Copepod reactor

[BBMarlin]

Pod update:

My culture is still doing really well. I think I definitely have more pods now than I started with and I don't think I have lost any. I am having to feed more often now, like every other day just to keep the water slightly tented green. I have gone through not even 25% of a small bottle of DT's, and my feedings consist of a couple of skirts of the stuff. Probably equates to about a tablespoon. I want to have an explosion of pods to make this experiment worthwhile (this has not happened), going to give it another week.

Hydro how are you doing?

[Teresa]

Mine is doing a good job of growing out my macro algaes. The pods are hit and miss. I saw a bunch the other day eating a decaying oar grass leaf. I think they prefer the decaying algae to the real stuff I dose with. I'm hoping the pods will get to a mass where I can easily siphon them out. Right now, I'd have to suction them off the wall (rather than the water column). My mandarins are doing well on bbs so I guess I'm not too concerned about the pods. I am actually more interested in having the macros grow out at the moment.

[BBMarlin]

Pod update:

Babies! I started seeing babies a few days ago; they are really tiny - about the size of a grain of sand. You can get an idea from the picture how small they are, really tough to get a good photo. I've had some die off of the adult pods, hard to say how many but the babies are more than making up for the loss of the adults. Going to give it another week and then I'm dumping it all in the tank . Assuming I do not have a crash by this time next week, I'll call this little experiment a success.

[BBMarlin]

Pop Update:

I figured I would post once more for those of you still following along. I'm going to be feeding my culture to my tank tomorrow after 4 weeks. I know I ended up with at least 2X the pods I started with, perhaps 3X. I'm going to restart another culture tomorrow and I think I will let it run for a bit longer just to see if the population continues to multiply.

Some points:

I never had to change/add water to the culture and I did feed conservatively. I spent 1/3 of a small bottle of DT's on my .5 gallon 1 bottle culture of Tigger Pods. And, I fed every few days just enough to tint the water which was a couple of squirts as I mentioned in a previous post (probably more like .5 of a tablespoon). I decided to feed similarly to how I feed my fish: often and in small amount.

Obviously the economics are there given the simple setup and minimum amount of phytoplankton required for success.

Good luck for those who try it! I know my reef is going to be happy .

[+KimP]

Thanks for the update. Are you going to start another culture with a new bottle, or use some of what you grew out?

[BBMarlin]

Would be interesting to keep the current culture going, but I've got another bottle waiting for me in the fridge (I've had for 4 weeks). The plan is to start fresh again for this next culture, perhaps for the one following I will harvest a few pods and see what happens.

[Teresa]

I enjoyed reading your updates, so I figured I'd throw one in myself.

The macro algae is growing slower now, but I think the rotifers have taken off in my culture. I don't have a magnifying glass, so I can't be sure, but here's the observation:

My water had been growing increasingly cloudy, even though I wasn't adding much food. I thought it was just green micro algae, but when I looked at it outside of the light, it appears to be cloudy with "white stuff." This looked very similar to the rotifer cultures I've seen online. In an attempt to get a better look, I strained the water through a 52 micron sieve to discard the used water (mine has decaying algae and I've been dosing with plant food to help the macros grow). Then I strained that through a 120 micron sieve (thanks to KimP!) and saved the water that ran through while the sieve caught some macro algae and larger amphipods. The remaining water was cloudy with tons of tiny tiny white dots - not green. I am hoping, fingers crossed, that these are the rotiers finally reaching a critical mass. I am going to start harvesting them on a regular basis. I would love to look at it under a magnifying glass or microscope - anyone know where I can get one on the cheap?

[+KimP]

I enjoyed reading your updates, so I figured I'd throw one in myself.

The macro algae is growing slower now, but I think the rotifers have taken off in my culture. I don't have a magnifying glass, so I can't be sure, but here's the observation:

My water had been growing increasingly cloudy, even though I wasn't adding much food. I thought it was just green micro algae, but when I looked at it outside of the light, it appears to be cloudy with "white stuff." This looked very similar to the rotifer cultures I've seen online. In an attempt to get a better look, I strained the water through a 52 micron sieve to discard the used water (mine has decaying algae and I've been dosing with plant food to help the macros grow). Then I strained that through a 120 micron sieve (thanks to KimP!) and saved the water that ran through while the sieve caught some macro algae and larger amphipods. The remaining water was cloudy with tons of tiny tiny white dots - not green. I am hoping, fingers crossed, that these are the rotiers finally reaching a critical mass. I am going to start harvesting them on a regular basis. I would love to look at it under a magnifying glass or microscope - anyone know where I can get one on the cheap?

Wish we lived closer, I have a microscope and would love to see what you've got. Don't you work at a school? Could you use one of theirs? I'm really curious to know what you have!

[teg]

I enjoyed reading your updates, so I figured I'd throw one in myself.

The macro algae is growing slower now, but I think the rotifers have taken off in my culture. I don't have a magnifying glass, so I can't be sure, but here's the observation:

My water had been growing increasingly cloudy, even though I wasn't adding much food. I thought it was just green micro algae, but when I looked at it outside of the light, it appears to be cloudy with "white stuff." This looked very similar to the rotifer cultures I've seen online. In an attempt to get a better look, I strained the water through a 52 micron sieve to discard the used water (mine has decaying algae and I've been dosing with plant food to help the macros grow). Then I strained that through a 120 micron sieve (thanks to KimP!) and saved the water that ran through while the sieve caught some macro algae and larger amphipods. The remaining water was cloudy with tons of tiny tiny white dots - not green. I am hoping, fingers crossed, that these are the rotiers finally reaching a critical mass. I am going to start harvesting them on a regular basis. I would love to look at it under a magnifying glass or microscope - anyone know where I can get one on the cheap?

Craigslist sometimes have microscope on sale; that's where I got mine, it's one of the HS microscope. When I strained my rotifers, they look darkest orange on the 50micron sieve. It's likely the tiny tiny dust like cloud in the water are rotifers; any other organics that size, will foul the water rather quickly and that's how you know they're not rotifers.