The ultimate in re-cycling

[worley]

I'm going to be a good recycler, and put the algae from my first harvest to good use.
In the next few days I'm getting a bunch of copepods as a starter culture (surprisingly difficult to find in the UK, but found a good supplier: http://www.reefworks.co.uk/default.asp?section=37&subpage=101).
I'm going to try putting the algae harvest directly as feed into the copepod culture, which, in turn, will get fed back to the fish and corals and help keep the aquarium clean.
As I have a butterfly fish, he'll eat them up quickly, and few will get back into the re-circulating algae scrubber, and I can do the fresh water top-offs on the screen if they do.

[worley]

Hmm, ok, according to the guys at ReefWorks, it's probably a bad idea to feed them on the algae from the scrubber as it may introduce things into the culture that will cause problems.
What I may do is wait for the culture to start breeding and split it into two and feed one on the harvested algae and the other on phytoplankton and crushed fish food.

[SantaMonica]

Remember you screen will help greatly with pods too, possibly enough that you don't have to grow you own.

[worley]

True, but as it's a re-circulating filter, there's not much in the sump upstairs, in fact, I can't see any, and the copperband decided to eat all the others in the tank ;-)
Anyhow, just got some live brineshrimp and he's finally eating! woot! :lol:
Now to mix some frozen in with that and see if he's stupid enough to take it 8-)