@@lowkeygrilowkeygri1482 The remaining copepods will still live as long as you keep them fed phytoplankton. It's pretty common that pods die in the bottle either from your lfs or if you've had them shipped to you.
@@mdwaller0416 I would use a sieve to harvest all of them. Then split them up and put back into two containers. I replied with a more detailed explanation on your other comment just a few moments ago.
I use a Poseidon Reef Phytotank with their Podnest insert to culture mine which I find helpful because the Podnest essentially acts as a biological filter to help keep nutrient levels in check, preventing crashes. I’ve only cultured tisbe pods so far but I’d like to start culturing tigger pods next
Thank you so much for sharing this video, I live in Australia 🇦🇺 & I actually culture 5 different types of Copepods & 7 different of phytoplankton & it’s good to know that I’m doing everything correctly all but 1 thing. Now I know why 1 of my cultures keeps crashing cause, I purchased some red algae that is attached & growing on a rock from a proper phytoplankton & zooplankton farm & I put it in with my red desert copepods & I struggle keeping alive & also breeding that culture, well I know what I’m gonna do 1st thing in the morning, take the red algae out & hopefully they will start increasing in numbers. Thank you for the great advice, I’m sure this is why my red copepod culture keeps crashing
What type of pods are you having issues with would? I would try splitting the culture and trying to grow the pods in a container all by themselves..if this works then you know it could have something to do with the rock and macro algae. If not, then it's something else you may have to experiment with....just realized I'm logged in to my personal account 🙂
@@weavbrian actually that’s a heaps better idea thanks heaps 😁 yeah out of the 5 different types of Copepods I culture I only have the red algae in with the red desert Copepods & that’s the culture I’m having issues with, but yeah I might try splitting the culture 1st & see if the “2nd” culture thrives & then if it dose then I will know to get rid of the red macro algae
Very informative video. I've cultured pods back when I was raising Dwarf Seahorses and Pugnose Pipefish. I never used, nor thought about, adding a check value! What a simple yet needed piece of equipment living down here in Florida. We will have quick outages because of storms. These can last a few seconds to a few hours. I never thought about water getting sucked back into my air pumps. Learn something every day!
Brian thanx the video.I am just wondering the copepods culture life span. After the harvesting time if I add to fill salt water can i keep culture in healthy or how long after I have to cleaning the bottle and re make culture.
@@BriansAquariums since they will continue reproduce, what happens to all dead copepods? What’s the purpose of the fine micron filter? What exactly are you filtering into, and what do you do with the leftover culture in the main vessel after you’re done filtering it? So many questions unanswered.
I do not Im sorry. I just take a cup scoop up some of the copepod water and add it to my tanks. I will replace that water with new saltwater to do mini water changes until a large water change is needed.
What temperature should you keep your water when culturing phyto and copepods? Just wondering if I can set up a culture station on my back porch. I live in southeast Texas so it doesn't get too cold. BTW great videos!
Hello, fellow Texan 🤙. I would try to keep it around 70-80. I have never tried to culture it outside, so I really can't say at what temp it will tolerate. I'm sure the springtime when it's 60 at night and 80 in the daytime will be just fine. I would try to keep it in the shade as well so the sun's not beaming down on it.
Question.. can different species of pods be cultivated in the same vessel ? and is a rotifer a pod species? and can rotifiers be mixed in the same vessel with the pods also, having one community vessel for all of them Thanks
I've never tried it. I would think the faster reproducing ones would slowly outcompete the slower ones. I don't believe rotifers are in the same family as cooepods. I would be on the safe side and culture each organism in different vessels. Think of it as an insurance policy in case one culture crashes.
I was wondering, are capepods only for salt water or also fresh water ? And for the setup you made on this video, do you also need to keep on eye on the water parameters? Like nitrate or ammonia?
Do you need a heater, my winter room temperature is about 64 degrees? How long after start up do you harvest and then do you just start over? Thanks for your information 👍
It all depends on which strain of copepod you want to culture. They will still survive but breeding will slow down. I would add a heater if the water gets below 70 - 73 ish. Initially I add the pods to the culture, then wait about 3-4 weeks. I do a 100% WC. Add the pods back to the culture and let them settle for a couple days. After the first Initial boom of pods about a month in I will harvest a full solo cup of pods and add it to my tanks about once a week. Sometimes twice a week.
