OK so I got a 2.5 gallon Toy aquarium with a HOB little filter and a light. My plans are to fill it with the sand in my tank, a couple of pieces of LR from my tank, some Macro Algea and my tank water and pour a bottle of Tiggerpods from ReefNutrition into the tank. I'll be feeding them some sort of Phytofood. Is there anthing I should do or know before I get started? Will this work for a breeding environment for the Copepods?
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2.5 gallon Copepod Tank
- Thread starter MikeNapoli
- Start date
thats a cool idea never though of that
haha .. I was telling Will from Aquatic Obsessions that if it works out and the Copepods reproduce quickly then I would bottle them and he could sell them at his place. Let's see what happens... if they work out well i'll upgrade the tank to a 5 gallon minibow and see how many bottles I can get out of it a month. It won't be $25 for a 3oz bottle either. I'll be very fair priced. Especially to anyone from NJRC.
woohoo yeah hopefully you get yourself a farm going and then just go from the 2.5 to a 10g 
I sort of did the same thing, unintentionally.
I found a little red eyed crab in my nano, didn't have the heart to kill him and had a empty 3g eclipse tank laying around so I tossed in some sand, tank water, some LR rubble and him... then I got some cheato with a tank purchase but since I didn't have a refuge setup yet I tossed it into the 3g also. Now while it isn't full of pods (decent number) it is FULL of tiny little shrimp, simply crawling all over with them. Isn't even a heated tank since I couldn't find any small spare heaters and never got around to buying one.
That said there is no reason your idea shouldn't work out, good luck!
I found a little red eyed crab in my nano, didn't have the heart to kill him and had a empty 3g eclipse tank laying around so I tossed in some sand, tank water, some LR rubble and him... then I got some cheato with a tank purchase but since I didn't have a refuge setup yet I tossed it into the 3g also. Now while it isn't full of pods (decent number) it is FULL of tiny little shrimp, simply crawling all over with them. Isn't even a heated tank since I couldn't find any small spare heaters and never got around to buying one.
That said there is no reason your idea shouldn't work out, good luck!
I've been doing this for a while and sell bottles to reefers (have a waiting list) for $14.95 a bottle for about the same amount of pods as you get from reefnutrition.
Here's what I've found. Small ball of cheato is fine but I don't use it. Leave out the sand and rock. Don't bother upgrading to bigger tanks, 2.5 seems ideal and is what I finally settled on. If anything add multiple 2.5 tanks. I have several. Unless you run at extreme temps you don't need a heater. You will want a cover on the tanks to help with evap issues (sg).
Don't use a filtration system on the tank. It's too much for the pods and they won't like it. Instead use an air pump with a bubble or two coming out of it every second. Just enough to keep the top of the water from getting stagnant. Add enough phyto to get a light green tint to the water. Darker green = nitrate problems quicker. You do/will need to manage the water just like a display tank.
Rig yourself up a "micron" filter. You can use coffee filters for this. It will come in handy when doing water changes or for pod extraction.
Carlo
PS Tiggerpods are "huge" as far as pods go. They are great to start out with but you'll find after a while you want to do different tanks with different size pods.
You'll probably also think you might want to culture your own Phyto after a while. I went down this road and found it to not be worth the effort as many others have found. You can't get the "concentration" you would from DT's or RN and you run the risk of adding "stray" bacteria/pathogens/bad stuff to the pod culture tanks.
Here's what I've found. Small ball of cheato is fine but I don't use it. Leave out the sand and rock. Don't bother upgrading to bigger tanks, 2.5 seems ideal and is what I finally settled on. If anything add multiple 2.5 tanks. I have several. Unless you run at extreme temps you don't need a heater. You will want a cover on the tanks to help with evap issues (sg).
Don't use a filtration system on the tank. It's too much for the pods and they won't like it. Instead use an air pump with a bubble or two coming out of it every second. Just enough to keep the top of the water from getting stagnant. Add enough phyto to get a light green tint to the water. Darker green = nitrate problems quicker. You do/will need to manage the water just like a display tank.
