Phyto, Copepods?

spsick

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I had to do a few heavy rounds of Interceptor to nuke some persistent white bugs.

Is adding some Phyto and Copepods a reasonable idea to reintroduce them to the foods chains?

I run a very traditional Berlin style system with no filtration other than a big skimmer and no coral foods or anything of the like and have had success for years this way. I don’t want to screw anything up but i know I’ve laid waste to all crustaceans and pods.

Looking for OG acro heads advice. I haven’t had to use interceptor since red bugs were first happening 15 years ago.

@therman , @Big E ?
 

livinlifeinBKK

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I had to do a few heavy rounds of Interceptor to nuke some persistent white bugs.

Is adding some Phyto and Copepods a reasonable idea to reintroduce them to the foods chains?

I run a very traditional Berlin style system with no filtration other than a big skimmer and no coral foods or anything of the like and have had success for years this way. I don’t want to screw anything up but i know I’ve laid waste to all crustaceans and pods.

Looking for OG acro heads advice. I haven’t had to use interceptor since red bugs were first happening 15 years ago.

@therman , @Big E ?
Add some live rock and youll get many more species of copepods than buying a bag for $30 or $40 and pouring them in.
 
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spsick

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Add some live rock and youll get many more species of copepods than buying a bag for $30 or $40 and pouring them in.

I’m totally team live rock and just added a few pounds that were in my QT system but this is a super established SPS tank so any rock etc going in takes 6 months of observation before it’s going in the tank. So many mantis shrimp, gorilla crabs, etc.
 

kvansloo

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I had to do a few heavy rounds of Interceptor to nuke some persistent white bugs.

Is adding some Phyto and Copepods a reasonable idea to reintroduce them to the foods chains?

I run a very traditional Berlin style system with no filtration other than a big skimmer and no coral foods or anything of the like and have had success for years this way. I don’t want to screw anything up but i know I’ve laid waste to all crustaceans and pods.

Looking for OG acro heads advice. I haven’t had to use interceptor since red bugs were first happening 15 years ago.

@therman , @Big E ?


@Reef By Steele,
I have been dosing Phyto daily and copepods monthly going on 2 months. I get it from Reef by Steele they have some of the largest verity I have seen. It could not hurt to lode the tank with copepods and dose Phyto for a bit.
 

Big E

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I had to do a few heavy rounds of Interceptor to nuke some persistent white bugs.

Is adding some Phyto and Copepods a reasonable idea to reintroduce them to the foods chains?

I run a very traditional Berlin style system with no filtration other than a big skimmer and no coral foods or anything of the like and have had success for years this way. I don’t want to screw anything up but i know I’ve laid waste to all crustaceans and pods.

Looking for OG acro heads advice. I haven’t had to use interceptor since red bugs were first happening 15 years ago.

@therman , @Big E ?


Pods are resilient, you won't kill off the whole population. They'll come back on their own without adding anything. Just run the way you do now and you'll be surprised how fast you see adult pods running around.
They will bounce back slower if you have wrasses that are pod hunters.

Unless you have a mandarin or blenny that needs pods I wouldn't add them.

I don't care about phyto and have never dosed it. You don't need it for a thriving ecosystem in your tank. Pods are opportunistic and they will sift through detritus, left over food, ect........... there will be plenty of algae growing in any system for them.

I had pods in a tank with no lights and algae and there were monster sized pods. All I did was add some fish food pellets 2-3 times a week.
 

therman

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I have munnid isopods that are totally resistant to Interceptor/Spectrum, but the rest of my visible pods get nuked by it. Good riddance to the amphipods as they eat coral tissue in my experience.

Munnid isopods are handy, as they do a great job eating algae off of plugs/glass/etc. so they are definitely something you would want to reintroduce if you've lost them. They are also the right size to feed things like mandarins and other small fish.

Adding copepods won't hurt anything but I am not sure if the species that are sold are actually ones that will colonize a reef tank.
 

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