Hi. Do I see a separate container for each different type of Copepod? One for Tisbe? One for Tigs? etc or can I combine them in the same 2 gallon container? thanks
I would use a different container for each tisbe and tig pods. The larger pods may eat the smaller pods. Also, if one culture crashes, you will have a backup.
I recommend always using a check valve. You can get cheap ones for $2.18 + tax. If you set it up where you don't need one, but something unexpected happens and it siphons out your water, you will wish you had just spent the $2. If you have the airline split, to even like 5 air-stones, you still only need 1 check-valve on a short section coming out of the air pump and then split the line after that. The Check Valve will act the same no matter how many times you split the line AFTER the check-valve. You do not want to place a check valve on each split. It is a waste of money and I would assume it would also increase resistance, making your pump work harder for no benefit. You don't need multiple check valves for redundancy. If you are THAT concerned, just switch them out with a new one every so often and keep the old ones as backups.
hi thanks for this helpful video, one question, can I keep the container in room temperature ? or what ideal temperature is hold living thing alive in the container?
Does having the spigot on the container just make it so much easier? Serve up a bit of pods for your tank? Serve up some photo for your pods? Lol. Seems brilliant. This works out great?
I’m new t the hobby. This seemed really cool! But, I thought copepods will reproduce in the tank and create a continuous food source. Is this not correct?
Yes, they will. You will eventually have them all over your tank. I like to supplement my tanks to get them to that point quicker. Some people like to sell them. Or use them to feed pod eating fish. You definitely do not need to do this, though. The pods will be in your tank regardless of what you do.
@OmarFaruk-ek4oq there are different types of copepods. The main ones I refer to tisbe biminiensis and tigriopus californicus are saltwater copepods. I use rodi water and mix in to make a saltwater solution to culture those species. I have not cultured any other copepod species, so I can't necessarily speak on them.
I do not currently. What I would do is just pour half of your current culture into another container, then top off both containers with saltwater. Or if you want to be more precise about it. Use a 53 micron sieve to harvest all the pods out of your current container. Then, use a turkey battery with saltwater to rinse the pods into a cup. Add half to each container. With this method you should be pretty close to having half the pods in one container and the other half in another container.
This was very helpful. I may have killed mine. I didn’t know that you had to add bio culture. Do you think they are dead? I seen like one or two moving around.
Lets say that I made a copepods culture like you did in a separate aquarium, what would be the best machine that feeds copepods to mandarin fishes on the other bigger aquarium?
actually, I see no link. which is why I asked. but I found something similar at Walmart. But now, I have a new question. I setup my first Phyto culture. But once setup... is the original amt of F2 all you add? or WHEN might you add more?
@billyd0214 The containers are listed below. You may need to tap "...more" in the description. I add 3ml of f/2 per gallon. After 7 days, I will harvest. If you want to go longer, you can take a photo each day of your phyto culture. After you no longer see it getting darker in the photos, you can add more f/2. I only like to go 7 days because the more longer you go and the more dense the phyto gets, the higher the chance it may crash.
I started a culture and did exactly like you said in the video. Couple of weeks into, it the water really started to smell and there was very little to no copepod activity. I was wondering if the smell is normal?
I was culturing tigger pods successfully while feeding home cultured live phyto. I switched to reef nutrition live phyto feast because it's far more concentrated so the amount needing to dose to the pod culture to turn it a tint of green was only a couple ml, but since then I've found my cultures are getting very dirty and my cultures are struggling, thoughts?
I've only ever used reef nutrition rg complete so I really can't speak on their live phyto. I do know that when culturing rotifers with rg complete I have to clean the bucket every couple of days. I used my live phyto and I can go for a week without needing a deep clean. I an only assuming here but since it's so concentrated it would be like adding 10x of your home grown live phyto. So it will get dirtier quicker.
@BriansAquariums thx appreciate the reply, so having to clean your vessel on the regular is normal. I was thinking once your cultures are up and running cleaning weekly comes with a harvest but as my population isn't concentrated enough yet to do so I was planning on leaving and feeding the culture for at least a month, but I may have to do regular water changes then seperate the pods that do get sucked up from the dirty water and add back to the culture. Having to do that is a bit of a pain
@@irresponsiblereefer8667 I don't clean my pod cultures too often. Roughly once a month water change and the beginning. Then when they start to boom, I will do wc roughly every 2 weeks. I find if you leave detritus and fi algae the pods do better. I have a clownfish broodstock tank where I feed very little phyto, but I do not clean the sides and back glass and that tank has thousands of tisbe pods and munnid idopods.
