nitrates and pods

[jessie]

i was wondering if nitrates haveany affect on pods. my tank has been going for around 6 months or so. im getting ready to upgrade to a bigger tank. i have been using an ugf and i know its not the best. when i upgrade ill use a dsb. but i dont have any pods. at least none that i can find. i have waited untill the middle of the night to check, ive waited an hour after lights out. but still never find any. my nitrate is arround 40ppm even with regular water changes and i know its because of the ugf with cc. my question is that do nitrates have an affect on pods. i would really like to have a mandarin goby a few months after i switch, but dont want to buy any fish that will starve to death.

 

[OrionGirl]

Anything that eats pods currently in there? Angels, wrasses, some hawkfish?

I don't think pods are affected by nitrates that much. My 10 had lots of pods about 2 weeks after I added a bit of LR rubble, but before I'd done a water change to get rid of the nitrates from the cycle. Think they tested about 35 when I finally did the water change.

 

[Ray Pollett]

Most pods can go thru incredibly high nitrate readings. When I was curious about how accurate the nitrate level talk was; I ran a tank at over 1200 for a year. Saw no decrease in pods. Strickly from vieing tank.

Ray

 

[jessie]

i dont think there is any pod eaters in there. i have a regal tang ( i know 55 is too small so im upgrading next month). 2 false perculas. 1 three striped damsel that cant be caught ( girlfreind bought it and really wants to keep it). 2 cleaner shrimp. 2 peppermint shrimp. around 12 blue leg hermits. i have live rock but not a bunch yet. maybe around 35 lbs. i dont know that any of this stuff eats pods. another question i have is would a mandarin goby be compatible with these fish. certainly not yet because my tank is not big enough for what i have. but if i upgrade to a 120 could i put a mandarin goby in there? tell me what else might make a good addition to the tank, if anything, keep in mind that in about 8 or nine months i would like to start putting in some corals. might take a little longer than that, im not sure yet. thanks for the help.

 

[Ray Pollett]

nothing you mentioned is a real big pod eater in my opinion. It is very hard to start pods in a tank with fish. While none of these are known as big pod eaters, they will all eat them if the oportunity exist.

What A lot of people have learned to do is built a pile of small rubble in one part of the tank. Introduce the pods with the lights out to the pile and leave the lights off for the next day. This will sometimes give them time to hide and multiply safe from fish.

As to a mandarin, you tank is unsuited for them. You must have a very large amount of pod s to keep one alive. If you want to keep one in the new tank, before you add any fish; but after the cycle add detrivore kits. Let them multiply for 3-5 weeks before adding any fish. If after the fish are in the tank, you pod count stays high; then you could add a mandarin.

Ray