When to add copepods

[DirtDiggler2823]

I've been reading that a new tank can be rife with algae after it cycles. I've also read that copepods eat algae. With that being said, shouldn't pods be the first creatures added to a reef tank post cycle? There should be plenty of food available. No predation, and for the most part, stable water conditions. Please let me know what ya'll think of that idea. I'd like to get the biome established before adding any actual livestock to the tank.

 

[Katrina71]

In my 8 gallon, I added pod infested chaeto. I absolutely think it was a smart move.

 

[Diesel]

Problem with post cycle is that you still have ammonia and nitrite spikes which will destroy your pods easily.
Take your time on the cycle and add these awesome cleaners when those # are zeroed out.
Pods are you best cleaners than any cuc you can buy.

 

[DirtDiggler2823]

Problem with post cycle is that you still have ammonia and nitrite spikes which will destroy your pods easily.
Take your time on the cycle and add these awesome cleaners when those # are zeroed out.
Pods are you best cleaners than any cuc you can buy.

If there are still spikes, is the tank really cycled? I'm new to this side of the house, but when all i see are nitrates with none of the other junk, thats when i thought the cycle was done.

 

[Diesel]

If there are still spikes, is the tank really cycled? I'm new to this side of the house, but when all i see are nitrates with none of the other junk, thats when i thought the cycle was done.

How long is this tank been setup?
No3 is a by product from nitrites which are nutrients to your system.

 

[DirtDiggler2823]

How long is this tank been setup?
No3 is a by product from nitrites which are nutrients to your system.

Nothing is set up yet. I have a 90 gallon with a 40 gallon sump that I'm building, but now I'm planning things out, trying to get a better understanding on how I should go about this, and trying to increase my chances of success.

 

[Diesel]

I thought you mentioned “all you see is nitrates”

Tank need to go through all the nasties/junk first before you have a chance some of your cuc’s will survive.
Good cure rock for a month or two can help you speed it up.
Many want to cut corners in this hobby but it all will fire back at ya.
Every tank I have cycled and it been a few over the last 3.5 decades I gave it the time.
Time as in at least 2 months or longer.
It takes you at least 2 months anyways to quarantine some fish before they can go into your DT

 

[Wurst]

If there are still spikes, is the tank really cycled? I'm new to this side of the house, but when all i see are nitrates with none of the other junk, thats when i thought the cycle was done.

I don't think anyone answered why there are still spikes after the first time you see zero ammonia and nitrite. When you first cycle the tank, the bacteria that turned the initial food/waste over to ammonia and nitrite was only established enough to take care of that initial amount of food/waste. If then you start adding more fish you will temporarily produce more waste than the bacteria can immediately handle, which requires the bacteria to spread/grow to handle that new bio load. It takes a while to get to a spot where you don't have spikes from normal activity. In an extreme situation, even a 10-year old tank with 25 fish could have a spike if suddenly every fish died and started to decay, or if you accidentally dropped a whole container of food into the water.

 

[Diesel]

I don't think anyone answered why there are still spikes after the first time you see zero ammonia and nitrite. When you first cycle the tank, the bacteria that turned the initial food/waste over to ammonia and nitrite was only established enough to take care of that initial amount of food/waste. If then you start adding more fish you will temporarily produce more waste than the bacteria can immediately handle, which requires the bacteria to spread/grow to handle that new bio load. It takes a while to get to a spot where you don't have spikes. Even a 10-year old tank with 25 fish could have a spike if suddenly every fish died and started to decay, or if you accidentally dropped a whole container of food into the water.

There are no spikes as the OP doesn’t have water in the tank.
In the process of building his setup but doing his homework before hand.

 

[Wurst]

There are no spikes as the OP doesn’t have water in the tank.
In the process of building his setup but doing his homework before hand.

Yea, I read that he had two empty tanks. He seemed to ask how spikes could happen after he gets a 0 reading from ammonia and nitrite though.

 

[Diesel]

Yea, I read that he had two empty tanks. He seemed to ask how spikes could happen after he gets a 0 reading from ammonia and nitrite though.

Correct and for that there are many factors.
You named a few but you have spikes and spikes.
I bet I have a spike once a week or so but due to the tank cycled through and matured these spikes don’t do anything to existing life in the tank.
If your tank is young and yet get a spike due to adding two fish it might not do anything to the fish or corals but inverts can react differently.
Ever wondered why we found empty snail shells in a matured tank?
Or one day you see tons of pods and the other nothing.
Not to mention you clean your glass daily but sometimes you need to clean it twice a day.
These are all part of reef keeping.
Cycle your tank through and if you see algae and all popping up don’t break a sweat.

 

[BestMomEver]

As per copepods.... add them when algae starts to grow. They have enough food then. If algae is growing you’re prolly at the end of the cycle and they will be fine. FWIW, I add pods every 3-4 months. I want to make sure my Wrasse has something to entertain himself with and I also believe in genetic diversity!

 

[DirtDiggler2823]

I thought you mentioned “all you see is nitrates”

Tank need to go through all the nasties/junk first before you have a chance some of your cuc’s will survive.
Good cure rock for a month or two can help you speed it up.
Many want to cut corners in this hobby but it all will fire back at ya.
Every tank I have cycled and it been a few over the last 3.5 decades I gave it the time.
Time as in at least 2 months or longer.
It takes you at least 2 months anyways to quarantine some fish before they can go into your DT

Time is not an issue. I want to get this right, but I want to establish the order of the steps first, especially as it pertains to establishing the biome that will support the fish and corals and whatnot.

