Amphipods/Copepods in sump/fuge question.

Well to start off Ive have converted a little compartment in my wet/dry for pods/lr rumble/mangroves and chaeto.. Well I havent been seeing a big copepods population on my glass in my Dt as normal. yes my goby is eating.. but I decide to take a look down under my DT tonite for the first time to see whats up. when I dose pods the first time a month ago, there were a few amphipods in the batch. now when I just shined my light down there I see those amphipods darting around my LR rumble/mangrove roots having a party. even seen 2 of them either wrestling each over or making out.. my questions are:

1. if I have a good amphipod population down in the sump does that mean my copepods are very populated down there as well? amphipods eating my copepods? hard for me to see them copepods down there. i.e. dirty arcylic

2.I try to shake a ball of chaeto from my sump into the DT every few days to get some goodness in there. I've yet to see any amphipods falling out of the chaeto ball. should I take some rocks out of my sump and shake them in my DT as thats where Im seeing them tonite in the rocks not in the floating chaeto mat a couple inches directly above.

thanks. p.s. it's kinda kool to crawl under my stand and see those things darting around with a flashlight, lets me know there some life down there.. just need to get some of it in my DT.

 

ok, well I happen to just throw out my used blue floss/filter pad that I use in the drip tray. I'll cut up a few 2x2" pieces and place it under my chaeto on top of my lr love nest. thanks for the info. I was wondering why my last order of pods came with 2 of those in the bag. fyi: I did see copepods down there just now. they were on some white rocks running around.

Im going to try 2 other things as well.

only run my skimmer 12hrs a day instead of 24/7, just because it overflows into that compartment and causes to much water current.

and run filter-less, I was only running a drip-tray filter prior but I think thats killing pods that are going through my overflow box.?

thanks, and this drinks on me.

 

well I put some mysis shrimp down in my fuge area with my lr rumble tonite. really never put whole food down there only pythoplankton or rotifers.. well within seconds I could see amphipods swarming these mysis shrimps.. I guess I need to start putting more food down there.. prettty neat to watch those little guys, their quite agressive. seen a amphipods carry a mysis shrimp (its same size) and bolt into a little hole in the rock rumble. lol

 

I'm gonna have to try mysis in my refugium. I like looking at my sump for critters. The other night I saw a four legged starfish in there. It was whitish with stumpy legs. I hope it isn't a pest.

 

yea give it a try. I just dumped some down there earlier. I put maybe 10 mysis shrimps down there, didnt want to over do it.

 

Yeah, pods are crazy to watch sometimes. I have a very large population of pods in my tank, and within probably 5 seconds of a flake or pellet touching the substrate, a pod will snatch it and take it under or sometimes a few of them pounce on it, and they put on a show fighting for the food haha. Very interesting to look at close up.