Refugium setup help

[fcatch76]

Hello everyone and first off ..thank you for stopping by to read my thread!
Ok, I have a Biocube 29- recently upgraded to the nanotuner 4.36(144w CF)
I set up the refugium about two months ago and poured in two packs of saltwaterfish.com's copepods. Then I placed another package in the main tank, at night, to give them a fighting chance. Two weeks later added 1 more package into the tank, again at night. My refugium has about 5 lbs. of LR and the tank has roughly 32lbs. of LR. I see the dragonet and scooter grabbing at the rocks constantly (so can assume they are getting something..). I reflect light from the main tank into the refugium but this is during the day. Is it a big deal to run lighting at night? And is there something else I should do to increase my chances of good copepod reproduction.
Tank has been running for 71/2 to 8 months. Any help would be appreciated!!

 

[onyx]

First of all, a 29 gal. is WAY to small to keep a dragonet and a scooter together. In fact, even keeping a single one of them in a 29 permenantly would be a huge challenge. The amount of copepods a single dragonet can consume is emmense. Most people reccommend ATLEAST 100lbs of live rock to keep them well fed.
Chaeto or other macro algae in the sump may provide a safe haven for pods to grow and reproduce. However, you should seriously consider removing 1 or both of those fish since they will most likely compete for food and starve (even keeping one would require almost weekly pod additions since most mandarins won't accept frozen/flake/other foods).

 

[fcatch76]

Originally Posted by Onyx
http:///forum/post/2735504
First of all, a 29 gal. is WAY to small to keep a dragonet and a scooter together. In fact, even keeping a single one of them in a 29 permenantly would be a huge challenge. The amount of copepods a single dragonet can consume is emmense. Most people reccommend ATLEAST 100lbs of live rock to keep them well fed.
Chaeto or other macro algae in the sump may provide a safe haven for pods to grow and reproduce. However, you should seriously consider removing 1 or both of those fish since they will most likely compete for food and starve (even keeping one would require almost weekly pod additions since most mandarins won't accept frozen/flake/other foods).
I know, but I really like both of them and accept the challenge in caring for them. The scooter takes brine and mysis shrimp from me so I know he will be ok. Trying to go with a bigger tank but have to fight the wife on that!

 

[onyx]

Awesome, just wanted to make sure that you were aware of their needs =). I wish i could find a scooter/dragonet that would accept frozen/prepared foods.
As for lighting, you probably won't need to leave the refugium lights on all night. If there is room in your refugium, adding in chaetomorpha macro algae will give the copepods a place to thrive and multiply. Additionally, the algae will remove nutrients for your water (lowering nitrates) and can't go asexual so turning the lights off at night would not affect it.

 

[mr_x]

i agree with onyx. they won't survive in that tank. maybe if you added a bottle of pods a day. i couldn't find swf's pod packages. can you give me a link to them?

 

[fcatch76]

https://www.saltwaterfish.com/site_11...ot_parent_id=4

 

[fcatch76]

Originally Posted by Onyx
http:///forum/post/2735807
Awesome, just wanted to make sure that you were aware of their needs =). I wish i could find a scooter/dragonet that would accept frozen/prepared foods.
As for lighting, you probably won't need to leave the refugium lights on all night. If there is room in your refugium, adding in chaetomorpha macro algae will give the copepods a place to thrive and multiply. Additionally, the algae will remove nutrients for your water (lowering nitrates) and can't go asexual so turning the lights off at night would not affect it.
Yes Onyx, I am very aware of the challenge ahead of me and that's why I asked for some help with the refuguim. In the threads, I always read that people light up their biocube refug's at night to help balance the pH and such. Was wondering if this is a necessity with good pod production. My pH is stable enough where I don't worry about balancing (check three times a day and always at the same time each day and get the same readings), but wasn't sure if i needed to do this for the pods.
Trying to get my hands on some chaeto for the refuguim.

 

[snail]

Fcatch, Hi, you may want to look into culturing your pods in a separate environment suitible for rapid reproduction.
It isn't a very difficult thing, doesn't take tons of space, and it will cut the cost tremendously in feeding fish. I don't have a direct link handy, but I did read up on it when I mistakenly bought a scooter for my 29. I was eventually able to get him to take cyclopeze, but took him back to the store for his well being.
But he probably was sold to another without the information of being a major pod eater, and has most likely died in the hands of a newbie.

 

[fcatch76]

Snail,
Thx for the response, I have since decided to do a CPR HOB Refugium w/Skimmer to aid in copepod production (purchased and waiting for delivery). Doing some experimenting with feeding, I will feed my clowns and royal gramma first and as they are distracted eating on the one side, the Scooter will get a shot of mysis/ brine shrimp and he really goes nuts for them.
I am going to try and train the Mandarin but haven't decided the least stressful way to do so.

 

[awilson500]

I'm looking to start a Refugium for my 55gal. I made the fuge out of a 30 gal my question is if I have a skimmer built in to the fuge do I need more filtration?