Pod replenishing
 

Hi, I have a 75 gallon with 72lbs live rock. Just cycled, no fish yet. I really want a to get a mandarin eventually. I have been looking at cultivating pods for it and I'm trying to plan out an aesthetically pleasing method of replenishing the tank (I don't have a sump to use as a refugium and I don't really like the HOB refugiums either so I'lll go the separate cultivating container route). My issue is that I find that the plastic pod condos stuffed with chaeto are ugly, and the live rock rubble inside a DIY gutter guard holder seems practical but it's also ugly in the DT. I see people saying they just hide it behind a bigger pile of live rock which I wouldn't mind but doesn't that mean I wouldn't see my mandarin much either? Wouldn't he just hover around the pod condo all the time? I'm wondering what the actual purpose of the gutter guard is. Does it help keep the pods from getting eaten too quickly or does it just serve to hold the rubble? Could I just swap a nice chunk of live rock without gutter guard back and forth from cultivation tank to the display instead?

I have a 1.5 gal downflow setup

closeup

That is pretty cool. Would love to have something like that if I could find a way to manage it. Makes a really nice display fuge.

It's a nice set up but I don't want a fuge, right now anyway. No space. I just want to know if swapping plan old LR from a pod tank works or if I actually need to make a "condo" to get a good amount of pods into the DT.

Consider swapping out some of your existing live rock for Marco rock. It is very holey, and gives plenty of hiding spots to maintain a very healthy pod population. Your fish will not be able to get in and decimate the population. Based on surface area to weight ratio I also believe that it has to be one of the best types of rock out there for bacterial colonization and live rock filters.

Great idea thanks!

You could grab a few medium-larger size rocks that are aesthetically pleasing to you and you can rotate them into and out of your tank in various places that would be ideal for viewing, leave them in for 2-3 days and then rotate them back to your propagation tank and rotate a different piece or two in etc.

When you put the pod seeded rocks into your tank the pods will start spreading fairly quickly. If you do it at night they can usually take refuge in various other rocks and be protected. So when your mandarin is feeding he will still be searching around on all of the rocks so no worries there!

There is a wealth of knowledge on this species around these forums, I always give props to Paul B and a great feeding method he has come up with. Take a look: http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2253223

Good luck, they are a beautifully rewarding fish to keep!

That's really cool.

How does it feed the DT?

I know you said down flow. Do you switch a pump on and suck them down.

It's probably gravity fed like an overflow box is.

So will that be enough to suck the pods down.

I'm actually starting a refugium in the morning. Cheato pods etc...

It will be in the middle chamber of my sump and to the RT is my return pump. Flow goes from LT to RT.

Will they migrate to the DT, by getting sucked over into the return pump.

Excellent, I will do just that. Thanks a lot :)

I run a 75g sump with about 40g designated fuge on the right hand side. So the sump is in a skimmer > return < fuge set up. My fuge is low flow. I use it to propagate my pods and have a safe place for them while some slowly make it into the return chamber. That being said, if the pods make it from sump > DT in my system with my sump set up this way, yours will absolutely make it to your DT in that configuration. You may have more difficulty keeping them in your fuge than getting them into the display.

Not a problem, good luck to you!

If you were wanting to purchase pods where would be the best place to buy. I have heard a lot of negative comments from reefs to go.

As far as supplying homes for pods to thrive, could your take some "good" looking rock, then take a drill bit to it?
I think 1/16" would do nicely.

That sounds like a good idea to me

interesting read

Ok thx, yeah my sump is high flow. I put a baseball size piece of cheato, and it's tumbling like crazy. I'll probably have issues keeping pods in there until the cheato triples in size.

Here are some more negative comments: IMO, they are inept; they respond to customer emails with belligerent emails demanding that the customer stop sending them emails . . . I could go on and on and on, but don't want to further highjack the thread.

Ok that's awesome