Tank Cycling and Pods 7/31/06 Hi Gang, <Hi> I'm cycling a brand new tank at the moment and noticed some copepod activity already from the live rock. The tank has been running for about a week now and is 475 gallons with approximately 600 lbs of LR and 600 lbs of LS.  I have a 130 gallon sump with built in refugium. <Sounds very nice.>  My water parameters are currently: 1.023 SG, .25 Ammonia, .5 Nitrite, .05 Nitrates, PH 8.2, and running at 80 degrees. <Normal for this stage.> Am I correct to assume that copepods/amphipods are immune to the tank cycling effect (i.e. nitrogen cycle?)? <Not immune, but pretty tough.  It will slow their population growth, but enough survive to populate the tank once the conditions are more optimal.>  I ask this because I plan to add copepod cultures to the tank, and would like to give them a nice head start before adding any fish. <Good idea.> My current intentions are to cycle the tank for at least 4-6 weeks, before adding any fish. Do you think it's ok to add the "pod" cultures now, or should I let the tank complete its cycle? <Let it complete the cycle, and then add the pods.  Give them a couple weeks to "take hold" and you should be in good shape.>  Any help is appreciated... Rao <Chris>

Pods and Ich? Hi, I had a severe ich problem in my main tank back a few months ago and it got transferred to one of my smaller tanks. <Oh, no..> Needless to say I am a little jumpy. Anyways, I have a small reef tank that is teaming with Amphipods. I was thinking of transferring some to my refugium that is connected to the main tank. However, I was wondering if there is anyway for Ich to survive without fish in a tank for any amount of time? <Unlikely, in my opinion> Also, the salinity of the reef tank is 25 where the main tank is 22.5. Would I have to do a gradual like for fish, or could they handle the change? Thank You. Randy <My advice is to always make environmental changes very gradually. Hope this helps! Regards, Scott F.>