Any thoughts suggestions about the value of purchasing copepods, amphipods, phytoplankton, coralline algae, etc. to help speed the set-up of a new tank (~3 months on lightly stocked started with dry rock)?
Bottled biodiversity for new tank
- Thread starter Salty_Breeze
- Start date
The fastest, most effective way of getting that biodiversity you need is to order live rock and sand from someplace reputable like https://tbsaltwater.com/ (They'll be shipping again in November.) Otherwise, you're kind of piecing it together — which can definitely be done, it's just more work (and may not get you everything). The flip side of that is that with live rock and sand, you don't know what else you might be getting.
Either way you go, it seems like adding copepods to get colonies started is always helpful.
Either way you go, it seems like adding copepods to get colonies started is always helpful.
Snacklerock - Cycled Rock Seeded With Copepods
We ship Snacklerock mostly submerged in water. No wet paper or paper towels - shipping in water is the best way to ensure the maximum amount of life makes it to your tank. Our Snacklerocks are cycled with live nitrifying bacteria and seeded with our three species blend of live copepods. Dinkins...
dinkinsaquaticgardens.com
Amphipods will eat the copepods so I would just stick to one of them
I just stood my new tank up and was sad to see TBS had been impacted by Helene. I ended up grabbing some rubble rock for my sump from KP Aquatics and was quite happy with the experience.
Southern Aquatics has plenty of live rock. I bought my rock, live sand there when I got my first tank from them. Threw in some crabs and let it run. It worked great. 