I could be wrong, but I believe it's due to most saltwater fry need copepods or rotifers for the first part of their lives. I think with freshwater, you can just feed a small powder food for freshwater fry. At least I know cichlid fry does not require live foods.
My culture crashed 4 times after about 2 weeks of starting each time despite following so many videos and forums, each time I tried different method like starting off with lower amount of saltwater and increase it a bit day by day, tried filling up with saltwater and dumping the whole bottle in like in this video, I've even done 2 jars instead one in case one crashes but both crashed. I fed phyto when the green tint isn't present. Really don't know why it's crashing. I'm going to try again but this time with a dispenser spigot jar, maybe easier? I don't want to give up.. yet.
I feel your pain. Sometimes I feel like it's just luck. I tried to start up two more cultures and do the exact same thing I do on my other cultures but the new cultures crashed....or rather never took off. After a couple months and not seeing any movement I tosses the water out. I also have a 20 clownfish broodstock tank and a 10 gallon shrimp larval tank that's loaded with pods, literally hundreds or thousands, and I only feed those tanks maybe 20ml a week. I don't even think I need to dose phyto to the aquariums as the pods are feeding on the film algae on the glass. It's frustrating. I've been thinking about starting a new culture and putting a light on it to let film algae grow, then add pods. Check out this video with my clownfish tank with the pods. ruclips.net/user/shorts9DyzFeWDL28?feature=share
@@BriansAquariums I started a tisbe and apoc culture. The tisbe was doing great and the apoc culture crashed. But I had since setup a refugium with chaeto and I'm getting hundreds of copepods in there now, it's been great so far.
No. over 75 is fine. I have my aquarium set to 80 and they are thriving in my tank. I would keep cultures at room temperature between 70-80. You also have to think that the tide pools can get upwards of 100 F and copepods survive that.
It was a little over a month. After that I had to pull out a solo cup or two worth from each culture. If I skipped a week I noticed the cultures would not becas large the following week. So make sure to pull from your cultures so they won't decline to to overpopulation. The amounts and how often will vary from your culture vs mine....in my experience.
@@sadshxnobi When your phyto no longer gets any darker its time to harvest. It has consumed all of the available f/2 media. This happens typically between day 5-7. I like to take photos each day of my cultures so I can compare them to see when they stop getting darker. Day 5 is the darkest they get for me. Day 6 and 7 I see no change. I really only harvest on day 7 since I start my cultures on a Saturday or Sunday. This way I have more time to harvest, sanitize and start new cultures.
@@Evannna214 Yes that is fine. Room temp is fine for them. As long as you are comfortable they will do just fine. (Sorry for the delay in getting back to you, I've been working a lot)
@@Evannna214 If it's film algae on the side of the glass or container I would not remove it. The pods will munch on that stuff. It's kind of like a backup food source if you forget to feed phyto one day. If it's hair algae or other algae not on the glass you can leave it there as long as it doesn't get too large and take over. Although any algae will not hurt the pods from my experience. They like to hide in it. They feel safer. They do thrive in a sump environment, which usually always has some algae or detritus. I just do not like the look of it. I like to have a somewhat pristine look to my pod containers.
Interesting. I've never heard of this before. I would think marine phyto would be a better choice since it's from their saltwater environment vs. using freshwater spirulina.
Have you successfully cultured copepods before? Feel free to share your tips here!
My copepods seems to be dead I believe a lot at the bottom of my container there still like 30 of them moving but the rest are at the bottom
@@lowkeygrilowkeygri1482 The remaining copepods will still live as long as you keep them fed phytoplankton. It's pretty common that pods die in the bottle either from your lfs or if you've had them shipped to you.
I have a successful culture that needs to be harvested. My question is what’s the best method to harvest some and leave some to start fresh with.
@@mdwaller0416 I would use a sieve to harvest all of them. Then split them up and put back into two containers. I replied with a more detailed explanation on your other comment just a few moments ago.
I use a Poseidon Reef Phytotank with their Podnest insert to culture mine which I find helpful because the Podnest essentially acts as a biological filter to help keep nutrient levels in check, preventing crashes. I’ve only cultured tisbe pods so far but I’d like to start culturing tigger pods next
I'm just now setting up my first tank. You have answered so many questions. This looks easy enough. Thanks so much
Dude, great job on your video. You answered every question that I could think of!
