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New Member
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 8/7/2008 9:45:14 PM
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| Im just beginning to transform my 55g to be more coral and invert friendly but dont have the space to house a fuge so I went and searched the internet for live copepods and phytoplankton to seed the tank with and to my suprise i found an interesting alternative to the fuge, multiple sites encouraged hobbyist to establish "breeding tanks" and apparently there fairly easy to raise until i saw the price of live phytoplankton but raising phytoplankton doesnt seem too difficult either. does anyone have any experience with this method? Any tips ?
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New Member
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Last Login: 8/7/2008 9:45:14 PM
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| This post has been up for some time now and i guess by all the traffic, this really isnt a popular venue but in any case, I've done a lot of reading and came up with the following for anyone who may be interested.I took a 20g long tank and used plexy glass and aquarium sealer to create 4 equal dividers. I filled each with salt water in the range of 1.019 - 1.028. Added to each chamber is air tubing with no air stone, split from one pump using gang valves. the air flow was set at a slow boil. the water temp is kept at 68 degrees, as this is the optimum temp for copepod reproduction. NO lights are used and no sand or LR, just a bare tank. I was able to order live copepods on line from a co. named www.oceanpods.com . my order came in 2 days with very very little die off, which wasnt a big concern as there are about 1,000 bugs in each bottle. heres the fun part, if all conditions are met, these copepods with breed every other day for 20 days and produce 30 - 40 young each time. They feed on micro algea (phytoplankton) and that too can be cultured on your own. i went to www.florida-aqua-farms.com for those supply's. Each of these sites provide a wealth of information including more specific instructions for culturing your own stuff!!! I'm sure there are other great company's out there that can provide the same or similar products but these were the ones i used. the abuility to produce these valuable creatures has improved the quality and health of my inverts and fish, especially the hard to feed dragonet manderin. a small investmant now can save big bucks later. photos of my copepod set up will be posted on my page by the end of this week. good luck!!!
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Fishkeeping GURU
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Last Login: 2 days ago @ 3:15:22 PM
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I think we just don't have anyone here who has ever done it...I know I haven't so I couldn't help at all. Good luck though and let us know how it turns out.
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New Member
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 8/7/2008 9:45:14 PM
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| i figured that was the case, its been up and running for about 2 wks now and been doing well.
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Starting Member
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Last Login: Today @ 4:35:08 PM
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Good luck with your endeaver! I've purchased from OceanPods myself but used the product to seed a refugium versus setting up a seperate breading station. I'm considering setting up a green water culture station (feed the bottom of the food chain and the rest takes care of itself) and had looked at florida aquafarms as a source. I'd be interested in hearing more about the product you purchased from them. How are you determining your success rate? Do you have means by which to know if your copepod population is increasing? Keep up the good work and keep us informed.
So many species, so little money!
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New Member
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Last Login: 8/7/2008 9:45:14 PM
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| I cant accurately count the number of copepods to judge my success but by taking a VERY close look into the tank, I've noticed some smaller white "bugs" beginning to show up. to the best of my knowledge, these are the offspring of the larger "red" copepods. I cant recall the scientific name but i believe they are multiplying. As for the phytoplankton, my culture has only been running for about 4 days and the web site www.florida-aqua-farms.com says it takes up to nine days before you will notice a bloom. the web site offers detailed instructions on how to go about culturing the algea. it seems really simple and its worth a look. I cant say whether or not it will be a success as this is the first time im doing it myself but I will keep you updated on this thread.
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New Member
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 8/7/2008 9:45:14 PM
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| I am happy to say that the cultured copepod experiment is starting to show results. the amount of pods that are able to be seen without scientific instruments has nearly doubled and hopefully, if all goes well, I will be adding about half that amount to my main tank to boost that population in just a few more weeks. I want to make sure i have a strong population in my culture station before i start taking from it. As for the cultured phytoplankton. The water is getting much darker and that's showing good results. i've already started to add some of the live algea to my main tank and i believe it's helping the existing copepod population to grow. I've seen more and more pods in the tank at night while looking in with a small flashlight. they're on the glass and swimming near the live rock!
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New Member
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Last Login: 8/16/2008 1:58:31 PM
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I am interested in hearing about this as an on-going project...I am fairly new to this site and interested in reef topics. I also am a high school Microbiology teacher. This sounds like a great project that my kids could do! Why grow them at home when I can have my kids do it for me while they learn something!  There's no reason that a good core of folks can't get the "Reef" portion of the forums bulked up.
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New Member
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 8/7/2008 9:45:14 PM
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| hi, i noticed your post stating that you were interested in the copepod culture experiment. I recieved all my info and equipment from a site called oceanpods.com they can explain the in's and out's much better than me. good luck!!
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