My Pod Farm Thread

Leadfootedracer

Non-member
I've done about as much research as I can on the topic and have decided to give it a shot.

My QT tank has been empty for a few weeks and I kinda let it get out of hand as far as upkeep, and it's got some algae, pods, and dirty water. This is the water I am going to use to start the farm. I will seed the pod population via the air sponge from the QT.

When I bought my tank/stand, I was given a 5 gallon tank to be used for a possible ATO reservoir. I haven't used it, and plan a larger reservoir, so this is a perfect candidate.

The tank will be kept under my stand next to my sump. The stand is pretty enclosed to help retain heat, so there will be no heater.

I have a clip-on work lamp I had on my sump previously, so not only is this just a light, it's another heat source, so I'm really not worried about a heater.

I will feed this tank phyto, as well as crushed flake. Probably do the crushed flake 2x a week and the phyto every day to start and taper down to every other day.

I am picking up an air stone and air pump from a friend this weekend, so we should be able to get the gas exchange going fairly well.

I will be using no lid, and topping off with treated tap water. I will keep roughly 3 gallons of water in the tank to try and keep the salt creep to a minimum.

Pics to come!


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Sounds good I. Have thought about doing this before. As an alternative food sourcr. Interested to see how it goes. Keep us updated good luck

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Got the tank cleaned out, and wiped down. It's been outside for a while. Filled it up and checked it for leaks. Everything looked good, so I moved my dual reactor and put it in the stand with the light. Will fill it up later on, still waiting to hear on the air pump/stone.

I decided to plug the light into my coralife powerstrip/timer for now. It will run when my lunar LED lights run (which is opposite of the daytime lights). When i switch to a reef keeper, it will be on its own timer.

Most of my sump pics have the under cabinet LED's on, as they are on door switches and automatically turn on when a door is opened. Last pic is of just the light on, I pushed the door button in to shut off the LED.


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Tank is filled and been running for about 24 hours now. I used the water from my extremely dirty and neglected QT (small population of free floating pods seen in here) and hit it with some phyto.

I picked up 2 shower loofahs to use as makeshift macro algae. I will hopefully use these to transfer the pods from the farm to the sump/display with minimal water contamination. The loofahs are in the QT now, collecting pods (I hope)

Since I had the tank and light on hand, and a friend owed me a favor (air pump), in into this for less than $5. I had some 1/4" air hose left over from my freshwater supplies, as well as a check valve. So far all I've purchased was a large air stone for $2, and 2 loofahs $1 each.

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Looks like the water was inadequate. There was nasty growth on the bottom of the tank. I dumped it and re-filled the tank, this time using water from the display. I also only put in about 5mL of phyto vs the 10mL I used last time.

The loofahs showed population. Not a lot, but enough to get things going I think. I have moved both loofahs to the farm. Trying to do this WITHOUT buying an expensive bottle of pods to seed the tank.


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Following along.
Never tried to farm pods before but cheato would be a goods means of nitrate control and a natural pod haven.
 
Following along.
Never tried to farm pods before but cheato would be a goods means of nitrate control and a natural pod haven.

I put two balls of chaeto in the sump this weekend, with my caulerpa. When that grows out, I will put some in the farm. I'm trying to avoid putting in anything that would be missed in the event of a crash. Rumor is, these farms crash frequently. The loofahs act like a synthetic chaeto, and I still have life in them. It's only been half a day, but I am hoping the population takes off soon.


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No new updates. I'm not noticing a take-off in the population. I'm not sure if they aren't being fed enough, or it just takes longer than I'm giving it. It looks like I might have to buy pods to kick this thing into gear. Giving it till next Thursday to get something going on.


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This did NOT work. My approach to do it cheaply and simply just wasn't appropriate. I may revisit this in the future, but for now the tank has been pulled down and cleaned out


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