How to harvest pods correctly?

[bondno9]

I’ve had copepods I’ve been culturing for the past 3 weeks and yesterday I emptied out half the jar and then for the final cleaning, I sucked up all the algae and detritus at the bottom of the jar but there was copepods on it. What’s the best way to keep those pods while removing the algae and detritus from the mesh sieve? I used 3 sieves connected to each other. 250/120/50.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Personally I use a turkey baster to suck the water out and and then squeeze it through the sieve, that way I get none of the algae or mulm, only pods. Moving the container or jar will mix everything up, try to avoid that.

I sacrifice the last few pods to avoid any algae and mulm. Then clean the container, and start over again.

 

[anizato]

Do yourself a favor and get a jug with a spout and an infuser (optional). put ceramic media in the infuser, use the spout to collect into a separate container. don't move the main vessel and let the water settle (aka, turn off the air pump) before you collect. This way you get the cleanest water possible with ONLY pods, hardly any waste or phyto etc.
Tiger pods will reproduce like CRAZY in these conditions.

You don't really ever need to clean the vessel. you can simply replace clean saltwater with each harvest, and replenish the food.
If you really wanted to be "anal" and have a clean vessel every 4-6 months, from the spout, collect 80% of the water, then turkey baste 80% of the bottom muck (discard even with pods - or start separate cultures with this muck). Replenish the vessel. I would consider this the cleanest you would ever need the vessel to be, unless there is a crash from an outside source or contamination you will have success with Tigger pods this way.