Copepod Culture 5.5 gallon tank build

[socalnano24]

First off, I have a 24 gallon nano tank, with a sixline wrasse and two true percs.
It has 28 pounds of live rock; and a "nano fuge", with chaeto and nano glo lights in the back.
I've noticed an abundance of copepods, as well as athropods (sp?) and decided to try a small green mandarin.
I bought some tigger pods, (I now know that they are a cold water species and I need to try a different strand for future stocking), however after doing a little bit of research decided to make a copepod tank for culturing.
So I went ahead and released the tigger pods into my fuge and saved some of the bottle for future use.
Ok here is where i'm going to install the copepod tank

So I got a 5.5 gallon glass tank, a bubbler, some splits, airline with airstones.
Dug out an old light unit that has some Compact Coiled tubes.

And voila, I have an attempt at culturing pods.

I set it up with some chaeto from my fuge, along with two small live rock pieces from the fuge that I know are loaded with additional copepods, then added about 2/3rds of a bottle of phytoplankton and the rest of the tigger pods.
I'm going to see if this works, and if not I think I'll buy some cultures from the FF place and run a clean batch with only one kind of pods and some phyto.
Any advice or interest is appreciated. I know its going to be a learning experience. I'm kind of looking at it as a science experiment.
I'm also going to start producing phytoplankton nanno in 2ltre bottles to be able to feed the copepod cultures.
See you along the way

 

[cranberry]

Don't go with nannochloropsis. Many copepods can't actually eat through the tough exterior cell wall. Isochrysis is "Dah BOMB" at getting your pods populations to go nuts... it's highly nutritious but a little touchier as far as phyto cultures go. Tetraselmis is a hardy, easy to produce phyto culture... probably the one I would recommend you start with.
I've also dosed Nanno in pod cultures, not for the feeding, but because of their utilization of ammonia and their hardiness. They clean up water very well. Just be sure to use something else for the pods to eat.

 

[socalnano24]

Ok sounds great. I'll probably be ordering the phyto stock and next batch of live pods from online, there aren't many LFS's around here that have that type of thing.
From what I understand culturing phyto can be done in a 2l bottle with and airstone and 1.019 salinity?
I read that as long as I keep the SG of the copepod culture correct, I should be ok doing a 10% water change every week, and to restart the process every four weeks.
The current phyto I used is phyto Feast, which claims to have Thallasiosira, Tetraselmis, Nannochlorpsis, and synechoccus. Dunno if this prebottled type is sufficient or not. But its what I had, lol.

 

[cranberry]

Originally Posted by SocalNano24
http:///forum/post/3172198
Ok sounds great. I'll probably be ordering the phyto stock and next batch of live pods from online, there aren't many LFS's around here that have that type of thing.
From what I understand culturing phyto can be done in a 2l bottle with and airstone and 1.019 salinity?
I read that as long as I keep the SG of the copepod culture correct, I should be ok doing a 10% water change every week, and to restart the process every four weeks.
The current phyto I used is phyto Feast, which claims to have Thallasiosira, Tetraselmis, Nannochlorpsis, and synechoccus. Dunno if this prebottled type is sufficient or not. But its what I had, lol.
Don't use an airstone because it will create extra bubbles, trap the cells and create unnecessary spoilage. Use a rigid airline tubing instead for a gentle roll. Different species of phyto have different optimum salinities, but you won't go wrong between 1.014 - 1.017. Iso requires a little higher salinity at 1.021, but alot of home hobbyist's experience frequent crashes with this culture.
Keep your pod cultures in a separate room from your phyto cultures if you can. Your pods will eventually find their way into your phyto cultures and contaminate/crash them.

 

[socalnano24]

pod cultures in a different room from my phyto cultures? I don't get it, as long as there is no exchange of water into the phyto from the pods shouldn't it be sufficient to keep them seperate?
Please elaborate your experience if you don't mind
I trust you if you insist, it just doesn't seem necesary.

 

[socalnano24]

should it be like a 5 inch rigid end, does the rigid portion need to be perforated, or just go for a steady stream at the end? One forum mentioned to allow for about one bubble a second.

 

[cranberry]

We don't allow pods to even enter the phyto facility. I swear, 1 single cyst in the wrong spot can cause havoc. Rots can be in a drop of water outside of your culture, dry out, be transported by the breath of air and end up in your phyto. It gets into everything.
Just be prepared with a clean culture of phyto and some bleach.
The stores in your area should have single cell pure live phyto cultures.
No perforation needed on the tubing.
I guess 1 bubble per sec is ok... I'm trying to picture that in my head.

 

[socalnano24]

Oh yeah, so I currently have the light running for 8 hours a day, with no heater, so I'm expecting the water to stay around 72 degrees. From what I understand room temperature is fine, what would you recomend?

 

[socalnano24]

It's been cold lately and the water temp dropped to 65. I think I'm goin to need a small heater because thyself a bit low for any tropical pods I may eventually try culturing. So far not much has changed. No obvious jump in pod population