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View Full Version : Just added chaeto to my refugium; when can I add pods?

Meglovin
08/18/2013, 11:04 PM
The LFS only had a little bit of chaeto left ($2 worth, so its about half a handful.) I made a refugium in my BioCube and the chaeto definitely isn't as much as I'd like to eventually have.

I have tigger pods sitting in the fridge, but my question is when can I add them to the refugium? Do I wait until I have more chaeto? I feel like, right now, they will just fall out of the chaeto and below into the next "section" of filtration (which is a bag of SeaGel). How do you keep the copepods in the chaeto?
ANFPO
08/18/2013, 11:29 PM
I would say if you think they'll stay in the small chaeto ball without floating away, go ahead and add them now. But if they're just gonna be swept away by the flow, add them when the cheato is more densely grown. Having said that, I have never seeded my chaeto with any pods and the ones that already come on it and from your live rock multiply really fast. It does take some patience.
Meglovin
08/18/2013, 11:43 PM
Excellent, I'll wait until I get more then (hopefully tomorrow.)

I rinsed the chaeto off with fresh water (as per the advice of my LFS) because I found a small worm in the algae. I assumed that many of the pods would have been rinsed away in the process.
PaulieReef
08/19/2013, 01:14 AM
Excellent, I'll wait until I get more then (hopefully tomorrow.)

I rinsed the chaeto off with fresh water (as per the advice of my LFS) because I found a small worm in the algae. I assumed that many of the pods would have been rinsed away in the process.

Was it a brittle worm? They can be good if they don't get too big.
joshPensacola
08/19/2013, 02:03 AM
I think buying pods is a scam.... you already have them in your tank unless everything you have done has been completely sterile. Get a flashlight with a red lens and look around your tank at night. I'm sure you will see some
Wmich2008
08/19/2013, 12:54 PM
I agree, if you have enough rock and a healthy tank you should have pods. Also usually when you buy cheato it should have pods in it. I have a "pod pile" in my tank to help them breed in relative safety.
mm949
08/19/2013, 01:57 PM
pods need algae and dirt to survive, would wait a few months.