Thank you so much for sharing this video, I live in Australia 🇦🇺 & I actually culture 5 different types of Copepods & 7 different of phytoplankton & it’s good to know that I’m doing everything correctly all but 1 thing. Now I know why 1 of my cultures keeps crashing cause, I purchased some red algae that is attached & growing on a rock from a proper phytoplankton & zooplankton farm & I put it in with my red desert copepods & I struggle keeping alive & also breeding that culture, well I know what I’m gonna do 1st thing in the morning, take the red algae out & hopefully they will start increasing in numbers.
Thank you for the great advice, I’m sure this is why my red copepod culture keeps crashing
What type of pods are you having issues with would? I would try splitting the culture and trying to grow the pods in a container all by themselves..if this works then you know it could have something to do with the rock and macro algae. If not, then it's something else you may have to experiment with....just realized I'm logged in to my personal account 🙂
@@weavbrian actually that’s a heaps better idea thanks heaps 😁 yeah out of the 5 different types of Copepods I culture I only have the red algae in with the red desert Copepods & that’s the culture I’m having issues with, but yeah I might try splitting the culture 1st & see if the “2nd” culture thrives & then if it dose then I will know to get rid of the red macro algae
@@TheLindsell I would be interested in your results. Keep me updated!
@@BriansAquariums will do champion 😃 I’ll definitely keep you updated with the results
Very informative video. I've cultured pods back when I was raising Dwarf Seahorses and Pugnose Pipefish.
I never used, nor thought about, adding a check value! What a simple yet needed piece of equipment living down here in Florida. We will have quick outages because of storms. These can last a few seconds to a few hours.
I never thought about water getting sucked back into my air pumps. Learn something every day!
Hey that was great.. been into fish for over 35yrs just never thought about doing it my self... pods and phytoplankton...thank you brian
This looks so much easier than I expected; thank you
Great video you made there! One thing is not so clear for me.
Adding the bacteria , when and how does it needs to be done?
loved your lights in top of the phyto, i have some too just not for fito, but maybe iam going to try like you esplained
They also work great for "Not for Phyto" uses as long as you have enough of them. 😉
Brian thanx the video.I am just wondering the copepods culture life span.
After the harvesting time if I add to fill salt water can i keep culture in healthy or how long after I have to cleaning the bottle and re make culture.
They will continue to reproduce as long as they have food to eat.
@@BriansAquariums since they will continue reproduce, what happens to all dead copepods? What’s the purpose of the fine micron filter? What exactly are you filtering into, and what do you do with the leftover culture in the main vessel after you’re done filtering it? So many questions unanswered.
Great content Brian 👌 will definitely start culturing
Many thanks Craig
Thank you. Glad I could help you out!
Hi Brian, perfect explained . thanks ;-)
Do you have a video on when and how to take out the copepods to feed to your fish? And how much to feed
I do not Im sorry. I just take a cup scoop up some of the copepod water and add it to my tanks. I will replace that water with new saltwater to do mini water changes until a large water change is needed.
Thanks for the video
You're very welcome. If you have any other questions feel free to reach out to me.
What temperature should you keep your water when culturing phyto and copepods? Just wondering if I can set up a culture station on my back porch. I live in southeast Texas so it doesn't get too cold. BTW great videos!
Hello, fellow Texan 🤙. I would try to keep it around 70-80. I have never tried to culture it outside, so I really can't say at what temp it will tolerate. I'm sure the springtime when it's 60 at night and 80 in the daytime will be just fine. I would try to keep it in the shade as well so the sun's not beaming down on it.
Question.. can different species of pods be cultivated in the same vessel ? and is a rotifer a pod species? and can rotifiers be mixed in the same vessel with the pods also, having one community vessel for all of them Thanks
I've never tried it. I would think the faster reproducing ones would slowly outcompete the slower ones. I don't believe rotifers are in the same family as cooepods. I would be on the safe side and culture each organism in different vessels. Think of it as an insurance policy in case one culture crashes.
good idea and I agree.. thanks for the response@@BriansAquariums
I was wondering, are capepods only for salt water or also fresh water ?
And for the setup you made on this video, do you also need to keep on eye on the water parameters? Like nitrate or ammonia?
IV been culturing my Copepods for about a months and I managed to end up with thousands
Awesome job!!!
