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Hi,
If you have a refugium and macroalgae in the refugium then you probably already have copepods, aphipods and isopods among other inverts. Your signature indicates a 180 gal reef that has been up for a year so there is probably a decent population, though not enough to sustain a mandarin for very long. Assuming the "fuge" they will reproduce there and some will get swept into the main tank on a regular basis, you can increase the amount that goes to the tank by pruning some of the algae (chaeto, calupera, etc.) and putting it in the main tank. Though I have a large population of pods in my refugium and tank I am thinking of setting up a pico with sand, water and algae from my refugium as a separate, predator free environment for them to reproduce.
I don't think it would be very difficult to keep them in a separate tank and siphon some off for the main tank on a regular basis. The parameters would be the same as your reef, with live sand, algae and some live rock rubble I think they will be fine.
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