Copeods

[swallowbird]

1.) Does chaeto produce copeods?
2.) Is crushed coral an ok substrate for refugium?
3.) Will copeods travel up return pump?
4.) Should I siphon vac the fuge or will it kill copeods?
5.) Do you feed copepods? If so what?
6.) How do you breed them?

 

[ak_reefer]

1.Chaeto helps consume nitrates from your DT and provides refuge for your Pods.
2. I have always used sand in my fuge over crushed coral because of the trapping of detritus and cerith and bumble bee snails can be used in sand to aerate it.
3. Pods will make their way into your DT via your plumbing.
4. I blow off heavy debris/detritus off of my Chaeto and let it flow into my DT and do this when I do water changes. I use Cerith, bumblebee, and Nerite snails to aerate and consume decaying materials.
5. Pods feed off detritus so no you do not need to feed them.
6. They will breed on their own!
Just my .02!! HTH.

 

[swallowbird]

Perfect answer thank you very much

 

[saxman]

If you want to boost your pod production, you can feed your tank a live phytoplankton product such as Phyto 2 (my first choice) or Reef Nutrition. Try to feed either Tetraselmis or Iscocrysis, as they're more nutritionally complete and don't have the thick shell wall of Nannochloropsis, which makes them hard/impossible to digest for many critters.
I prefer Nassarius sp. to Engina sp. (bumblebee snails), which are predatory whelks, as they generally won't go predatory if they get hungry. That being said, I kept a handful of Engina for several years with no problems as they were well-fed.
JME