Which Pods?

Mark_C · Nov 30, 2019

Mark, gimme a call, I'll split a big order with you.

Maybe the club should look into this as the next big group order if theres enough interest?

diana a · Dec 3, 2019

Placed an order yesterday and choice 2-3 day free shipping. What a surprise to get them delivered today!

Mark Shelly · Dec 3, 2019

I got tigre pods from last Year's Jackson meeting. This is an early morning picture of the side of my glass. I like to let the algae grow on one glass wall (usually the back) so they and snails have something they can eat. Typically you want the pods that are benthic and crawl in and around the rocks and glass vs. those that go free swimming at night, as they can get filtered out. Copepods help keep the red slime algae at bay. Too much slime algae and the toxins they release can kill the pods. But if you can keep it broken up, your pod population can explode as they did here. Note the tiny skinny pods as well which I didn't even see until I looked at the photo. I always end up with amphipods in my socks and see them in my sump, so they can go both ways. Copepods are not easy to see in the socks. I will sometimes turn a freshly used sock inside out in a seed tank that I keep live rock in to kelp see them as well.

Sponge · Dec 3, 2019

Mark Shelly said:
I got tigre pods from last Year's Jackson meeting. This is an early morning picture of the side of my glass. I like to let the algae grow on one glass wall (usually the back) so they and snails have something they can eat. Typically you want the pods that are benthic and crawl in and around the rocks and glass vs. those that go free swimming at night, as they can get filtered out. Copepods help keep the red slime algae at bay. Too much slime algae and the toxins they release can kill the pods. But if you can keep it broken up, your pod population can explode as they did here. Note the tiny skinny pods as well which I didn't even see until I looked at the photo. I always end up with amphipods in my socks and see them in my sump, so they can go both ways. Copepods are not easy to see in the socks. I will sometimes turn a freshly used sock inside out in a seed tank that I keep live rock in to kelp see them as well.

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Love the info and pic. I plumbed my refugium beyond socks or cups. It’s the last tank in line before the return in hopes to loose less of them thru filtration. And give strays a better chance of getting to the display. (As I imagine most people do). Of course that won’t help those that leave the main display via surface skimmer but they never seem to make it up there anyway.
Do you feed your pods. And if so. How often. I ordered pods last night because although I do have them. They have never exploded or multiplied to level I want. I do dose dead phytoplankton about every other day but haven’t seen an appreciable increase. Any advice to help them really grab hold b

diana a · Dec 4, 2019

Mark_C said:
...

Maybe the club should look into this as the next big group order if theres enough interest?

i am always interested in buying pods from algaebarn. You can never have too many pods

Mark Shelly · Dec 4, 2019

Sponge said:
Do you feed your pods. And if so. How often. I ordered pods last night because although I do have them. They have never exploded or multiplied to level I want. I do dose dead phytoplankton about every other day but haven’t seen an appreciable increase. Any advice to help them really grab hold b

I don't feed the pods. Feeding phytoplankton to me is counterproductive; it feeds the free-swimming copepods which will get filtered out along with the phytoplankton. I probably overfeed my fish. And I always mix in small food particles when I do. I have a sand sifting diamond goby and a yellow wrasse that will constantly feed on pods they see, so I don't usually see the amphipods during the day. But they are active at night and in my sump. I do keep a large piece of red pipe organ coral in my tank on the sand that offers plenty of pod hiding places and places for food to get trapped. I also don't tend to blast my rocks all that often unless it looks like algae is starting.
Lastly, I don't like to use super clean live rock for starting a tank. It takes too long to get is as true live rock. When I started my latest tank, I moved over many pieces from my last tank and only brushed clean the used live rock I had obtained from other people. And I kept it in moving saltwater for a while first to allow the bacteria to get established on what was in and on the rock. Used live rock right from another tank brings over the pods, food in the rock, worms, snails, sponges, and even pests. The old dirty rock had initial algae growth which went away over time, but out competed diatoms. But the tank quickly adjusted and I was successfully able to add a starfish about a month in. I like having some algae in the tank as that is normal in the ocean.
This seams to have worked well for my tank that has mostly soft corals, sponges, fish and anemones in it. It probably wouldn't work as well is a SPS or LPS dominant tank.

Sponge · Dec 4, 2019

Mark Shelly said:
I don't feed the pods. Feeding phytoplankton to me is counterproductive; it feeds the free-swimming copepods which will get filtered out along with the phytoplankton. I probably overfeed my fish. And I always mix in small food particles when I do. I have a sand sifting diamond goby and a yellow wrasse that will constantly feed on pods they see, so I don't usually see the amphipods during the day. But they are active at night and in my sump. I do keep a large piece of red pipe organ coral in my tank on the sand that offers plenty of pod hiding places and places for food to get trapped. I also don't tend to blast my rocks all that often unless it looks like algae is starting.
Lastly, I don't like to use super clean live rock for starting a tank. It takes too long to get is as true live rock. When I started my latest tank, I moved over many pieces from my last tank and only brushed clean the used live rock I had obtained from other people. And I kept it in moving saltwater for a while first to allow the bacteria to get established on what was in and on the rock. Used live rock right from another tank brings over the pods, food in the rock, worms, snails, sponges, and even pests. The old dirty rock had initial algae growth which went away over time, but out competed diatoms. But the tank quickly adjusted and I was successfully able to add a starfish about a month in. I like having some algae in the tank as that is normal in the ocean.
This seams to have worked well for my tank that has mostly soft corals, sponges, fish and anemones in it. It probably wouldn't work as well is a SPS or LPS dominant tank.

Awesome info. Thank you very much

Mark_C · Dec 4, 2019

I've got some pods multipliying in a bucket. Picked up a bottle of 500+ a few weeks back, filled 2g with 1.023-4ish water, dumped the pods in. LEft them out in the chilly back hall.
I used common spirulina powder (human sourced from amazon) to keep the tank light green in color as food.
Tank started to smell swampy (spirulina is a swamp plant) so tonight I filtered out the pods and dropped them into a clean bucket.
I'd say the population has easily doubled.

Sponge · Dec 4, 2019

Mark_C said:
I've got some pods multipliying in a bucket. Picked up a bottle of 500+ a few weeks back, filled 2g with 1.023-4ish water, dumped the pods in. LEft them out in the chilly back hall.
I used common spirulina powder (human sourced from amazon) to keep the tank light green in color as food.
Tank started to smell swampy (spirulina is a swamp plant) so tonight I filtered out the pods and dropped them into a clean bucket.
I'd say the population has easily doubled.

That’s awesome