Is my skimmer killing my copepods?

[Deweys Dad]

I just setup my 90gal that has a custom made fuge from my LFS. I'm starting to wonder why they chose to place the macro chamber upstrem from the skimmer. Won't the skimmer dispose of many of the good things that the fuge is producing (amphipods, copepods, etc)? If the impeller doesn't chop them up, won't most of them end up in the collection cup? This LFS has been making these systems for a long time so I have to figure they know what they're doing, but it doesn't make sense to me.

[Yam]

IMO, its insignificant. I've never seen copepods in my collection cup.

[Deweys Dad]

Hmm...I always thought that even if they were in there I wouldn't see them. Aren't they extremely small and almost clear?

[Sk8r]

I stopped worrying when my Sea Swirl spat out an amphipod of large size: it splatted against the bowfront glass in front of a startled firefish, fell to the sandbed, scrambled off, and hid in a cave.

If that fat thing could get past my skimmer intake and through a Mag 9.5 return pump AND a Sea Swirl, I've stopped worrying about the virtually invisible copepods.

[Deweys Dad]

If that fat thing could get past my skimmer intake and through a Mag 9.5 return pump AND a Sea Swirl, I've stopped worrying about the virtually invisible copepods.

It's the smaller ones I'm worried about (which are probably the majority of them). I've been worried that they are the ones that will attach to the bubbles in the skimmer and end up in the cup.

[Sk8r]

Well, I do feed phyto to the tank and the sump/fuge, and my mandarin is busy all day long, so either the tank is producing enough [52gal, 6 mos. old] or the fuge is getting them upstairs.