Breeding pods

[skimjim]

I have a 180g reef that is 3mos old. I want to seed my huge LR of dead-branching coral with pods.

Here is what I plan to do, and need everyone's input on if it's the correct way:

> start with a 3-5gal clear container that I can pickup at Walmart or wherever. one that has a screwtop lid
> drill two holes in the lid. one for air-release. one to fish the airstone down into
> find two LRs already in my system that are the same size AND can fit inside the clear container
> fill the container with SW from my tank and place the first LR and airstone in the container
> put all the pods i buy in the container
> i'm NOT sure if i need a light source, like 5k-6k led bulb from HD or Lowes
> with the pods, SW, LR and airstone.... feed the container some finely grounded fish food once or twice a week
> after about 4-6 weeks, take the LR out and leave behind in the container 50-100 pods....put that pulled LR in my 180g
> do a 50% water change in the clear container using SW from my tank
> the 2nd LR that was in my 180g, i MOVE over to the container to start breeding again
> once the 2nd rock has been breeding pods for 4-6 weeks, start the whole process all over again rotating LRs
> keep LR1 and LR2 rotating back and forth for as long as I want to do it. with 50% water changes done to the breeding container at the time of LR transfers

Does this sound like a solid plan? Anything I'm missing? Anything you want to add or subtract?

[MondoBongo]

there are lots of articles on culturing pods. typically you will also need to culture, or buy, phyto along with them, as that is their primary food source.

you may also want to pick up some fine micron sieves, and ditch the live rock in favor of something else.

here are a few articles:

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2003/2/breeder
http://www.brineshrimpdirect.com/c90/Raising-Live-Rotifers-Copepods-c199.html

fyi, brine shrimp direct sells some nice sieve sets.

[vikubz]

Do you have a sump or refugium? Get a big handful of chaeto from someone with an older tank. This will probably have plenty of pods to start your tank. As long as there are no pod eaters in your tank, like wrasses, mandarins or similar, you will have lots of pods in a couple months.

[zeebies]

What works for me is the following: I have 4 shallow culture vessels that each hold about 1/2 gallon of saltwater. I seeded these tanks with Tisbe pods. I have no aeration, have the lids propped halfway open, and aim a CFL bulb at all four tanks during the day.

I'm doing some experimentation, so... two culture vessels have heaters set at 78F, two have no heaters and stay around 60F. For feeding, two vessels get phytoplankton and two get pieces of algae sheet and some flake food a couple times a week.

What I've noticed is that the heated vessel that gets flake/algae is the best producing set-up so far.

When it's time for me to feed the DT, I just suck up some pods with a turkey baster and squirt them through a brine shrimp sieve. At night, when lights are off, I squirt them in the rocks where they can hide and reproduce.

I change culture water once every 2 months, only with new salt water. Don't use DT water because you might bring in bacteria that will mess with your culture.

If you keep a culture like this, you'll always have pods available.