Pods farm, any ideas?

[danmhippo]

Other than having a refugium, Does anyone build a pods farm in their main tank? I am thinking of sinking a box filled with bioballs (yep, still got plenty of those stuff) to serve as a pods farm.

I have seen threads of people using small mounds of coral rubble for this purpose. I am thinking of using the small box, or a very porous rock/structure instead and hide it under the LR. Anyone has suggestions for this idea?

 

[JeremyR]

Morgan Lidster at the 98 WMC said he used PVC pipe and such behind the rock pile to grow that stuff, and when he wanted to harvest them he pulled out the piping and dumped the contents. Dunno if that's how they still do it.

 

[danmhippo]

You mind elaborate on that?

 

[fishfarmer]

Are you thinking copepods or amphipods? I though a while back that a good copepod farm could be several verticle sheets of glass/plexi in a box or small aquarium. Set them up so water flows over and under them and keep well lit for micro algae. I notice many copepods on the front glass of my tank if I haven't scraped for a couple of weeks and have a thin coating of green algae.

 

[SPC]

My main tank has alot of macro algae that the pods live in.
Steve

 

[danmhippo]

The problem with macros in main tank for me is that I have 2 pigs (tangs, one indian sailfin and another purple), plus an urchin. I tried several times of placing big strends of racemosa (Shhhhh, I am supposed to wipe them out by next year, state law) into the tank, and most would only lasts 3 days, and it's all gone. Macro in main tank is simply impossible in my case. Tangs are daily fed with a full sheet of nori, and macro still won't last for a week.

So, macro idea is out in my case. I still have lots of macros and pods, both copepods and amphipods in the sump refugium. I just want to increase their production by placing another farm in the main tank.

Jimmy

 

[Hammer]

When I first put pod piles in my main tank to prepare for mandarins, I put the piles in both front corners of my tank so that I could analize the growth and populations of pods within the piles.
After I established the fact that the pod piles out produced what two mandarins and other fish could eat, I then moved both pod piles to the back of my tank. Still two separate piles, but totally out of site. I have found that the BEST rock to use for these rock piles are tube rocks. Like a skeleton from a pipe organ coral, or a clump of fan worm tubes.
Try and make sure that your extra food you feed will at least have some accumilation of what you are feeding.
Also note that DTs and phytoplanktons drastically increased the rate of survival for 'new born' pods.
And by the way, You cannot see any of my piles without walking around to at least the side of my tank, and even then they do not look bad. But you cannot see them from in front of the tank.

 

[AuroraDave]

Hammer-- RU just making a small pile of frags so the pods have a place to call home? Or is there more to it.
Are small frags better than large?
I like your idea. thanks

 

[Hammer]

Do a search and you will find the info you want.
I like using many small rocks so that there are more places for them to hide, and it keeps out predators like mandarins and other small fish. It also seems to catch small food particles much better.

 

[davelin315]

I think that anything sheltered is enough to serve as a pod pile. I had a sea horse that I was treating for gas bubbles and I placed him into a hagen powerhead filter adapter (just the black mesh cylinder). I then dropped it to the bottom of my pond and when I took the seahorse out a few days later, I found that the cage was full of pods (despite the fact that the little sea horse was eating them). Obviously, they will prefer to go to an area where they can crawl around unmolested, and the smaller the hiding places the better, but they did fine in an open mesh container. Also, I notice that a sponge in my sump has tons and tons of pods crawling through it, and also, a filter pad that I use in my sea horse pond is also teeming with them (it's not even in the water). Also, when you use carbon or a phosphate sponge next, dump it out when it's used up and you'll see tons of pods crawling around inside it. You can pretty much use anything that will shelter them from predators and you'll have tons of them in no time.

 

[Hammer]

Dave,
I agree in that almost any shelter will get a pod population going. But my biggest point is that a dedicated structure like pod piles highly increases the survival of both the pods, and all their spawning. Pod piles also increase the amount of planktonic life in your tanks. Not that much, but it does help.
Also note that pod piles are great for providing a large area for pods to grow where even mandarins cannot get at all of it.

 

[JeremyR]

And with a pod pile, you don't have to put filter pads, sponges, etc. in where they don't belong.

 

[olinf]

I have a 20 gallon tank dedicated to amphipods to feed fastidious species. In this tank I use sections of 4" PVC pipe mounted verticaly. Each is stuffed with bio-bale and has a piece of rigid airline tubing inserted with no airstone. The top extends 2" above the water level to prevent salt spray. There are a few 1/2" holes drilled in the sides at the water line for circulation. The pods thrive in this system and harvesting is easy - just pick up a tube and shake it into a bowl of water. I believe your bio-balls in a box idea would work like a charm. I used bio-balls first as well but for harvesting it was more difficult, but since you are just using them as a in-tank refugium they should be perfect.
Olin

 

[Hammer]

The bio balls would definitely work in my opinion. But you would need to make sure that enough food gets in there for the pods to thrive on.
The best thing about pod piles is simple, you make them, then forget about them.
Of course if you feed them at first to get them going. And make sure the piles are in a place that extra food will fall is important as well.
But for something you can just put in there and forget about, piles work great. And if you happen to see them, they don't look bad.
Also, you can just take rock rubble and toss it behind your rock work to make the piles. If you have rock close to the back glass, it is very easy to make piles this way. But hard to fit a box down in there without disturbing a lot of rock work.

Just my 2¢

 

[MandarinFish]

Doesn't a 'dead area' without circulation breed ich (in addition to pods)?