Thank you
Do you actually need air bubble? Some people say no
Do you need a heater, my winter room temperature is about 64 degrees? How long after start up do you harvest and then do you just start over? Thanks for your information 👍
It all depends on which strain of copepod you want to culture. They will still survive but breeding will slow down. I would add a heater if the water gets below 70 - 73 ish. Initially I add the pods to the culture, then wait about 3-4 weeks. I do a 100% WC. Add the pods back to the culture and let them settle for a couple days. After the first Initial boom of pods about a month in I will harvest a full solo cup of pods and add it to my tanks about once a week. Sometimes twice a week.
Hi. Do I see a separate container for each different type of Copepod? One for Tisbe? One for Tigs? etc or can I combine them in the same 2 gallon container?
thanks
I would use a different container for each tisbe and tig pods. The larger pods may eat the smaller pods. Also, if one culture crashes, you will have a backup.
I recommend always using a check valve. You can get cheap ones for $2.18 + tax.
If you set it up where you don't need one, but something unexpected happens and it siphons out your water, you will wish you had just spent the $2.
If you have the airline split, to even like 5 air-stones, you still only need 1 check-valve on a short section coming out of the air pump and then split the line after that.
The Check Valve will act the same no matter how many times you split the line AFTER the check-valve.
You do not want to place a check valve on each split. It is a waste of money and I would assume it would also increase resistance, making your pump work harder for no benefit.
You don't need multiple check valves for redundancy. If you are THAT concerned, just switch them out with a new one every so often and keep the old ones as backups.
I agree with you 100%.
hi thanks for this helpful video, one question, can I keep the container in room temperature ? or what ideal temperature is hold living thing alive in the container?
Thanks for the infon
Any time!
Smaller bubbles have more surface area than large bubbles and diffuse easier into water btw
W video
Does having the spigot on the container just make it so much easier? Serve up a bit of pods for your tank? Serve up some photo for your pods? Lol. Seems brilliant. This works out great?
Yes, I love it. It's so much easier.
I’m new t the hobby. This seemed really cool! But, I thought copepods will reproduce in the tank and create a continuous food source. Is this not correct?
Yes, they will. You will eventually have them all over your tank. I like to supplement my tanks to get them to that point quicker. Some people like to sell them. Or use them to feed pod eating fish. You definitely do not need to do this, though. The pods will be in your tank regardless of what you do.
Is this the same process for Tisbe pods? Thanks!
Yes. Same.
Does the water have to be any specific type of water such as freshwater or saltwater or mixed? RO water or tap water?
@OmarFaruk-ek4oq there are different types of copepods. The main ones I refer to tisbe biminiensis and tigriopus californicus are saltwater copepods. I use rodi water and mix in to make a saltwater solution to culture those species. I have not cultured any other copepod species, so I can't necessarily speak on them.
@@BriansAquariums, thanks for your thorough response. Great video by the way. Keep making! ✌️
Do you have a video that shows how to harvest without depleting the culture so you can start another one?
I do not currently. What I would do is just pour half of your current culture into another container, then top off both containers with saltwater. Or if you want to be more precise about it. Use a 53 micron sieve to harvest all the pods out of your current container. Then, use a turkey battery with saltwater to rinse the pods into a cup. Add half to each container. With this method you should be pretty close to having half the pods in one container and the other half in another container.
So how do you use the sieve? Is a (1) leave in the copepod habitat and remove as needed or (2) use the sieve to scoop out the copepods?
3:20 I had that in my tank. Lucky me, because there was no fish or whatever, but it did end up ruining a lot of shit in my house.
So the check valve didn't work?
@@BriansAquariumsI had no check valve haha. After the bitter lesson I bought check valves and made sure to never have that happen to me again.
This was very helpful. I may have killed mine. I didn’t know that you had to add bio culture. Do you think they are dead? I seen like one or two moving around.
If you see 2 there are probably more. Just be patient and they will rebound. They are strong critters.
Lets say that I made a copepods culture like you did in a separate aquarium, what would be the best machine that feeds copepods to mandarin fishes on the other bigger aquarium?
could you add a link for those 2 gallon clear jugs you are using? I can't find them.
They are on the description below 👍
actually, I see no link. which is why I asked. but I found something similar at Walmart. But now, I have a new question. I setup my first Phyto culture. But once setup... is the original amt of F2 all you add? or WHEN might you add more?
@billyd0214 The containers are listed below. You may need to tap "...more" in the description. I add 3ml of f/2 per gallon. After 7 days, I will harvest. If you want to go longer, you can take a photo each day of your phyto culture. After you no longer see it getting darker in the photos, you can add more f/2. I only like to go 7 days because the more longer you go and the more dense the phyto gets, the higher the chance it may crash.
