I need to grow alot of pods.

[DragonForce]

Ok, so I currently have about 50 lbs of LR. My goal is to have a Manderin. I know I know, they need x amount of LR to survive. Right now I have turned my Hagen AquaClear 500 into a HOB mini fuge. It has about 7 lbs of LR rubble in it. Now, I'm guessing I will probably have to setup a refugium, probably a 20 gal filled with 30 lbs of LR. I have hundreds and hundreds of amphipods all over my LR right now and hundreds and hundreds of copepods on my glass, powerheads, etc.

First off, I'm 19, I go to a JC, live at home, and work part time. So I don't have tons and tons of money to blow on this stuff.

My final fish setup will be a pair of true perc clowns, shrimp goby, and a green or spotted manderin.


What do I have to do in order for this to work and make my manderin as happy as can be.

 

[Scottm]

I have a mandarin in a 20 gallon. Before people crawl all over me I culture pods for him and the tank ussually has 100-200 amphipods and god knows how many copepods in it at any given time. First you have to culture phytoplankton and then you get a pod culture or just take a bunch of pods from your main tank and put it in a seperate ten gallon with a SG of about 1.014. Feed the pods the phytoplankton and strain out the adults with a 2 micron screen(mosquito screen) when you are ready to feed the main tank. I feed the main tank every week and my mandarin has really fleshed out since I got him. Don't be afraid to remove pods from your culture I feed alot at a time and the culture bounces right back. This works and isn't too time consuming plus the phyto plankton can feed your corals. Refugiums help too I have a ten gallon attached to the system and it is crawling with pods.

 

[i have crabs]

if you have or can get a canister filter fill it with chunks of live rock and never clean it, out they breed like crazy in thier.