Culturing pods

[Baby Ray]

Hey everyone,
it is my dream to keep a mandarin in my 29gallon reef and i think i might have come up with a fool proof plan. I just need some help on setting up a pod tank and also how to culture phyto.

My plan is to get a small tank for the pods. Also set up a station for culturing phyto. (Need help in these to things) I will also keep cheato in my sump so the pods have something to hide in and I would put the cheato in the DT once a week or so to help get the pod population up in the DT
How much phyto should I put in the pod tank and should I put any in my sump of the over tank?
How often should I take pods out of the pod tank and put them into the DT?
By the way, if I do get a mandarin it will eat frozen foods because my LFS gets a lot that do.
Need help please

 

[Diesel]

Great idea, but you can start one in your tank and the fish poop is your food.
They will live in your rock, sump, sand, equipment, overflow.

 

[cameronh]

^^What Diesel said, but if you do decide you would want to culture your own, all you would need is a small tank (two liter bottle, a bowl, or whatever you happen to have near you at the time that holds water), a bubbler, some chaeto (optional), and a light (depending on what pods you want to culture). Fresh water mixed at 1.025-6. And for feeding the pods, give them phyto once every three days (until the water is a very, barely noticeable light green) To set it off, you can order some pods from just about any online fish supply store/or come across them at your LFS.

As far as your phytoplankton culture, I believe you can get the starter kit from algaebarn, and again, just a bubbler and a light (i think 50watt) I could be wrong on that. Hope this helps!

 

[Baby Ray]

I would like to culture copepods
How do you catch them when you are putting them into the DT?
Should I add phytoplankton to the DT or the sump of my other tank?

 

[cameronh]

Yeah you can add phyto to your dt if you want. You don't have to add much though