I started a culture and did exactly like you said in the video. Couple of weeks into, it the water really started to smell and there was very little to no copepod activity. I was wondering if the smell is normal?
No the culture may have died. IT should not have a bad smell to it.
What type of lights do you need for these
I was culturing tigger pods successfully while feeding home cultured live phyto. I switched to reef nutrition live phyto feast because it's far more concentrated so the amount needing to dose to the pod culture to turn it a tint of green was only a couple ml, but since then I've found my cultures are getting very dirty and my cultures are struggling, thoughts?
I've only ever used reef nutrition rg complete so I really can't speak on their live phyto. I do know that when culturing rotifers with rg complete I have to clean the bucket every couple of days. I used my live phyto and I can go for a week without needing a deep clean. I an only assuming here but since it's so concentrated it would be like adding 10x of your home grown live phyto. So it will get dirtier quicker.
@BriansAquariums thx appreciate the reply, so having to clean your vessel on the regular is normal. I was thinking once your cultures are up and running cleaning weekly comes with a harvest but as my population isn't concentrated enough yet to do so I was planning on leaving and feeding the culture for at least a month, but I may have to do regular water changes then seperate the pods that do get sucked up from the dirty water and add back to the culture. Having to do that is a bit of a pain
@@irresponsiblereefer8667 I don't clean my pod cultures too often. Roughly once a month water change and the beginning. Then when they start to boom, I will do wc roughly every 2 weeks. I find if you leave detritus and fi algae the pods do better. I have a clownfish broodstock tank where I feed very little phyto, but I do not clean the sides and back glass and that tank has thousands of tisbe pods and munnid idopods.
@@irresponsiblereefer8667 ruclips.net/user/shorts9DyzFeWDL28?feature=share
Why does NO ONE ever cover freshwater copepods????
I could be wrong, but I believe it's due to most saltwater fry need copepods or rotifers for the first part of their lives. I think with freshwater, you can just feed a small powder food for freshwater fry. At least I know cichlid fry does not require live foods.
No heater for copepods?
If under 70 degrees, I would add a small heater. Between 70-80, they really do not need one. Room temp is just fine for them.
Can you send all protocol stepwise?
www.oceanfrags.com/full-in-depth-guide-to-growing-copepods-at-home/
Thank you
Can i feed the pods with the product phytoplanton from seachem? I think is death phyto.
Yes you can feed live or dead phyto.
Can I feed my pods powdered phytoplankton?
what size sieve do we need to filter/harvest copepods?
If you want to pull out the adults, I use a 120 um sieve. To catch everything from nauplii to adult, I use a 53 um sieve. It works for me.
Why do you like the bigger bubbles?
do i need to cycle the system before adding the pods?
I always have a sponge or marine pure sphere I toss in with the pods. I would cycle the tank first.
your vid says there are links for the sieves. where? I only see links to the pods
Open the full description. It's on the bottom of the list. I list out every item I personally use.
hi What's the life-cycle of a copepod thanks
Hi have you cultured rotifers?
I have not yet.
My culture crashed 4 times after about 2 weeks of starting each time despite following so many videos and forums, each time I tried different method like starting off with lower amount of saltwater and increase it a bit day by day, tried filling up with saltwater and dumping the whole bottle in like in this video, I've even done 2 jars instead one in case one crashes but both crashed. I fed phyto when the green tint isn't present. Really don't know why it's crashing. I'm going to try again but this time with a dispenser spigot jar, maybe easier? I don't want to give up.. yet.
I feel your pain. Sometimes I feel like it's just luck. I tried to start up two more cultures and do the exact same thing I do on my other cultures but the new cultures crashed....or rather never took off. After a couple months and not seeing any movement I tosses the water out. I also have a 20 clownfish broodstock tank and a 10 gallon shrimp larval tank that's loaded with pods, literally hundreds or thousands, and I only feed those tanks maybe 20ml a week. I don't even think I need to dose phyto to the aquariums as the pods are feeding on the film algae on the glass. It's frustrating. I've been thinking about starting a new culture and putting a light on it to let film algae grow, then add pods. Check out this video with my clownfish tank with the pods.
ruclips.net/user/shorts9DyzFeWDL28?feature=share
@@BriansAquariums Very cool! I may try that idea if it crashes again. I use to have loads in my tank until I got some wrasses.
