Questions on my fuge

I setup my HOB refugium last week and transferred my chaeto and few pieces of LR rubble from my temporary fuge I made out of an old HOB filter. I put in a 4 inch sand bed threw in a new batch of Tisbe pods to keep my pod population going.

The flow through the refugium is more on the mellow side, not enough to tumble my chaeto. I hear that's good for a pop population, but the problem is all of my detritus is settling in the fuge. I did a water test yesterday and my nitrates are finally at 0! They've always hovered just below 20 no matter what I did.

My questions are:
1. Does chaeto have to tumble?

2. Should I be worried about the detritus settling in the fuge? If I took a syphon to it, I'm sure I would suck out a lot of pods which is not what I want to do. I've been sticking filter floss at the end of my intake pipe, but it definitely doesn't catch everything.

 

what can happen as it grows is that the chaeto on the bottom won't get enough light. if you can reach it, just physically turn it over once a week. i personally wouldn't be worried about the detritus.

 

Chaeto doesn't have to tumble. Mine doesn't just try to turn it every day or two. I wouldn't worry about the detritus to much, if it gets real bad then siphon. Im not sure what pods eat, just know I have tons of them. They might eat detritus so as your pop increases it might stay cleaner.

 

Your pods will feed on the detritus, which can spark higher reproduction rates.

 

If you want, you could mod a spray bar across the top of the fuge.

 

Awesome, I was just turning it every few days when it was in my temp fuge, I'll keep doing that. I'll also keep an eye on the detritus. Thanks for the quick replies.

Another question for you guys. How do pod populations diversify without us adding them in ourselves? I originally added tigger pods and then added tisbe. When I was looking in the fuge, I noticed larger pods scurrying around. No idea where they came from.

 

Could you describe/get a pic?
Could be amphipods which will eat your copepod population.

 

I lost my camera in the move I think, so I have to use my phone. It's hard to see, but its on the top rim of the heater, left side.

If I could describe it, I would say it looks like a cockroach. Flat and has two longer antennae.

 

more than likely, it is an amphipod. if you added live rock, they were probably hitchhikers. i didn't know they ate copepods.