Rig yourself up a "micron" filter. You can use coffee filters for this. It will come in handy when doing water changes or for pod extraction.
Carlo
PS Tiggerpods are "huge" as far as pods go. They are great to start out with but you'll find after a while you want to do different tanks with different size pods.
You'll probably also think you might want to culture your own Phyto after a while. I went down this road and found it to not be worth the effort as many others have found. You can't get the "concentration" you would from DT's or RN and you run the risk of adding "stray" bacteria/pathogens/bad stuff to the pod culture tanks.
Great info .. thanks Carlo
Carlo said:
Carlo,
how often do you feed them with DT?
It changes based on the amount of pods in the tank. The more there are the more phyto you go through.
Don't worry about how often. Just go by color. The phyto is very dark green so when you add it to the tank it will turn greenish. The more you add the darker it gets. I just try and keep it a light shade of green.
If it gets clear for a day it's no big deal. Pretty much like skipping a day feeding your tank. If you go away for a weekend or something just give it a little extra.
I've tried dark green to light green in color and can tell you the water fouls much faster the more phyto you add (wastes it too). A light shade is all it takes to feed the pods.
I'm feeding different tanks on different days according to color but if I were guess I'd say each tank gets fed a little phyto every 2 to 3 days.
Carlo
Don't worry about how often. Just go by color. The phyto is very dark green so when you add it to the tank it will turn greenish. The more you add the darker it gets. I just try and keep it a light shade of green.
If it gets clear for a day it's no big deal. Pretty much like skipping a day feeding your tank. If you go away for a weekend or something just give it a little extra.
I've tried dark green to light green in color and can tell you the water fouls much faster the more phyto you add (wastes it too). A light shade is all it takes to feed the pods.
I'm feeding different tanks on different days according to color but if I were guess I'd say each tank gets fed a little phyto every 2 to 3 days.
Carlo
Carlo all great information, thank you.
One last question .. how often and how much water should I change out? I was thinking about half a gallon every week to 10 days ... What do you think?
One last question .. how often and how much water should I change out? I was thinking about half a gallon every week to 10 days ... What do you think?
I honestly don't know the "correct" answer to this question. I've never been able to find a good source of information on what pods can tolerate nitrate wise (other levels also). So I just go with the "gut" and I try and do a 10%-20% water change per week on these small tanks.
Once I get the rest of my system plumbed, stocked and running well I'm planning on doing a few controlled experiments on the culture tanks. I'd like to see how high the nitrates can get before it has any effect.
I'm not sure about this one but looking at a wet skimmed, skimmer cup it looks a lot like phyto (even though it's not). It will surely contain a lot of organics so I also want to experiment using greenish skimmate as a food source instead of phyto. Same with using flake food. I'm sure the skimmate will cause nitrates to rocket so I want to find the answer to part one first.
I'm obviously trying to cut or lessen the cost of phyto as well as finding exceptable ranges for chemistry to save on labor.
Carlo
Once I get the rest of my system plumbed, stocked and running well I'm planning on doing a few controlled experiments on the culture tanks. I'd like to see how high the nitrates can get before it has any effect.
I'm not sure about this one but looking at a wet skimmed, skimmer cup it looks a lot like phyto (even though it's not). It will surely contain a lot of organics so I also want to experiment using greenish skimmate as a food source instead of phyto. Same with using flake food. I'm sure the skimmate will cause nitrates to rocket so I want to find the answer to part one first.
I'm obviously trying to cut or lessen the cost of phyto as well as finding exceptable ranges for chemistry to save on labor.
Carlo
Sea Monkeys would be baby brine shrimp which are also a great easy food source provided you use them quickly. Here is an easy and cheap hatchery:
http://www.brineshrimpdirect.com/c1/c9/Hatchery-Dish-p183.html
http://www.brineshrimpdirect.com/c1/c9/Hatchery-Dish-p183.html
Keep in mind brine shrimp are probably the worst food source available. You would never want to rely on brine as the only food source. I like to think of brine as a treat just like a bone would be for a dog. You wouldn't expect the dog to live on bones alone but they make for a nice treat.
Carlo
Carlo