DIY Pod population home

[Dj City]

I'm making a pod home in my sump.
I have an empty rox08 carbon container that I'm going to drill holes into and add a bunch of live rock rubble to.
I will submerge this into my sump and dump even more pods into that in the hopes of getting the population to explode. I may even build a small pod hotel out of corrugated plastic to put into it so I can easily feed the tank with pods whenever I want to.
Better yet, I'm going to use plastic pot scrubbers and keep life simple.
I figure I can dose phytoplankton straight to the container to feed the pods.

 

[Dj City]

Here it is.
My in sump pod population home.

Holes on the bottom face the incoming water from the sump divider to my return pump. This should have slow flow going through the pod population home.
Holes in the top should allow a small amount of pods to escape on the regular.

I will have live rock rubble and plastic pot scrubbers on top of rubble.

I think this should work for a pod population home in my sump with no refugium.

Anyone see a reason this won't with?

 

[Dj City]

My pods are on the way to me.
Does anyone see any problem with this idea?

I have the pod home in the return section of the sump. It gets VERY low flow.

Please let me know if this will work as I imagine it to work or if I have problems I am not seeing or taking into account.

 

[346700984]

This is our setup for the copepods. (New skimmer coming soon). We just do chaeto and the light. Light is on at night and off during the day. We dose phytoplankton every 2-3 days. When we started we shut pumps off and added pods to display and sump. We have a good population going and the Mandarins eat like pigs. They’ll live wherever there’s food basically. They also eat leftover waste.

 

[Dj City]

This is our setup for the copepods. (New skimmer coming soon). We just do chaeto and the light. Light is on at night and off during the day. We dose phytoplankton every 2-3 days. When we started we shut pumps off and added pods to display and sump. We have a good population going and the Mandarins eat like pigs. They’ll live wherever there’s food basically. They also eat leftover waste.

Nice.
I don't have a fuge so I'm trying to figure out another way of getting a stable, growing pod population.

Any thoughts on if my idea will work?
I drilled more holes into the container and made all holes larger. I have 3/4 of it filled with live rock rubble.

 

[John A!10]

Nice.
I don't have a fuge so I'm trying to figure out another way of getting a stable, growing pod population.

Any thoughts on if my idea will work?
I drilled more holes into the container and have 3/4 of it filled with live rock rubble.

I’m my opinion the more holes the better as long as it doesn’t destroy the container. Do you have pictures of the sump we could give you some ideas.

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

How will you get the pods to the display? More pictures of sump

 

[Dj City]

Pics to come...

 

[John A!10]

How will you get the pods to the display? More pictures of sump

Pods usually go up and down the return. When you have a refugium you don’t take pods out of the fuge and add them to the tank they go on their own

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

I shake my macro in the display after lights out or first thing in the morning with pumps off. Bad thing? 4 macro algaes I rotate each week..

In an enclosed jar I could atleast drill a few more holes in there then.

 

[John A!10]

I shake my macro in the display after lights out or first thing in the morning with pumps off. Bad thing? 4 macro algaes I rotate each week..

In an enclosed jar I could atleast drill a few more holes in there then.

Not a bad thing. I just think it’s unnecessary unless you have something that feeds primarily on pods. Like dragonets.

 

[Psychedelic Fins]

Loving this discussion. I am wanting to do something similar. I made three of the corrugated plastic pod hotels (2x3x2 inches) to transport pods between the sump and display if necessary (wife wants a dragonet). I have a 2-month old tank with no pods as of yet. Was thinking of using a section of my sump for a refugium but now wonder if your container idea within the sump is a better bet. Rock rubble and pod hotels within a container with holes. How soon is too soon to start with a dose of pods?

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

I would avoid adding pods to any uncycled tank. Some will argue and say to never buy pods as they will show up eventually but these are the same people dosing bottled bacteria after a cycle soooo I would go ahead!

My mandarin seems fat and happy but not entirely sure how to judge if they are getting enough to eat.

 

[Silent]

You could use mesh shower puff balls as pod hotels. Cheap and easy to use.

 

[Psychedelic Fins]

I would avoid adding pods to any uncycled tank. Some will argue and say to never buy pods as they will show up eventually but these are the same people dosing bottled bacteria after a cycle soooo I would go ahead!

My mandarin seems fat and happy but not entirely sure how to judge if they are getting enough to eat.

The ammonia/nitrogen cycle has been completed. I cycled with two clowns and have steadily been adding fish every week or two. I have added a melanaurus wrasse, a yellow tang, a yellow eye kole tang, and a lawnmower blenny.

Looking to get a jumpstart on the pod population, but don't want to go to soon. I have heard the "don't add pods, they will come on their own" advice, but others seem to enjoy great success adding them. From my understanding, the pods help in a variety of ways. Would you say it is safe to add pods now, or is there another cycle you were referring to?

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

The ammonia/nitrogen cycle has been completed. I cycled with two clowns and have steadily been adding fish every week or two. I have added a melanaurus wrasse, a yellow tang, a yellow eye kole tang, and a lawnmower blenny.

Looking to get a jumpstart on the pod population, but don't want to go to soon. I have heard the "don't add pods, they will come on their own" advice, but others seem to enjoy great success adding them. From my understanding, the pods help in a variety of ways. Would you say it is safe to add pods now, or is there another cycle you were referring to?

I was being facetious to a point, ignore my poor humor. You can add pods now or really anytime after your tank has went through the initial cycle. I have also been told that just buying macro algae and shaking it around in the tank is just as effective as buying an actual jar of pods. It only takes a few pods to explode into thousands so any source is as good as another. Phyto has been a key additive to keep their numbers very high in my tank.

 

[Dj City]

Horrible pic but here it is.

I will take better pics later when I have more time to clear out the stuff in front.

The pod home is in my return section. There is no space from side to side.
Water flow over the baffle of the bio section and runs under the glass baffle into the return section.
I have holes in the bottom side of the pod home where the water enters the return chamber. I have more holes in the front that face the return pump. More holes towards the back.

 

[John A!10]

Horrible pic but here it is.

I will take better pics later when I have more time to clear out the stuff in front.

What is the section to the left? Could you turn it into a fuge if you could I would highly recommend it. Or is it an ato reservoir?

 

[John A!10]

The ammonia/nitrogen cycle has been completed. I cycled with two clowns and have steadily been adding fish every week or two. I have added a melanaurus wrasse, a yellow tang, a yellow eye kole tang, and a lawnmower blenny.

Looking to get a jumpstart on the pod population, but don't want to go to soon. I have heard the "don't add pods, they will come on their own" advice, but others seem to enjoy great success adding them. From my understanding, the pods help in a variety of ways. Would you say it is safe to add pods now, or is there another cycle you were referring to?

I didn’t want to spend money buying all those bottles of pods so what I did was buy a small bag from eBay which was a mix of a bunch of pods (copepods, amphipods,etc) they populated the tank very well and I would say their is more diversity then buying two or three bottles of pods. It was also much cheaper I think I paid $15 including shipping.

 

[Dj City]

Horrible pic but here it is.

What is the section to the left? Could you turn it into a fuge if you could I would highly recommend it. Or is it an ato reservoir?

Yes.
To the left is the ato reservoir.