When can I add Copepods?

[Jivatma]

First tank should be wet by next weekend. I dont have a definitive plan for it yet other than being a learning reef tank.

75g DT with instand sump.

Nothing too fancy, but the basic question, when can I add pods? I want a mandarin down the line so i'd like to start a healthy population before i start looking for a mandy. Do I need to wait on a cycle? Should I let the tank mature a couple months first? Thanks in advance!

 

[kenbennedy]

Dry rock or wet/live rock? Answer may vary based on this. AlgaeBarn has a good article, suggesting (for dry rock) the right time is when you turn the lights on after about 60 days.

How to Fully Condition Your Dry Reef Rock

We’re all subject to impatience. Particularly when we’re anticipating a highly gratifying event, such as adding the first round of corals to a newly set

www.algaebarn.com

 

[Jivatma]

Dry rock or wet/live rock? Answer may vary based on this. AlgaeBarn has a good article, suggesting (for dry rock) the right time is when you turn the lights on after about 60 days.

How to Fully Condition Your Dry Reef Rock

We’re all subject to impatience. Particularly when we’re anticipating a highly gratifying event, such as adding the first round of corals to a newly set

www.algaebarn.com

Most of it will be dry with some caribsea liferock. I have been up and down the fence about buying a rock to seed with though.

Thanks for the article! Will definitely give it a read!

 

[Alaeriel]

I added pods on about day 90 and my tank will be a year old in a couple of weeks. I finally feel like I've got enough pods to sustain a mandarin now (started with dry rock, bottled bac and "live" sand)

 

[BostonReefer300]

Congrats on your new tank and welcome to this bittersweet labor of love! (Sorry I just did my semi-annual sump clean-out so I'm a little jaded at the moment.) I'm surprised that @brandon429 hasn't responded to this thread yet, but he will now that I've tagged him. The big lesson to learn with a new tank these days is that the old cycling rules that call for months of prep are completely outdated given the readily available nitrifying bacteria products that are available. If your critical parameters (temp, salinity, alkalinity) are OK and you have plenty of rock (~ 3/4 to 1 pound per gross system gallon----note others would say more, but I use very porous rock), you'll be ready to go overnight if you add enough tank-starter bacteria. I wouldn't go overboard on stocking with a ton of fish right away, but putting in several would be fine in your set-up. I wouldn't add coral or a cleanup crew for a few months though because you need to let the tank mature/stabilize and ideally get over the initial ugly stages first. Most fish are much hardier than most coral. Other nice thing about only having fish in your DT for a while is that you can treat for disease right in your DT if it pops up given that you won't have coral or a CUC in there. Disease is a much bigger worry than cycling these days. Highly recommend that you spend extra money and get pre-quarantined fish from a reputable dealer. Regarding your specific question about pods, I'd suggest waiting until the tank stabilizes like with coral/CUC. Otherwise, they could starve pretty quickly. Good luck and have fun!

 

[DocRose]

Honestly, you can add them as soon as the cycle completes. You're probably better off adding a couple fish first, waiting a week, adding your CUC, waiting a few more weeks, and then adding some macro algae and the pods into the refugium (along with a small sand bed and a single rock).

Reading your OP, if you don't have a refugium, you're going to have to rethink the whole process. If you add the pods directly to the DT, they might be eaten by any fish you get before their population has a chance to grow and stabilize. However, if you add them before you have ANY fish, there might not be a stable food source for them to use to grow and stabilize either.

 

[brandon429]

Hey I agree fully the cycle will be no challenge and as long as basic ammonia control is in place from the common new additions we make like bottle bac, no harm in adding pods at all they’ll be the early colonizers and likely help control diatoms and dinos better than the common systems that don’t really add pods at all, post pics when you’re up and running. Select either Dr Tims, Fritz or Biospira for the cycling bac and you can’t go wrong

 

[Jay'sReefBugs]

At least 60 days you have nothing for them to feed on and support the culture. Algeas take weeks to start to even take hold in your system. You're just throwing money away if you add them right after your cycle TRUST me I do this for a living......

 

[Clo]

I think I added my pods like 4-5 weeks in? They’re doing fine.

 

[DocRose]

At least 60 days you have nothing for them to feed on and support the culture. Algeas take weeks to start to even take hold in your system. You're just throwing money away if you add them right after your cycle TRUST me I do this for a living......

This is only partially true. No disrespect but it doesn't really matter if you do this for a living or not. The science says otherwise. Algae can start to grow the day after you set up the tank, get some ammonia and beneficial bacteria in it, and turn on the lights. So if you run a 45 day cycle, with lights, there can definitely be enough algae present for the pods to feed on at the end of it. Remember, algae is a MICROSCOPIC organism. It's only visible to the naked eye when the population is dense enough for us to see it.

Now, whether or not the algae population is high enough for the pod population to grow exponentially is different.

However, that's all irrelevant, because if you truly want your pod population to explode, you should be dosing phytoplankton anyway.

 

[Jay'sReefBugs]

This is only partially true. No disrespect but it doesn't really matter if you do this for a living or not. The science says otherwise. Algae can start to grow the day after you set up the tank, get some ammonia and beneficial bacteria in it, and turn on the lights. So if you run a 45 day cycle, with lights, there can definitely be enough algae present for the pods to feed on at the end of it. Remember, algae is a MICROSCOPIC organism. It's only visible to the naked eye when the population is dense enough for us to see it.

