Culturing copepods

[Koh23]

No, not another "culturing pods" topic....

Well, it is.... Apologies, hoping for some wisdom here...

After cleaning filter socks (specialy), vacuming refugium, harvesting chaeto etc.... i notice large population of pods, that, sadly, ends up in trash, one way or another...

So, idea is here - can i simply put them in some jar with saltwater, feed as needed, and hopefully have growing population of pods that i can "dose" to my tank.... In sump, refugium section, i see tons of them on glass (i don't clean algae from glass), but not sure how many ends up in display tank. Of course, there is some there too, mandarin is alive and look happy for months, so i figure he have something to eat "up there"....

But, if i can produce more, why not....

Will this idea work, what food to throw in that jar, lighting, is there any flow needed, water changes..... I don't dose phyto, so, probably pods can live and reproduce without it, so tought is, fresh sw, vacum some pods from fuge, and ocassionaly some meaty food....

Toughts? Or is this just plain stupid idea?

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

yes it will sort of work. I tried it for fun, I took a small piece of rubble from my tank and put in a tupperware with an airstone and fed phyto and in a few weeks there was enough to harvest that I added to my tank. Pods need phytoplankton to reproduce though, that is their natural food source.

 

[Koh23]

Well, fun, and enormous free time (due to circumstances) is reason why i want to try it.....

As for phyto, somwhere in back corner of my mind is written that it don't have to be live phyto, i have frozen cubes, that i put in tank..... so, i'll try with that....

Thank you, any other things i need to be aware?

 

[Jay'sReefBugs]

Well, fun, and enormous free time (due to circumstances) is reason why i want to try it.....

As for phyto, somwhere in back corner of my mind is written that it don't have to be live phyto, i have frozen cubes, that i put in tank..... so, i'll try with that....

Thank you, any other things i need to be aware?

You're correct it doesn't have to be live . Unless they are Parvo copepods which do require live phytoplankton. You will want some type of aeration into the culture .Also some sort of ammonia reducer as it will spike rapidly in a small jar . A 5 gallon bucket can make a great starter culture and most people have one laying around .

 

[Koh23]

Thank you, i managed to get some live phyto, so i'm working on "reactor" now, with little luck, in a few days i'll start phyto production

 

[Spare time]

You can probably get away with feeding them spirulina powder. You just have to watch the tank water as it might get dirty fast in their culturing container

 

[Spare time]

You can probably get away with feeding them spirulina powder. You just have to watch the tank water as it might get dirty fast in their culturing container

 

[Dinkins Aquatic Gardens Verified Sponsor]

No, not another "culturing pods" topic....

Well, it is.... Apologies, hoping for some wisdom here...

After cleaning filter socks (specialy), vacuming refugium, harvesting chaeto etc.... i notice large population of pods, that, sadly, ends up in trash, one way or another...

So, idea is here - can i simply put them in some jar with saltwater, feed as needed, and hopefully have growing population of pods that i can "dose" to my tank.... In sump, refugium section, i see tons of them on glass (i don't clean algae from glass), but not sure how many ends up in display tank. Of course, there is some there too, mandarin is alive and look happy for months, so i figure he have something to eat "up there"....

But, if i can produce more, why not....

Will this idea work, what food to throw in that jar, lighting, is there any flow needed, water changes..... I don't dose phyto, so, probably pods can live and reproduce without it, so tought is, fresh sw, vacum some pods from fuge, and ocassionaly some meaty food....

Toughts? Or is this just plain stupid idea?

Pods are pretty easy to grow. They eat detritus as well as phyto, and they don't even absolutely require filtration, aeration, heating, etc. Give it a shot!

 

[Koh23]

I will, in a few days i'll start to produce phyto and pods...

Tnx!

 

[Koh23]

Ok, after insane amount of time waiting i got phyto starter culture...but, without fertilizer...

I know that u can use liquid plant fertilizer, but not sure of ratios and ingredients in fertilizer, will any do, or?

Any europe product recomendation?

 

[melbournedan]

Pods are pretty easy to grow. They eat detritus as well as phyto, and they don't even absolutely require filtration, aeration, heating, etc. Give it a shot!

i’ve done the whole super extensive setup using heaters, lighting, aeration before, and it works unbelievably well.

what would be the least amount of equipment needed be to run a setup successfully ?

 

[GarrettT]

i’ve done the whole super extensive setup using heaters, lighting, aeration before, and it works unbelievably well.

what would be the least amount of equipment needed be to run a setup successfully ?

