Chaeto in copepod culture

CrazyCarlitos · Oct 23, 2020

I have a tank that’s almost 3mo old. Mostly going well. Lol

I tried to add chaeto to my refugium about 6 weeks ago. It was fine until I added some vibrant.
in retrospect, I should have done more research... but the vibrant basically killed my chaeto.

in the mean while, I started various phytoplankton and copepod cultures. (Pics)
It’s doing well. Harvested phyto few times since I started that culture first.
The copepod culture was started about 2weeks ago and I can see the pods getting bigger and multiplying.
gonna do water change this wknd

questions:
1- is it safe to add a chaeto to the refugium again?
My research shows 4-6 weeks after the last vibrant dose before it’s safe to add the chaeto back.

2- has anyone added chaeto directly into the copepod culture?
It would be nice to seed the chaeto with pods before I put it in the refugium.

just Wanted to check if the chaeto would be ok for about 1 week in the culture jar.
Th

lapin · Oct 23, 2020

Im not sure the chaeto will get enough light and nutrients for a week. A few days yes but a week ????

CrazyCarlitos · Oct 23, 2020

lapin said:
Im not sure the chaeto will get enough light and nutrients for a week. A few days yes but a week ????

Thx for chiming in.

I suppose there is no real reason to keep it in for a week. I thought maybe the pods would multiply faster with a chaeto in there. Lol
Perhaps one day would be enough to seed some copepods before I throw the chaeto in the fudge.

taricha · Oct 25, 2020

CrazyCarlitos said:
2- has anyone added chaeto directly into the copepod culture?
It would be nice to seed the chaeto with pods before I put it in the refugium.

I think the chaeto will be fine - this would be my concern. My chaeto would always have amphipods large and small with it. These will eat copepods. Enough to mess up a culture? I dunno, but I would really try hard to avoid introducing something like that into a pod culture.
(I'd just make another bucket with nutrients, aeration and light.)