Input on a pod cultivation tank

[polyppal]

So I got a couple commercial LfS tanks (about 12g) lying around, and though it might be a good idea to set them up to cultivate copepods and either phyto or brine shrimp.

anyone have long term success in cultivating pods and keeping a culture?

 

[mdb_talon]

Yes, but i think 12g is way too large to start for copepods in my opinion. You need to fairly heavily saturate the water with food of the goal is really building a good culture. Until you have a huge culture it means you have to saturate 12g of which the vast majority will never be consumed and you will be doing lots of wc. I start mine in small containers and as the culture gets larger i keep increasing size until a 5g bucket. I like the 5g bucket it is just easy to clean/WC/pour into strainer/etc.

Never tried my phyto in a container like that. Seems like it could work if you have lots of air stones all around to make sure you got plenty of exchange of air and lots of water turnover. Would want a lid to prevent massive salt creep and prevent contamination.

 

[polyppal]

Yes, but i think 12g is way too large to start for copepods in my opinion. You need to fairly heavily saturate the water with food of the goal is really building a good culture. Until you have a huge culture it means you have to saturate 12g of which the vast majority will never be consumed and you will be doing lots of wc. I start mine in small containers and as the culture gets larger i keep increasing size until a 5g bucket. I like the 5g bucket it is just easy to clean/WC/pour into strainer/etc.

Never tried my phyto in a container like that. Seems like it could work if you have lots of air stones all around to make sure you got plenty of exchange of air and lots of water turnover. Would want a lid to prevent massive salt creep and prevent contamination.

I guess I could just fill the container a few inches and increase water volume as it grows out. Do you use a heater/filtration or just aeration?

 

[mdb_talon]

When i start a culture i just use small glass jars with no filtration and no heater. Nothing in there except water/pods/food. I do complete water changes every several days. When i get up to larger size container(around a gallon) i add a very slow bubble using an airpump. In the 5g bucket i use a sponge filter bit still just a fairly light bubble. Also i put in the hollow bioblocks but that is more because the pods seem to like having some "houses". My fish room stays warm though if it was cooler i may consider using a heater.

 

[polyppal]

When i start a culture i just use small glass jars with no filtration and no heater. Nothing in there except water/pods/food. I do complete water changes every several days. When i get up to larger size container(around a gallon) i add a very slow bubble using an airpump. In the 5g bucket i use a sponge filter bit still just a fairly light bubble. Also i put in the hollow bioblocks but that is more because the pods seem to like having some "houses". My fish room stays warm though if it was cooler i may consider using a heater.

thanks for the input!