods, I found was a thing called pod hotel, it’s a little block that is a safe-haven for pods in your case I would get a few so you have enough pods for your fish. The pod hotel come all apart so if you need to clean it but some of the other products don’t there just a block with holes were the pods go into.

Thanks! I had heard of those before but forgot about them. I could probably squeeze one between my marine pure blocks.