Waterfall algae scrubber + mandarin in nano

[mattberrytr]

Hi all,

I'm wondering if anybody has direct experience with a waterfall (horizontal/vertical) in a nano tank with a mandarin fish? Say 40 gallons or less (where a mandarin would definitely not survive, unless it has been trained to eat frozen food of course).

It seems to me that anecdotal evidence suggests that an algae scrubber is capable of supporting a mandarin? Surely this is a huge revelation for nano tank owners as these fish are one of, if not the most beautiful nano fish you can get, and many people want one of these fish but can't if their tank is too small.

I know that it has been said that scrubbers provide hundreds of thousands of 'pods', but just want to know if there's any solid evidence. I'm talking copepods, not amphipods which are easy to see.
I'm going to start testing this when I can.

If you have experience of this, please post your screen size and the size of your mandarin fish.

[FrozenReef]

I would not bank on it. If you want to keep a mandarin in a smaller tank and it hasn't taken to frozen yet, Please culture your pods.

[mattberrytr]

But culturing pods is a pain. If an algae scrubber can provide ample pods for a Mandarin then this would simplify things greatly (no need for a separate tank, feeding is automatic etc).
Surely someone has to try it, culture some pods at the same time so if it fails there's a backup food supply for him.

[kerry]

I have a 10G thats my pod/QT tank, its got a horizontal scrubber on it and it supported a 10G with a Mandarin for about 4 years until the 3 day power failure. I had 8 tennis ball size porous rocks that I would swap out between the tanks every week or so. I had 4 in the pod/QT and 4 in the 10G, they were all in a corner for easy access to swap between them. I didnt feed the pods anything special besides a dry krill or a frozen krill every few days. Now I just swap them out with the locals who want to start a pod colony. I dry their rock though as to not bring in bad stuff to my QT.

[mattberrytr]

I have a 10G thats my pod/QT tank, its got a horizontal scrubber on it and it supported a 10G with a Mandarin for about 4 years until the 3 day power failure. I had 8 tennis ball size porous rocks that I would swap out between the tanks every week or so. I had 4 in the pod/QT and 4 in the 10G, they were all in a corner for easy access to swap between them. I didnt feed the pods anything special besides a dry krill or a frozen krill every few days. Now I just swap them out with the locals who want to start a pod colony. I dry their rock though as to not bring in bad stuff to my QT.

:) Thanks
Can I ask the size of the algae scrubber on the pod/QT tank? Do you think if you halved the size you'd still get enough pods? Was your mandarin in the 40g?

[FrozenReef]

If it's a pain, then best to pick another fish that doesn't have special requirements. Even if it does work, it would take a while for scrubber to get mature enough. Culturing pods is the sure thing.

[kerry]

It was in my 10G. My pod tank has a horizontal 3x6-ish inch, the other 10G had a 3x6 waterfall but its been taken down now and distributed between my 40 and 150G due to having to many tanks and the 10G was pretty demanding compared to the others. I still have the pod/qt tank jammin out pods.

[mattberrytr]

It was in my 10G. My pod tank has a horizontal 3x6-ish inch, the other 10G had a 3x6 waterfall but its been taken down now and distributed between my 40 and 150G due to having to many tanks and the 10G was pretty demanding compared to the others. I still have the pod/qt tank jammin out pods.

So your horizontal algae scrubber didn't produce enough pods in your 10g?

[kerry]

Not to support my Mandarin so I had to make another scrubber tank, this is why I had two 10G's after a while. You will need a bunch of rock and a 20L, I dont think a 20 Tall will get it done. both at one time were horizontal but the one with the mandarin could not keep up so I built a double lit waterfall type. It will take a long time before you have a big enough colony of pods to support it. I already had some rock to use from my other sw tank to jump start the 10G pod/qt tank. did you post on buds site too????

[mattberrytr]

Thanks. Yep I've posted there too :)

[kerry]

I am the same name both places.

[mattberrytr]

How well did the horizontal scrubber work compared to the waterfall scrubber?

[kerry]

The waterfall removes many, many more times the nutrients then the horizontal.

[mattberrytr]

Did the horizontal scrubber have red LED's? What was the setup?

[kerry]

It had 2 red and 1 blue LED's on the 10G I took down but the pod tank is just under a cfl. The LED's did work MUCH better.