2 ?'s -- pods and dust-like substance in tank

[euphoricgear]

hi just wanted to know what pods are and how to grow/purchase them.

what can i benefit from them?

and my tank seem to have these dust-like substance on them, on rocks and sand and i dont know what to do with them. just siphon it out or just leave them alone.

thanks in advanced

[kelrn98]

"pods" are actually copepods or amphipods. they are tiny creatures (mine look like white specs on the glass) that eat detrius matter. Some fish such as mandarins are reliant upon them for food and often will only eat them. You can purchase pods from various online stores. However if you have LR they are probably already there. They multiply like crazy in the safety of a refugium with cheato (macroalgae). You can boost their population by dosing your tank with phytoplankton at night. As far as the "dust" you are referring to, I don't know. I have a new tank and often there is debris on the rocks, I syphon it off when doing water changes, just because I don't like the way it looks.

[TekCat]

ditto

[euphoricgear]

do i turn off my protein skimmer when i put the phtoplankton? so the pods are the ones that look like fleas or something like that but smaller right?

thanks

[TekCat]

right, amphipods look like tiny shrimp-like creatures; copepods look even smaller :)

When feeding phythoplankton it is generally recommended to turn off skimmer for 30min - 2 hours, so critters have something to eat before skimmer pulls it out.