what is a pod popluation

[markvanderwoude]

pod popluations?...can you add them to a tank

[Sk8r]

There are 3 kinds of pods---aquariumwise.
They're little crustaceans.
Isopods---not good. You rarely run into them.
Copepods: delicious, if you're a fish.
Amphiphods: bigger, more shrimplike. You'll rarely see them except scurrying across your sand by flashlight. Also delicious.

They feed on floating algae, the sort that mucks up your glass and rocks and sand. The more of them the merrier.

The problem is, most fish will eat them, and some of the very fish and starfish that will help you clean your sand will wipe them out.

So you can make 1) a refugium, a 'fuge, which is a protected area, sometimes a separate tank, sometimes a hang-on, sometimes an area of your sump, where you have weed, light, and pods. Or you can 2) build a rubble pile in your tank, a heap of rock and coral bits too heavy for fish to move and too narrow for them to get into all the way. In either case, you can feed phytoplankton to jumpstart pod reproduction.

Certain fish [dragonettes: mandarins and scooter 'blennies'] eat pods to the exclusion of just about everything else. One of them eating all day long every day can really dent your pod population.

So you may supplement pods. You can do this by: getting DT's Phyto or Phytofeast from Reed [there are others] and feeding it to let the ones you have multiply...and you can buy pods in a bottle from online sources. I buy 'tiggerpods', a somewhat larger red copepod, for my spoiled mandarin. Ideally you do all of the above. Investigate: DT's and Reef Nutrition, 2 of our sponsors.

My observation is that having abundant pods means a healthy tank, and it seems also to cut down on the amount of algae growing in your tank.

HTH.

[markvanderwoude]

well I'm close.. I am using DT's phyto can i build a rubble pile behind the lr on the back side of the tank and can I put some of that grass behind the lr also thanks

Sk8r you respond to so many threads...thats great you are alot of help

[Sk8r]

I fear that the grass would escape within the tank and become a problem on its own, but yes, regarding the rubble pile, set it exactly as you say. The grass would be mostly to keep your hair algae growth down, but has a side benefit of sheltering pods. Your rubble pile will serve the same function as far as the pods are concerned, so just do that alone, within the display tank. Pods breed where rock meets sand, so that gives them not only a shelter, but a breeding ground.

Thanks for the kind words. I enjoy setting up tanks. I enjoy reading about people making their systems work, often down paths I didn't quite take; and sometimes there are problems I've met before, so I'm happy to pass it on.

[markvanderwoude]

where can i find that rubble? and can i take a small peice of lr and break it up

[Sk8r]

Sure: either visit your lfs and ask if they've got any bits and pieces of lr [down in the bottom of the curing tank, usually,] or dead specimens, or just buy a piece of branch coral, set it on a cloth [so you can get all the bits easily] and take a hammer to it. Ideal pieces are about thumb-sized, some smaller. Old shells, etc. everything can go into the pile. Try not to get raw coral or rock, since it will turn green and possibly grow over with hair algae, which is just a nuisance, but usually as your tank ages, it's just a green sheen, not a full-blown cloud of hair. If you can't find that, you might get a pound of nano rock online, though that's probably overkill.

[bertoni]

Only a few species of isopod are dangerous. The others are fine to have.

What kind of "grass" are you considering?

I agree that DT's and Phyto-Feast should help feed all the small crustaceans in the tank.

[markvanderwoude]

ok I will order nano rubble right away... will twenty pounds be enough and can i put some in my sump?

[markvanderwoude]

With this live stock list will the sumpturned into a fuge and rubble pile be enough? And can i use my sump as a ok size fuge?

1 yellow tang, 6 green brittle stars, 1 purple lobster, 1 sail fin tang, 1 coral bueaty, 3 damsils, 2 lg sand sifting stars aprox 5 inches each, 1 true percula clown, 1, 5 inch brain coral, 1 lg green flower pot coral, misc ployps, 1 feather duster, 35 mexican hermit crabs, 3 cleaner shrimp, 2 peperment shrimp, 2 crabs I can't find and identify????, 1 electric flame scalop, 1, 6 inch tounge coral, 1 yellow finger Gorgonian, 1 torch coral, 1 orange soft coral and i don't know what that is?...1 clam,1 blue bali sea fan, kupang live rock,


SORRY, I HAVE LOTS OF QUESTIONS..TO BE ANSWERED THANKS

[Sk8r]

I think ten should do it, easy. You'll have some left for your fuge, and yes, it will be a good fuge...counting mine is working and I'm using the downflow chamber of my sump, which is, amazingly, growing cheato, acting as a prefilter, supporting pods, and generally keeping pretty well organized, never mind that a mini-Niagara pounds down into it.

Nothing you've got eats pods too well. Watch the lobster---mandarins are pretty oblivious to all but their quest for pods, and I'd hate to see him nipped. Your others should be fine with a mandarin---except the unidentified crabs, which I hope are not too bad. [note: softies sometimes inhibit growth of stonies: put that fellow near the water exit to keep him from breathing on the stonies.]

HTH---

[markvanderwoude]

the crabs only come out at night..and they eat the sea weed i put out for the tangs? also what do you mean by...[note: softies sometimes inhibit growth of stonies: put that fellow near the water exit to keep him from breathing on the stonies.]

[Sk8r]

Softies [your soft coral] give off chemical exudates that make sure nothing grows up against them. Stonies [like your tongue coral, etc] really don't like to be the recipient of that stuff. I used to have a leather coral [a softie] that would get annoyed and turn purple. Pretty soon every mushroom in the tank would close up and start spitting: this is what you call an 'aggressive' softie. Some people try to run combined tanks of aggressive softies and stony coral and then can't figure why their stonies never grow, or sometimes just RTN [go bare] and die. If you have a leather or softie, if you position it near where water flows out of the tank, the water has a chance to be skimmed and cleaned up before it gets back to the tank to blow onto the stony coral. If your soft coral throws a real snit, run carbon in a stocking [in the sump] and that will take the chemical out of the water.

The fact your crabs are eating weed probably means that's what they eat, which is good: they're less likely to aggress against fish.

[markvanderwoude]

I do run two baseball sized carbon socks in the sump. When I put together a fuge in my sump what is all the things I will need in it?

[The Saltwater Kid]

Which Isopods are bad, any pics? My tank is loaded with pods, I have tons of them on the glass, liverock and sand bed. I have very little algae growth too. When my tank was cycling I had an outbreak of hair algae but my snails seem to have taken care of it and I haven't seen any evidence of it recurring.

[markvanderwoude]

no i dont even know where to begin to even find a pic of an isopod let me know if you do

[Sk8r]

Try: saltcorner.com/sections/zoo/inverts
or before that, go to the newbie forum on RC and get the sticky that talks about hundreds of things id'ed. That's a really, really good post.