colonizing copepods and amphipods

[axelsmischief]

Hi all. I've got a 20 gallon seahorse tank with 2 h. erectus (pregnant male & female), 1 mandarin, a pearly jawfish, 2 sexy shrimp, 3 peppermints, 3 blue leg hermits and nassarius snails. The mandarin is trained on frozen foods, and I feed everyone a mix of enriched frozen brine, frozen mysis, arctic pods and tigger pods. No corals, anenomes or zoas in the tank. 20# of live rock and sand...

I'm getting ready to seed the tank with live copes and amphi's as a less expensive alternative to the tigger pods. My question is, how many of each are needed to seed and begin colonization for a 20 gal? I know it's going to be tough getting colonies started with the mandarin, but it is what it is. I am worried about the possibility of overstocking and fouling the tank.

Thanks everyone! Oh another question-off topic: How do I post pics? I don't see a way to attach them.

 

[mikecc]

Oh another question-off topic: How do I post pics? I don't see a way to attach them.

This should generate some responses. There are several ways to do it. 5 post rule to start with.

 

[goma]

Many folks here use photobucket but as stated you need 5 total posts first:

http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums...ay-post-pics-photobucket-nanoreefing4fun.html

 

[Willie McDaries]

since you have several pod eating critters in there, it's gonna be difficult to sustain an abundance of pods in the display tank, I would suggest an external refugeum with lots of rock, preferably a larger tank than the 20g, there you can accumulate a rich supply of pods and the excess will find their way to the display...

a large refugeum will add to your total water volume and the added rock will contribute greatly to your bio-filtration, making your system much more stable, the refugeum wouldn't need a lot of light, if any, unless you wanted to grow some macro algae to increase bio-diversity, most of the pods will feed on micro algae and what wasted food that the fish don't eat, so you wouldn't have too much maintenance with the refugeum, you could also add a brine shrimp hatchery to the refugeum as well

 

[Steve L]

I have a 30 gallon quarantine tank that sits cycled and ready for fish most of the time. It has a huge HOB skimmer, deep sand bed and a pile of rubble rocks in the center covered with coralline. Every few weeks the pod population explodes, lasts for a week or two then dies off. They all hang on the glass and seem to eat the fine layer of algae on the glass. Yesterday I finally picked up a flame angel for my reef tank and put him in the quarantine tank. I figured it was a good time because the pod population was really high. As soon as he became aclimated to his surroundings he started eating the pods, and this morning I don't see a single one in the tank. We're talking hundreds of pods that one fish cleared out in 24 hours, so if you plan on breeding them I would advise against keeping the mandarin in the same tank.

 

[Paul B]

Here is a video of what I collect in the sea a few times a year and throw in my reef.