I don’t use a light or a heater (assuming you keep it indoors at normal temps). There is just no need for it. I use a 1 gallon container, which is more than enough. A 5 gallon culture is pretty overkill imo.

Outside of your first harvest or two, do you really need the continued copepod culture? I say this because only a VERY small amount of people actually would. Once you harvested your culture a couple of times, I would shift the focus more towards keeping your copepods in your main tank happy.

Keep in mind, copepods main limitation is food availability. While easy in a culturing container that get 100% water changes, it can be harder in a tank housing fish and corals.

 

[GarrettT]

Ok, after insane amount of time waiting i got phyto starter culture...but, without fertilizer...

I know that u can use liquid plant fertilizer, but not sure of ratios and ingredients in fertilizer, will any do, or?

Any europe product recomendation?

I use f/2 guillards at 0.5ml per Liter. I find the general recommendation is anywhere from 0.4ml-1.0ml per Liter.

You can always setup multiple small bottles and apply different amounts to each to see what works best.

 

[melbournedan]

I don’t use a light or a heater (assuming you keep it indoors at normal temps). There is just no need for it. I use a 1 gallon container, which is more than enough. A 5 gallon culture is pretty overkill imo.

Outside of your first harvest or two, do you really need the continued copepod culture? I say this because only a VERY small amount of people actually would. Once you harvested your culture a couple of times, I would shift the focus more towards keeping your copepods in your main tank happy.

Keep in mind, copepods main limitation is food availability. While easy in a culturing container that get 100% water changes, it can be harder in a tank housing fish and corals.

this is the plan.

is there a simple phyto setup as well ?

 

[GarrettT]

this is the plan.

is there a simple phyto setup as well ?

Culturing phyto requires much more focus than copepods. At least in terms of prep and sterilization. I culture nanno (easy), tetra, and iso (harder).

10 Step Phytoplankton Culture | Melev's Reef

melevsreef.com

 

[Koh23]

Sadly, not f/2 or mirracle grow is available here, i guess this is plain plant fertilizer, so in theory any will do?

 

[Koh23]

Ok, the battle goes on.....

Ordered some grotech phyto start and phyto food.

Of course, they didnt send me food, out of stock....

So, i use fertilizer that i once used to culture, and it worked great.

Prepared, and started.... Grotech phyto is strange..... White-ish water, with something that resembles green flake(s), few of them. Its third day now, culture is still milky, but, maybe its to early..... Or it is bad product, remain to be seen....

But, question is, how in the world one can silence "production"???

I use plastic rigid tube, connected to air pump, it move water great, its all boiling and bubbly (but no foam), only that sound of boiling is sooo loud, jar is in enclosed cabinet, in other room, and it still can be heard trough whole house....

Any ideas how to silence this #$&#?

 

[Koh23]

Little update and maybe i save someone headache, if he/she try their luck with grotech phyto start.

Thing is so diluted, that take serious amount of time for culture to start growing.

In my case, around 25 days from start to somewhat dense culture. And serious amount of fertilizer for start. I used plant fertilizer, in 1l of "solution" (0.5l phyto start and 0.5l of sw) i used about 20ml of fertilizer. So almost 5ml per week.

For first two weeks, water ranged from milky to white, after 15 days, is started to getting yellowish-greenish color.

Now i splitted culture into another jar, after that period of 20-ish days, things are going fast, but, that is just nature, not quality of grotech product.

Avoid grotech phyto start...

 

[Koh23]

Ok, once again....

Now i have steady and enough phyto culturing, so i'm back to my original toughts....

Jar, light, air pump - all there.

Original idea was to suck some of pods with hose, from sump glass, throw them in jar......etc....

Should i maybe, better, use some rubble, small pieces of rock from sump, and put that in jar instead?

Is it reasonable to assume that, if i have pods in system, some of them have to be inside this small rocks rubble also?

And then, simply add phyto, and increasing water volume in jar, untill full, after that, just add phyto when needed? Is this correct way?

Also, if i dose live phyto into tank (200ml on 500l tank) every night, maybe it is unnecessary to culture pods in jar? They reproduce the same way in tank?

Also, will increased dose of phyto be harmfull to tank, lets say, to dose 400ml daily? Will pod population in tank benefit from this extra phyto, or is this just wasting?

Thank you!

 

[TokenReefer]

I can see copods as well as amphipods as well as isopods in my sump. If you have any other creatures it may be hard to get a pod only sample...