 

[DirtDiggler2823]

I don't think anyone answered why there are still spikes after the first time you see zero ammonia and nitrite. When you first cycle the tank, the bacteria that turned the initial food/waste over to ammonia and nitrite was only established enough to take care of that initial amount of food/waste. If then you start adding more fish you will temporarily produce more waste than the bacteria can immediately handle, which requires the bacteria to spread/grow to handle that new bio load. It takes a while to get to a spot where you don't have spikes from normal activity. In an extreme situation, even a 10-year old tank with 25 fish could have a spike if suddenly every fish died and started to decay, or if you accidentally dropped a whole container of food into the water.

If the bioload functions are similar to the freshwater side, I have a basic understanding of that. New fish = new waste, which means new bacteria will need to grow, which can cause ammonia, then nitrite, then nitrates to increase, hence why even in freshwater, you don't dump a whole bunch of fish in at one time on that side of the hobby either. But BEFORE any fish are added, and after the cycle has been totally wrapped up, do we add pods then, when the algae has taken hold? I intend to add fish very slowly to this tank.

 

[mitch91175]

If the bioload functions are similar to the freshwater side, I have a basic understanding of that. New fish = new waste, which means new bacteria will need to grow, which can cause ammonia, then nitrite, then nitrates to increase, hence why even in freshwater, you don't dump a whole bunch of fish in at one time on that side of the hobby either. But BEFORE any fish are added, and after the cycle has been totally wrapped up, do we add pods then, when the algae has taken hold? I intend to add fish very slowly to this tank.

Since you know for a fact that you will get algae, adding the pods will help some, but not totally. Adding a few trochus snails will do you wonders. I also feed phytoplankton frequently to my display and it also has helped me with my overall tank health (some will disagree, but we all have our opinions and everyone does things a little differently). You can seed your tank with chaeto from someone and feed phytoplankton and that'll help keep your pod population high.

To also keep the algae at bay, you can consider what you are doing with your light cycle. If you have actinics, I would suggest running them for your entire light cycle for a while until your biological is really able to handle everything and you have built up your CUC and added some fish in there.

I personally have done exactly what I am suggesting above and it has worked wonders for me. Your mileage may vary.

 

[DirtDiggler2823]

Since you know for a fact that you will get algae, adding the pods will help some, but not totally. Adding a few trochus snails will do you wonders. I also feed phytoplankton frequently to my display and it also has helped me with my overall tank health (some will disagree, but we all have our opinions and everyone does things a little differently). You can seed your tank with chaeto from someone and feed phytoplankton and that'll help keep your pod population high.

To also keep the algae at bay, you can consider what you are doing with your light cycle. If you have actinics, I would suggest running them for your entire light cycle for a while until your biological is really able to handle everything and you have built up your CUC and added some fish in there.

I personally have done exactly what I am suggesting above and it has worked wonders for me. Your mileage may vary.

Thanks for that advice. I'm trying to ensure I can get a good pod population established as I'd like to host a dragonete at some point.

 

[bherbold8]

Problem with post cycle is that you still have ammonia and nitrite spikes which will destroy your pods easily.
Take your time on the cycle and add these awesome cleaners when those # are zeroed out.
Pods are you best cleaners than any cuc you can buy.

I wouldn't think there should necessarily be large spikes if your tank is actually cycled.

 

[lafarrow]

I am down the road you are looking at. I started the tank at Thanksgiving and am taking it slow. Cycle went as fast as could be but the holidays and then the big freeze put a halt to my adding fish to the tank so I have had a tank of aging water jut waiting for life. I added some emerald crabs but added pods to help with algae. Dropped in my macro (which b/c I was taking my time) which pulled nitrate and phosphate down without the big water change when you need to get them down asap to add fish. Macro pulled them down to acceptable levels and the pods I have been adding - for the reasons you stated - seems to be working. I see a ton of them floating in my water and they do hang on the glass and eat any algae I do not scrape off. I am sure It was not theist efficient method but I wanted to go down this road and I am very happy with my pods and they are doing what I expected them to do.

 

[bherbold8]

I am down the road you are looking at. I started the tank at Thanksgiving and am taking it slow. Cycle went as fast as could be but the holidays and then the big freeze put a halt to my adding fish to the tank so I have had a tank of aging water jut waiting for life. I added some emerald crabs but added pods to help with algae. Dropped in my macro (which b/c I was taking my time) which pulled nitrate and phosphate down without the big water change when you need to get them down asap to add fish. Macro pulled them down to acceptable levels and the pods I have been adding - for the reasons you stated - seems to be working. I see a ton of them floating in my water and they do hang on the glass and eat any algae I do not scrape off. I am sure It was not theist efficient method but I wanted to go down this road and I am very happy with my pods and they are doing what I expected them to do.

Nice. Maybe theyre enough to keep the bacteria fed? Your patience is applauded

 

[346700984]

Our first reef tank we added copepods/added chaeto and a light to the refugium after cycling and when we were preparing to add mandarins. But—when we started our second predator tank we didn’t add copepods (at least not intentionally), but had an explosion of copepods at the end of week 2 of cycling. They came in on something.. But they continue to thrive to this day in a now cycled tank with predators that don’t eat them. The glass is coated with them. We don’t dose the pred tank with green phyto like we do the reef tank to intentionally feed the copepods for the dragonets, but they’re thriving.

I would recommend adding them after cycling though because you want to get your parameters zeroed out/stabilized before you’re adding copepods and the phyto to feed them etc. because when you start dosing phyto you start at a low dose as to allow the biological filtration in the tank to adjust to the increase in nutrients.