@@CodeNfX How is your culture going?
@@BriansAquariums I started a tisbe and apoc culture. The tisbe was doing great and the apoc culture crashed. But I had since setup a refugium with chaeto and I'm getting hundreds of copepods in there now, it's been great so far.
@@CodeNfX Good to hear!
I heard that they don't like temps over 75 degrees. Is that true?
No. over 75 is fine. I have my aquarium set to 80 and they are thriving in my tank. I would keep cultures at room temperature between 70-80. You also have to think that the tide pools can get upwards of 100 F and copepods survive that.
Do I need a heater to keep them warm?
No. Room temperature is just fine. As long as you are comfortable they will be ok.
And m the phyto has to be " alive" right ? now the phyto that we use to feed corals, like phuto from easy reefs
To culture phytoplankton and grow it, yes it needs to be alive. To feed pods, it does not need to be alive.
@@BriansAquariums thank you very much
@@reefphotographyig5225 You're very welcome.
How long did you have to wait before your first harvest?
It was a little over a month. After that I had to pull out a solo cup or two worth from each culture. If I skipped a week I noticed the cultures would not becas large the following week. So make sure to pull from your cultures so they won't decline to to overpopulation. The amounts and how often will vary from your culture vs mine....in my experience.
@@BriansAquariums cool man thank you for the reply
@@BriansAquariums one more question. I followed your phyto cultivation guide and was wondering what the indicators were that it's ready to collect
@@sadshxnobi When your phyto no longer gets any darker its time to harvest. It has consumed all of the available f/2 media. This happens typically between day 5-7. I like to take photos each day of my cultures so I can compare them to see when they stop getting darker. Day 5 is the darkest they get for me. Day 6 and 7 I see no change. I really only harvest on day 7 since I start my cultures on a Saturday or Sunday. This way I have more time to harvest, sanitize and start new cultures.
@@BriansAquariums thanks for the reply brother. The photo a day is a good idea. Thanks again!
So you need to change the water at any given point?
Yes. I change mine around every 3-4 weeks.
How much? Also what are best pods for feeding dragonets and pipefish
Do you have to have that special light
No. You really do not need a light at all to grow copepods. They will do just fine in ambient room lighting.
@@BriansAquariums thank you sir!
Also my coped tank is reading around 69 degrees Fahrenheit is this okay?
@@Evannna214 Yes that is fine. Room temp is fine for them. As long as you are comfortable they will do just fine. (Sorry for the delay in getting back to you, I've been working a lot)
@@BriansAquariums you are all good brotha! You’ve been the best help I’ve found so far! Do i need to get rid of the algae that is growing in the tank?
@@Evannna214 If it's film algae on the side of the glass or container I would not remove it. The pods will munch on that stuff. It's kind of like a backup food source if you forget to feed phyto one day. If it's hair algae or other algae not on the glass you can leave it there as long as it doesn't get too large and take over. Although any algae will not hurt the pods from my experience. They like to hide in it. They feel safer. They do thrive in a sump environment, which usually always has some algae or detritus. I just do not like the look of it. I like to have a somewhat pristine look to my pod containers.
What type of phytoplankton do you use ?
Nannochloropsis
@@BriansAquariums I have only tetraselmis I have cultivated. Is that do-able or should I just buy and make Nano?
@@tommycristaldi9037 yes you can culture tetra, iso, thal...there are several strains. Ive found that nano is the easiest to culture for me.
@@tommycristaldi9037 You can also culture multiple different strains of phyto and mix them in a separate bottle to feed your pods.
Is the microbactor7 necessary? If so how much to use?
No. Its not necessary. I've started cultures with and without bacteria with no real differences.
i found the opposite; tigger pods being a slow breeder, apex pods being the best.
😮it looks complicated id rather grow shrooms...
@@NotAllowed-z3i 🍄
Don't use air stone and the main breeders use spirilina powder don't need to culture phyto
Interesting. I've never heard of this before. I would think marine phyto would be a better choice since it's from their saltwater environment vs. using freshwater spirulina.
Algae Barn is a total rip off.
Why is that? Please explain if you can.
@@BriansAquariums i think because the jar looks empty unlike other brands like reef nutrition where you can actually see a dense population of pods
😆😆😆 where are the copepods ??? those jars dont look as good as reef nutrition. You should be able to see lots of them.
I sent you a few messages on your instagram. Not sure how active you are on there but hopefully you see it