Can Copepods survive a return pump?

Can Tisbe biminiensis survive a trip on a return pump?

I'm thinking of growing these guys in my Auto Top Off. I would have to be careful with the salinity on the main tank but I think adjusting salinity carefully with my weekly 15% water changes will work. I use a well calibrated refractometer.

There is an elegance to this solution since the main tank will be continuously dosed with copepods (Tisbe biminiensis) for my ORA Dragonette on a regular basis automatically as long as I keep that population alive. The ATO tank would be a 10 gallon or 5.5 gallon reservoir with a SG of 1.22. I'll either use large sponges or live rock. Whenever I refill the ATO, I'll dose it with some flakes and pellets.

Being ATO means that I will be refreshing the water weekly with my water change. It kind of sounds perfect.

 

You should have RO water in your ATO not premixed salt water. If you add salty water to cover your evaporative losses the salt level in your tank will rise. Only water is evaporating, not salt. So for that reason I wouldn't put pods in your ATO.

 

Your ATO needs to be FRESH water.
PURE RO/DI water if you can.

Salt does not evaporate so as you water evaporates, the salinity will rise.
That is why you need to "top off" to keep the salinity at your desired level.

 

If you want a pod production farm for a mandarin get a hang on refugium or make a fuge section in your sump or you can do a hang on fuge for the sump.

 

Yup, I realize that you put RODI water in your ATO.

However, I think if I shoot for a target of 1.24-1.26 SG for my main tank and use 1.20 in my ATO Copepod tank, I can still keep the main tank at 1.26 during my water changes by using slightly lower SG for the water change.

I realize salinity will slowly rise in the main display tank but the water change should bring it back down.

 

For stability's sake I wouldn't do this. Your method of using your water change to lower the salt to normal levels will be problematic. Your going to have to purposely mix your water to a level lower than you want your tank and then do a guess and check with your refractometer until your tank is at the level you desire. It's more work than I would be interested in doing every week. Fatbastad has the right idea, IMO, a hang on back fuge would work better.

 

I think trying to reset your Salinity would be more trouble than it's worth and wouldn't keep the system as stable as you'd like.

I think you'd be better off having the Pod farm seperate completely, then manually adding pods on a regular basis. Or just add your pod farm as a fuge (which, then allows you to add macro algae which in turn adds even more benefits to your tank)

 

I'm talking about a Solana AIO with an inTank upgrade. I suppose I could just seed pods into the chaeto chamber but I don't think they'd thrive there or get to the main display tank area very well.

I would go with the HOB fuge route but the Solana AIO keeps the chamber water level about mid level with the tank in order to keep the display area consistent. I would have to hang it on side which is kind of ugly.

I suppose though messing with salinity every week will get tiresome and probably dangerous if I screw up a simple operation. Pod farm in a couple soda bottles is probably the way to go.

 

I'd seed it directly into the chaeto chamber. You'd probably have to do it fairly regularly as the mandarin would eat plenty, but I am sure that you wouldn't have problems with them going to the main tank, assuming you added a lot (or you could seed both the chaeto chamber, which is basically a minifuge I'd guess, and the display. This would give your fish some instant snacks while keeping some in the tank to reproduce).

I've never tried them, but there are also some in-tank "pod condo's" (I don't want to link to another forum, but google "Aquarium Pod Condo" and you should find it) that basically act as extra, guarded, intank pod breeding ground.

 

Thanks, will look into that Condo!

There is a bright underwater light inside the Chaeto chamber and I can't directly feed the chamber so I'm worried about that. There's also constant heavy flow (upgraded the return pump) in the area.