Now, whether or not the algae population is high enough for the pod population to grow exponentially is different.

However, that's all irrelevant, because if you truly want your pod population to explode, you should be dosing phytoplankton

Lol I can assure you algea isn't viable in any system starting day one let alone day 45. Your objective if to have a self sustaining population. That's not going to happen day 1 let only day 45 . You either didn't read the original poster's comment or chose to ignore it . You're not having a self sustaining system starting from dry rock from day 1 or day 45 . But I'm not going to stop you from trying it's not my money ‍

 

[Dolphins18]

If you are starting with dry rock, you want to wait 4-6 months to add pods. Do you see all the dino threads all the time? They love pods, and will suffocate them feeding on them ultimately killing the pod, and feeding the dinos. Do not add pods early when starting with dry rock. If live rock, you can add them after a few weeks.

If you'd like a mandarin starting with dry rock, just get a captive bred one. They cost a few dollars more but eat frozen food.

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

However, that's all irrelevant, because if you truly want your pod population to explode, you should be dosing phytoplankton anyway.

This!

Not sure why every new tank question has to be turned into the cycling debate as it has no place with the question being asked.

Keeping a Mandy means we need a dense pod population. For that, dosing phyto is clutch.

 

[Jay'sReefBugs]

If you are starting with dry rock, you want to wait 4-6 months to add pods. Do you see all the dino threads all the time? They love pods, and will suffocate them feeding on them ultimately killing the pod, and feeding the dinos. Do not add pods early when starting with dry rock. If live rock, you can add them after a few weeks.

If you'd like a mandarin starting with dry rock, just get a captive bred one. They cost a few dollars more but eat frozen food.

Biggest regret was not getting a captive bread lol . I should of listened to others mentioning of them but I had to learn the hard way . Took almost a year to get mine fully converted to frozen . He still eats copepods it's just so much easier when they eat frozen as well

 

[Dolphins18]

Biggest regret was not getting a captive bread lol . I should of listened to others mentioning of them but I had to learn the hard way . Took almost a year to get mine fully converted to frozen . He still eats copepods it's just so much easier when they eat frozen as well

Yes they require pods to live long term, but the nice thing about the ORA ones is they survive fine allowing pod population to catch up, and not be diminished in weeks, which is common in small tanks without refugiums. I kept a wild mandarin in a 90 for nearly 10 years, it was eaten in the end, but probably reaching its end anyway. I have not heard of many keeping the wild caught ones in small tank without refugium's for longer than a couple years.

 

[DocRose]

Lol I can assure you algea isn't viable in any system starting day one let alone day 45. Your objective if to have a self sustaining population. That's not going to happen day 1 let only day 45 . You either didn't read the original poster's comment or chose to ignore it . You're not having a self sustaining system starting from dry rock from day 1 or day 45 . But I'm not going to stop you from trying it's not my money ‍

The original question was “when can I add them”. I said the earliest is after the cycle because by then algae is present enough (if cycled with lights) to at least sustain most if not all of the population of pods that is introduced.

As they breed and reproduce the population while have a likely growth to death ratio. So the population won’t explode but it would maintain itself and begin to actually grow as the tank matures.

However, again, you should be dosing phyto anyway…so algae isn’t an issue.

 

[Jay'sReefBugs]

The original question was “when can I add them”. I said the earliest is after the cycle because by then algae is present enough (if cycled with lights) to at least sustain most if not all of the population of pods that is introduced.

As they breed and reproduce the population while have a likely growth to death ratio. So the population won’t explode but it would maintain itself and begin to actually grow as the tank matures.

However, again, you should be dosing phyto anyway…so algae isn’t an issue.

Again dry rock .......there will be next to zero algea present after the cycle . Especially if you quick cycle it like you mentioned above with Biospira and ammonia. Dosing Phyto on a brand new tank with out live rock without even having time to have parameters and bio diversity time to stabilize is a disaster waiting to happen

 

[mindme]

Lol I can assure you algea isn't viable in any system starting day one let alone day 45. Your objective if to have a self sustaining population. That's not going to happen day 1 let only day 45 . You either didn't read the original poster's comment or chose to ignore it . You're not having a self sustaining system starting from dry rock from day 1 or day 45 . But I'm not going to stop you from trying it's not my money ‍

I instant tank always. I don't know why some people have issues with it.

I put a RBTA in a 2 week old tank. 1 year later I now have 3 of them that are that size.

But I'm not supposed to be able to do that for 6 months right? And I should be doing water changes every week, rather than 3-4 months right?

 

[Jay'sReefBugs]

I instant tank always. I don't know why some people have issues with it.

I put a RBTA in a 2 week old tank. 1 year later I now have 3 of them that are that size.

But I'm not supposed to be able to do that for 6 months right? And I should be doing water changes every week, rather than 3-4 months right?

??? what the heck does that have anything to do with algea lol . And I haven't done a water change in 6 month's it's a thing called dosing.... You have 3 RBTAs because they split when they get ticked off it's their survival mechanism

 

[mindme]

??? what the heck does that have anything to do with algea lol . And I haven't done a water change in 6 month's it's a thing called dosing.... You have 3 RBTAs because they split when they get ticked off it's their survival mechanism

You claimed:

You're not having a self sustaining system starting from dry rock from day 1 or day 45

And it's false.

You have 3 RBTAs because they split when they get ticked off it's their survival mechanism

Also false. That is not the only reason they split.

My point is that there are many ways to do things. There is a reason why the RBTA lived.