how can you farm copepods on a refuge tank

[zoidberg01]

I have made other post on questions on starting a reef tank and I want to have mandarins but they eat a lot so how can you do it as quick as possible

 

[saxman]

If you want to boost pod production, they need to eat. If you start using a quality live phyto plankton product such as Phyto 2, your pods will reproduce a whole lot quicker. Don't use a product that contains Nannochloropsis tho...it has a really thick cell wall that is hard for critters to digest. Tetraselmis, Isochrysis, or Rhodomonas are much better species to feed your tank, and are more nutritionally complete.

HTH

 

[bang guy]

+1 to Saxman, I've had the best luck with Isochrysis but I'm willing to bet that a blend of 2 or more alga would be better.

Be careful though, adding Algae to your system = more nutrients. You need something to eat the excess until the pod population increases.

Also, in my experience Copepods will turn cannibalistic when population densities get high. So, be sure to harvest them regularly.

 

[zoidberg01]

So should I put the pods in the display tank when there are two much in the refuge

 

[silverado61]

If you've got copepods in a fuge, wouldn't they just migrate to the display through the return?

 

[zoidberg01]

Not if they like the refuge so I will put chaeto