Mineral Mud?

[Picasso]

So, I'm wanting to get a bunch of pods going. I never really seem to get the little critters swarming. Should I use the mud stuff, will that help? Mineral Mud or Miracle Mud?

thanks,
Catherine

 

[XxKnuckleheadxX]

i used miracle mud on my 90 gallon tank.

 

[cthegame]

mud is too much hassle IMO.

 

[yote]

I've never used either of those,so I cant say one way or the other.
But just because your not seeing them,dont mean their not there.They'll hide back in the holes in your rock and mostly come out at night to feed.

 

[Rcpilot]

Copepods are tiny little white specs. They are the size of the period at the end of this sentence. They live in the upper layers of the sand bed and come out at night in swarms like little mosquitoes.

Amphipods are much larger. They look like a miniature deli shrimp that you'd see in the grocery store. They are about 1/8 inch long and up to around 1/2 inch long. I have never seen one of these come out of the sand. Mine live in the live rocks and in the macro algae in the tank and fuge. As I have no predatory fish in the tank - I'll bet you I have a zillion running around all the time in plain site. If you sit and watch my tank for 1 minute - you'd probably see over a hundred amphipods crawling around on my rocks.

I honestly don't know how to make them grow or increase in population though. I suspect lots of excess nutrients would make their population explode. When I was feeding Marine Snow and lots of other trace elements I probably had twice as many but there was a 6-line eating them so it was no big deal.

 

[Picasso]

THANKS, RC, you should write a book!

Catherine

 

[dcantucson]

I don't think the mud will make a difference with the population of pods. I too, like Rc noticed a big increase in my pod population when I was feeding my corals fairly heavily.

 

[Melosu58]

I used miricle mud in my fuge covered with a layer of sand. If I had it do over I would probably not use it. I dont see any benefits. JMO

 

[winyfrog]

the mud won't help the growth of your pods, a good pack of calerpa does wonders, I have also taken indoor/outdoor carpet and roled it up and put in my fug (this helps produce tons of them)

I have used mineral mud, miracle mud and sand in my fugs as well as bare bottom. My tank that used miracle mud in it made my corralline grow like crazy and helps with my SPS. I didn't see any difference with mineral mud verses sand for my corals growth but I did see and increase in growth with mineral mud and my calurpa and chaeto.

 

[wontonflip]

I use miracle mud in my fuge...it wasn't so much there to help with pod growth, but more for helping the chemistry of the water....more trace elements longer or something. I didn't know anything about it whenI first bought it, and after I put it in, I went back and forth with myself on it.

Now I like it mainly because a fuge ideally needs a dsb, which I don't have room for...the mud allows me to have a good base for my fuge without it being deep. It has 1" right now. I don't have the chemistry background or testing ability to see what beneftis it puts out, except that I get to use less of it :)

I still have half a bag that I will use to build my fuge for my 125g. My pods are HUGE and plentiful, but it's not due to the mud.

 

[d2mini]

I got Miracle Mud for the new tank for the trace elements it promises like wonton said. It's in my fuge and I'll be planting some macro algae in it. They say to remove half of it every two years and replace with fresh mud. Miracle Mud seems to get the best reviews out of all of them and requires less of it to work. From what I've read anyway.
I don't like the whole dsb thing.

 

[MEANDMYFISHTANKS]

I have been usin fiji mud the only thing i have seen come out of it the calcium skyrocket and its actually helping with red and dark brown coraline algea no purple thats why i switch between purple up and mud