Question about Refugiums

Ok, I am wanting ot pick up a mandarin fish.
Right now I have 40 lbs. LS and 60-70 lbs LR.
I have tons of copepods but i know once I put the mandarin in there their population will decline fast.
So what I was wondering is if I could get a fish breeder box that goes inside your tank and use that as a refugium? I could get some chaeto and LR rubble to put in their and would that work in keeping the pod population stable.

The breeder is only about 6 in long, 4 in wide, and 4 in deep (just guessing)
would something like this work or would it not be big enough?

 

i dont think it would work, this idea is similar to copepod rock safe haves, in which you take multiple piles of lr rubble and stack them in piles around the tank, fish can get in these, personally i think this only works in larger tanks. i dont think one of those boxs is enough, youd probably need a whole bunch

but you could try culturing them in a seperate tank. missionsix did this i think


edit: im guessing your tank size based on live rock load, im thinking like 40-50 gallons

 

it's a 55 gallon tank

the fish couldn't get into the breeder box but I just didn't know if it would be big enough.
what would be the minimum size you would recommend if I were to do this? like make one myself?
I rather have it in take as my tank isn't drilled and I don't want to mess with an overflow box.

also if i were to just start them in like a 10 gal tank. would they need their own filtration or do they need filtration? what about lights? and powerheads and heater?

 

i would i would say atleast the equivalent of 5 gallons of space, since most fuges are supposed to be 10% of dt, if i remember correctly.

filtration could probably just be a airstone, i would recommend some chaeto growing in it so they have a home, so just enough lighting to grow the cheato 20 watts. i would have a heater, just a cheap walmart one that keeps the tank around 78 degrees , you would need to feed them something too i think

this guy knows more about it i think http://www.3reef.com/forums/members/missionsix.html

 

ok thanks