Refugium Setup and eco-Copepod Questions

[SeaHorseQueen]

Hello. I’ve got my copepods from Algae Barn ready for my 5 gallon culture. I have an air stone and heater. Do I need to add anything like prime or stability like I would in the display tank or just basically do fresh saltwater? Also, what size sieves would work for harvesting? These are ecopods so they’re wide range in size. It does say on the bottle they’re from 50-2000 microns if that helps at all.

I just want to make sure I’m not missing anything before I add the pods in.

 

[Fish Think Pink]

Hello. I’ve got my copepods from Algae Barn ready for my 5 gallon culture. I have an air stone and heater. Do I need to add anything like prime or stability like I would in the display tank or just basically do fresh saltwater? Also, what size sieves would work for harvesting? These are ecopods so they’re wide range in size. It does say on the bottle they’re from 50-2000 microns if that helps at all.

I just want to make sure I’m not missing anything before I add the pods in.

Use brine shrimp net to catch and you should be fine. Amazon does have mesh strainer squares that go even more fine, but that means I'm pouring off water and having to add newly mixed saltwater, so that is more work that I prefer doing. In fact, pouring off water because they are so fine is how I lost my ecopod culture a while back.

Fresh saltwater IMO is better, but you will hear different opinions from different people. I use tiny cultures like yours, and bringing water from my tank introduces more than I feel those cultures can handle... but it works for some. However, I'll recommend clean, freshly mixed saltwater is my recommendation.

If your culture is in your home, heater keeping them about 78 may be ideal, but they also breed pretty good at room temperatures... but if you keep your home cool (esp with winter coming) I applaud your heater... My pods don't get heater.

The biggest need I find pods need is maintaining salinity. They breed so much faster at about 1.020 to 1.024, which is lower than I keep my tank (and mix my saltwater) so I dilute it down with some extra RO. I've been using a little bit of painters tape to indicate where my water level should be so I know when to add RO due to evaporation.

This is my link:

raising tig pods - tiny 2.5g tank experimental culture #2

2nd attempt at raising tig pods is officially underway. Original attempt was outdoor lazy banana leaf method I found online - that is still underway but seems to be failing. Suspect Texas temperature and full day direct sunshine is too much, but that pod culture experiment still underway. 2nd...

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