question for optimal pod farming

i have been running my POD farm at about 1.024-5 at 79*. Is that optimal? Any suggestions on these?

From what I could gather online, these are great numbers, but I have also read they prefer 75*... so wanted to get ya'lls input. I want to run it optimally.



Also,

I have dosed my tank now by leaving the sponge in the DT for about 15 minutes maybe 4 or 5 times.

A few hours after lights out, I have put a flashlight in one spot for 10 minutes and came back. In that spot, I could see a ton of copepods swimming around, very thick. Other than that, I do not ever see them.

Is that to be expected with copepod populations?

I can see amphipods at any point of night scurrying everywhere.

I think I might be at a good point to start looking for a small mandarin (male). I do not have a point of comparison in my experience to really know what a good population of copepods looks like. The adjectives used to express their density are rather subjective I think. I am in no mood to jump the gun on getting this fish... that is why I ask.

Or do you guys see them all the time everywhere? Want to make sure tank is ready for mandarin before I get one. Or even start searching for the optimal specimen

Also, I pretty much never give them light... The farm is 90% of time in the dark.
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I've been doing some research into starting a pod farm myself to keep my mandarin better fed. According to the companies I contacted, they say to keep the SG and temp of the breeding tank the same as your DT. That way there will be no transition/stress when you move the pods to the DT. So I plan to keep my pod farm at 79F, 1.025.

Quick question - do you dose live phyto, or non-live? I have some premium phyto-feast (non-live) and wondering if that will be ok?

 

I dose DT live Phyto twice a week and feed crumbled up flakes twice a week too. Seems to work... I haven't tried anything else...

still looking for experienced answers for my earlier questions...

 

I had a tank o' crap that I used as a rescue tank for things people should have never purchased. I.e. non-photosynethic gorgonians, crinoids (feather stars), pom pom tunicates, scallops, black corals, etc.

I didn't care what the glass looked like and I fed fairly heavy with live phyto, flake, the smallest micron golden pearls, etc. I suspect I could have used dead phyto too but I never tried it.

This tank had copepods, amphipods, and isopods out the whazoo. I didn't see the copepods during the day but they were in there in huge numbers. It was actually a fun tank. I had breeding population of strombus and stomatella snails that kept the glass and rocks clean. I had chitons and limpets doing the same thing. I don't know if they were breeding or if I just had a lot of them.

 

do you recall what temp and SG you kept that tank at Inwall?

 

I hardly ever see copes. Hardly ever saw them when I had my farm as well.

I second trying to keep it at the same level as the DT. That's what I always did. Minimal stress when you just grab 'em out and throw them in the tank.

 

It would have been 77 to 78 degrees at 1.025 to 1.026. That was because I had no filtration in that tank. When I did my water change on my 75 softy tank, the dirty water I removed became the "clean" new water for "rescue tank".

 

Thanks... they're doing well... I guess. No real point of comparison... just not sure if I'm getting the most out of it that I could.

The reason the Salt is 1.025 in this (vs 1.027 in DT) is bc the airstone causes bubbles that pop that put salt all over the bucket. I have since added a saran wrap top, but the SG has steadily dropped...

So I started adding saltwater to at least maintain 25... I guess I'll raise it to match DT... makes sense. thanks everyone. Sounds like I'm really doing all that is necessary.