RobbyG
02/14/2006, 02:11 PM
I am a bit baffled by recent events, I have a 30 Gal Sump that has a nice Refuge area that is planted out, and has a good sand layer bottom. It's a typical 3 compartment Sump with a overflow from the Refuge compartment into the Return area.
I decided to go out and get some Pods to seed it, I found a jackpot spot that had lots so I got about 8 Tablespoons worth, which looks like a few hundred thousand pods. So I turn off all pumps and put them in the refuge, at this point my white sand bottom in the sump looks like a orangish haze as about the first 3 inches is crawling with pods. I leave them in to settle down with the pump off for 30 minutes, then I switch it back on.
As expected a few thousand get swept into the tank immediately and the fish go nutt's! After 2 hours my royal grammers, Clowns and Mandarin fish look so Banged bellied that they can barely swim. After the feast I go out and look at the sump and 90% of the Pods are still in there and still swimming near the bottom.
A few hours later I turn off the Refuge lights and all of a sudden thousand of Pods come streaming into the Tank! I quickly switch the light back ON and the Jets of Pods entering the tank slowly cease after a few minutes. I look back at the sump and about 70% of my pods are left. My refuge is on a controller and is set to power off the lights at 5am and Power back on at 11am so I am a bit nervous about what's going to happen in the morning but decide to leave everything in it's normal state and go to bed.
In the morning I wake up and look in the Tank and I see very few pods in the water, I look at the Refuge and to my amazement there are no pods left, Zero that I can see, what the bleep happened to my pods? I assume that when the light wen't out at 5am they rose up to the surface and got swept into the Tank but I don't see them in the Tank!
I guess my question is, If the Pods move up to the surface in response to light, how do you guys prevent them from all going into the Tank? I know they will find there way back to the Refuge via the overflow but these guys just seemed to all disappear. Is there a special design that keeps the masses from getting pulled in to the return? Do you guys just leave your lights on all the time? I am very confused and need a better Grasp on this before I get more Pods.
Thanks for any help.
I decided to go out and get some Pods to seed it, I found a jackpot spot that had lots so I got about 8 Tablespoons worth, which looks like a few hundred thousand pods. So I turn off all pumps and put them in the refuge, at this point my white sand bottom in the sump looks like a orangish haze as about the first 3 inches is crawling with pods. I leave them in to settle down with the pump off for 30 minutes, then I switch it back on.
As expected a few thousand get swept into the tank immediately and the fish go nutt's! After 2 hours my royal grammers, Clowns and Mandarin fish look so Banged bellied that they can barely swim. After the feast I go out and look at the sump and 90% of the Pods are still in there and still swimming near the bottom.
A few hours later I turn off the Refuge lights and all of a sudden thousand of Pods come streaming into the Tank! I quickly switch the light back ON and the Jets of Pods entering the tank slowly cease after a few minutes. I look back at the sump and about 70% of my pods are left. My refuge is on a controller and is set to power off the lights at 5am and Power back on at 11am so I am a bit nervous about what's going to happen in the morning but decide to leave everything in it's normal state and go to bed.
In the morning I wake up and look in the Tank and I see very few pods in the water, I look at the Refuge and to my amazement there are no pods left, Zero that I can see, what the bleep happened to my pods? I assume that when the light wen't out at 5am they rose up to the surface and got swept into the Tank but I don't see them in the Tank!
I guess my question is, If the Pods move up to the surface in response to light, how do you guys prevent them from all going into the Tank? I know they will find there way back to the Refuge via the overflow but these guys just seemed to all disappear. Is there a special design that keeps the masses from getting pulled in to the return? Do you guys just leave your lights on all the time? I am very confused and need a better Grasp on this before I get more Pods.
Thanks for any help.