small pod refugium ideas?

[lilduud]

i am considering going away for a period of time this summer and am considering setting up a small (5gal)refugium on the back of my 10 gal nano before i go...
i have a juvenile black percula two juvenile green chromis and a fairly young mandarin.
[please do not give me crap for having a mandarin in a small tank he is being grown out for a 50 gallon display PLUS i am highly obsessive and feed him daily live food inspite of the fact that he will sometime eat frozen as of yet he is very fat and healthy]
anyway... i am considering attaching a five gallon tank to the back of my aqurium and packing it with rubble. i then plan to lead a simple pump with a sponge filter from my main tank to the refugium. i have heard that many pods will not survie a return pump so my questions begin here. if i create an over flow system isolating the water flow to one pump so that the water will pour back into the tank, will the pods surface enough to return to the main tank.... that is my main question but any input is appreciated.

 

[Smitty]

Sounds do-able... :)

 

[lilduud]

hah any input though? on how to keep them alive longer... how long they would last... lower mortality rate... anything?

 

[Bifferwine]

You're basically wanting to set up an HOB fuge. You can buy all-in-one kits that are usually really good. It will still take several months to get a pod population booming though. You can buy a bottle of live pods from your LFS to "seed" your fuge with to speed it up. If there are enough pods in the fuge, they will eventually overflow into the main tank. I'd recommend live rock rubble and chaeto macroalgae. Pods love to live in that stuff.

 

[wontonflip]

I also recommend you test out your setup for at least a month or 2 to make sure it works -- in other words, don't set it up and leave town and hope it works out. I never add new equipment or do new setups without seeing if things will run smoothly without intervention for a month or two.

If you see your fish doing well with feeding just off the pods from the fuge, then you should be good to go!

 

[Bifferwine]

Are you still planning on having someone feed them? Because even if you do set up a fuge, it alone won't provide enough food to sustain those fish while you are gone.

 

[lilduud]

thanks a ton everyone.. any recommended pods... non of my lfs' supply live unfortunately..
gotta order them

 

[lilduud]

yes i will have a good aquarist friend who will be coming at least once a week to do my water changed and ive asked them to feed some omnivore preparations for the rest of them... my main concern is my mandarin.
if aggressiveness while feeding is a problem i have considered seperating the tank to where the mandarin is alone with the pod overflow going into his sectiion...

 

[Bifferwine]

I think you may be overestimating the amount of pods that will be produced in the refugium. It's not going to be enough to take care of a mandarin that is used to eating more often than once a week.

 

[lilduud]

how large do you think it would have to be if the only thing feeding from it would be the mandarin? i can use an auto feeder for the rest of my fish and my friends will give them their vitamins each time they do a water change but im trying to figure out what the best way to feed my mandarin over time is... be it a fuge or not...
thanks again for all the advice!

 

[dcantucson]

The thing about Mandarins is that they eat non-stop quickly depleting the food.

 

[Bifferwine]

I have a 35 gallon fuge filled with pods, and I'd be reluctant to allow my mandarin to rely on that alone for food.

 

[lilduud]

even if i dose it with bottled pods? the people who are helping me out can also add to the fuge when they come about once a week. the max amount of time i would be away is one month... its more so a temporary feeder than anything else and ill obviously continue to replenish it once i return to keep it up.

 

[Gigaah]

Assuming you have no other options for daily feeding.

The only thing I could even fathom attempting to rely is some sort of pod culture That is slowly pumped into the tank from a bottle.

Have a culture of X pods. Have someone come over once a week split the culture.. refill the culture bottle and add enough food for the culture..to hopefully survive a week. I dunno kinda sketchy pod cultures usually should be fed every day depending..

then with the part of the split off culture have a small pump slowlly pump it in over the rest of the week.

any solution that I can come up with is sketchy at best.:pooh: That just happened to be one that I could see potentially working out if done right with great planning and compentant help.