Just got Mandarin!

i actually have a seperate 10gal setup running for a couple days with water from my main and some rock just incase i need to quarantine something. Cant i just throw some chaeto with buncha pods from my fuge in the 10 gal and have a little breeding population that i can skim whenever theres a need? I kinda thought about that before, good thing you guys brought it up.

 

Does not need to be that involved at all. All they need is shelter, water, and food. I do mine in a 5 gallon bucket. Bucket has a heater, thermometer, airstone, and sponges for shelter. Thats it. No lights, no macro, no tank. Feed it every 2-3 days. I have about 20 bucks into it.

 

haha, thats propper, ima make it happen!

How often do you change the water in the bucket?

 

I do it the same time when I do the DT - every 2 weeks. I fill it with the water I'm taking out of the DT as well.

 

also what do you feed? and how much?

 

Rotifers/phyto, and a little bit of the regular fish food every now and again. Just a little

 

This is probably a dumb question but how do the pods get from the refugium to the main tank ? I can't believe they make it through the impeller on the return pump and still survive the trip ? Just wondering .

 

If they dont make it through the impeller then they dont get to main. I think some of them make it though especailly small ones. I siffon some every couple weeks off of the front glass of the fuge before i clean it and dump them in the main to make sure a healthy pod population exists in main. Iv wanted to do a test with different pumps to see which kills the smallest amount of pods. Pumping 10gallons full of pods from one tank to another and seeing how many are still alive. I will do that test in the near future. If anyone knows about someone else having done that already please let me know!

 

Some will make it. I know some of mine make round trips through the filter and skimmer. You could also take a clump of chaeto or whatever else they are using for shelter and give it a good shaking in the main tank

 

When I get my new tank going I guess I need to get some kind of fish or something that eats them . I was standing at my tank this morning waiting on the lights to come on and when they did my rocks and the back side of the tank was crawling with them . Hundreds of the little critters heading for cover .